We have all been in this situation:
We make a lesson plan, full of collaborative activities that support our students' learning and achieve our learning objective. The class is successful and afterwards we feel good about the class. But somehow, the next day, the students do not remember anything.
This is poor retention. We teach them, but they do not remember or apply the new content.
There are many possible reasons why the student retention is low. However, in this post I want to give you some strategies for improving low retention, rather than focus on what the root cause is.
First, take a look at this video. Chris Cannon explains the 3C's that you can use to help increase student retention. (If embedded video does not play, please click here.)
Interesting right?!?! Now, here are 4 activities from ESL Edge 2 that you can use in your classes to help improve retention.
In Class
1. Read My Mind
Write a list of words and/or examples with the structure/s you have been practicing. Let's imagine they have gone through past tense, with a bit of mystery, tell them "something happened to me last night". They will feel curious, so encourage them to guess what happened using the vocabulary & structures.
2. Choose & Make
Write vocabulary on pieces of paper and put them in a bag. Write the structures they have been practicing on pieces of paper as well. They need to chose one word from the vocabulary bag and one from the structures bag. Then have them construct a sentence using the vocabulary and structure they picked.
For Homework
1. Read & Identify
Provide texts where students need to skim and identify structures or vocabulary they have learned. Seeing how they are used in texts can really help them understand how to use them. Youcan also mix it up and use a viewing activity instead of reading. In this case provide links where they can watch short videos and do the same thing.
2. Choose & Use
After identifying structures and vocabulary in the previous exercise, they can start using them. Ask them to choose a handful of words and structures and have them write a short text. It can be an email, a report, a story or whatever they want.
The big secret for improving student retention:
Hear it. Read it. See it. Use it.
Be prepared to discuss the above content on my next school visit!
Sarah Higgs, Jempol
Works Cited
Busy Teacher. (2014). Time to Face Our Enemy: Poor
Retention. Four Activites to Figh Back. In ESL Edge 2: How to Teach ESL
Like a Pro (p. 32).
Cannon, C. (2013, Aug 27). How to increase student
retention | For Student Retention Strategies . Retrieved from
Fighting4Youth.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s77CcP8p_n8
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