Week 4 - Character Silhouettes and Working Memory

The seven -, eight- and nine-year-olds in Room 5 have been working together to track and discuss the characters in our read-aloud book, The Year of the Book.  As kids this age move from reading shorter books that center around one topic or a handful of characters, to longer books with lots of information or lots of characters, they often need some time to practice putting all of the pieces together.  Longer text places a big demand on what cognitive researchers call working memory. For a nice overview on the idea of working memory and why it's key for learning, check out this TED talk by Peter Doolittle.

These students are taking notes on character silhouettes we created by outlining a character on a big piece of paper.

Part of what Doolittle talks about is that working memory is a limited resource - life places a lot of demands on our attention.  Fortunately we can tap some inherent skills kids have to help them absorb, process and retain information.  These are natural ways in which people turn sensory information into meaning. This is why we've been working on making mental images while we read, and tracking what's happening with the characters on the large silhouettes. Doolittle talks about the power of "illustrative thinking" to help us understand and remember. If you have a sensory image attached to new information - be it a sound, a smell or a picture - it will be more meaningful and long-lasting.

Students interact as they add their thinking to our growing notes on the silhouette.

Another aspect of inherent strength we have been tapping into is the power of discussion.  Students have lots of opportunities to discuss the book and the characters in a variety of formats.  We talk whole group and in smaller groups.  As the kids add their thoughts to the silhouette, they take in each other's ideas.

Writing on the large paper gives everyone lots of room to add their thinking.

This all feeds into another key element of learning - synthesizing new understandings into big ideas. In the coming weeks we will sift through all of the notes we have taken and work through some bigger questions - how have the characters changed? what have they learned? what does this teach us about life and the world? 

We use the collective thinking to hash out what's going on with the characters and think strategically
about what's most important for us to understand.