Annotated Bibliography on Learning

I enjoyed this week's resources on learning, and found similarities between them. Most
or all of the resources agree that these things (among others) are very important to
learning:

-Building background knowledge

-Giving students ample opportunity for practice (especially guided practice). This
practice should include daily review and review on a weekly and monthly basis.

-Teaching students to reliably monitor their own learning

-Students enjoy solving problems, but teachers need to make sure the level is not too
hard or too easy or learning won't happen

-The teacher is responsible for not just lecturing content, but for getting students actively
involved with the content so they can take it to the next level (long-term memory,
application, producing something, etc.)

All of the great ideas from these resources being considered, I was actually surprised
that only one of them mentioned the student as an individual outside of academics. I'm
a firm believer that a student is not going to learn in your classroom until their basic
needs are met, and until you have a relationship. The "Science of Learning" article
connected to belief when it detailed what motivates students to learn. The article
shared:

*Students will be more motivated and successful in academic environments when they
believe that they belong and are accepted in those environments.

*Teachers can reassure students that doubts about belonging are common and will
diminish over time.

*Teachers can encourage students to see critical feedback as a sign of others’ beliefs
that they are able to meet high standards.

I did not see much of a connection to the student as a person in any of the other
resources. I do feel they all had great ideas, but were pretty technical in their approach.
Again, I believe that teachers can use every research-based strategy in the book, but if
the student's needs are not cared for and there is no relationship in place, learning won't
happen.
In my grad work at NC State a few years ago, I chose to focus my action research
project on drop-out rates among students with disabilities. I think the same things that
keep students engaged in school and not wanting to drop out are the same things that
are important to ensuring that all kids learn. I found this article from EduTopia which
seems to cover the basics that I discovered through my previous grad work, and that
have been made clear to me in my eight years of teaching students with disabilities. I
encourage teachers of all grade levels to read it, as the path to dropping out can start
very early on. We all have the ability to impact our kids in a way that will keep them from
dropping out and help them learn.

The main suggestions in the article are as follows:

-Engage and partner with parents

-Cultivate relationships

-Pay attention to warning signs

-Make learning relevant

-Raise the academic bar

-Think small (as in smaller schools)

-Offer flexible schedules

-Develop a community plan

-Invest in preschool

-Adopt a student-centered funding model

The article does a great job explaining these suggestions in more detail.

Furger, Roberta. “How to End the Dropout Crisis: Ten Strategies for Student Retention.”
Edutopia​, 3 Dec. 2008, ​https://www.edutopia.org/student-dropout-retention-strategies