[00:00:00] Hi there. I'm so happy you're here. Your time is precious. And because of that, I want to let you know right away what you'll gain by listening to the very last second of this episode, my conversation with Leah Mermelstein and Dr. Jennifer Gioia offered strategies for addressing both individual needs and systemic barriers while ensuring interventions compliment rather than compete with each other. In this bonus episode, I offer my insights about some of the complexities of educational support systems, from tutoring programs to Cognitive Load Theory, plus I introduced a new AI tool called Magic School, and I've been using this with teachers I'm coaching, with leaders.

I've also been experimenting with students. I cannot wait to hear what you think about it, so stay with me. I am so happy to have you as a listener today. This is Schoolutions: Coaching and Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. A show that offers educators and caregivers strategies to try right away and ensure every student receives the inspiration and support they need to thrive.

I am Olivia Wahl, and this is a bonus episode for Season 4, Episode 19 with Leah Mermelstein and Dr. Jennifer Gioia. I've been reflecting on this conversation since, actually, when we recorded September of 2024. It just released, January 13th, 2025. And I think it's important that I continue to point listeners back to the show notes because often guests share such invaluable resources that I hope people are looking at - two pieces from the show notes I wanted to revisit for this bonus episode and then a researcher that Leah mentioned. I wanted to go a little bit deeper with John Sweller's work around Cognitive Load Theory. 

[00:02:00] And I want to end with an incredible new AI tool that I am playing with, especially in middle and high schools. It has been an insane time saver, and I am excited to share about it. So the first piece I wanted to jump into, it's a New York Times article, July 2024. It's by Dana Goldstein. The article title is, With speech to teachers, Harris waded into a fiery education debate. Kamala Harris has been a longtime ally of teachers unions, even when their positions have divided the Democratic coalition.

I am not going to focus on that political aspect. I want to zoom in and focus on a group called Democrats for Education Reform. Jorge Elorza is the group's chief executive. What he said his organization would be pushing for in this new year is a big federal investment in tutoring. And I know Leah and Jen both spoke to the power [00:03:00] of tutoring, but it has to be done right.

Elorza also will be “pushing for literacy instruction based on the Science of Reading. We're seeing that everywhere. And charter schools, magnet schools, and other policies that allow students to leave low performing neighborhood schools.” In New York State, where I live, the New York State Education Department Pre K through 3rd grade Literacy Instruction Best Practices were recently released.

There was a webinar on January 7th. And there is a new guide that will provide educators with a comprehensive framework that leverages principles of the Science of Reading. So I will tuck a link to that in the show notes as well. Another article that Leah shared that is, I think, an incredible read with lots of information on tutoring.

It is from The Hechinger Report, September 9th of 2024, Students aren't benefiting much from tutoring one new study shows: Research recalibrates expectations for tutoring as it becomes the new normal for [00:04:00] many. This is written by Jill Barshay. And what this piece speaks to, I find fascinating, that often when we think of tutoring, it's that one-on-one experience that is costly for many families, it's often outside of the walls of the school, it's in addition when a student is struggling or striving with a subject area, the family has to employ a tutor, and Matthew Kraft, who is an associate professor of education and economics at Brown University, he was an early proponent of giving tutors, uh, to the masses after the pandemic. What this piece speaks to though, is some of the pitfalls of tutoring masses of children, especially trying to do it within the school setting instead of that one on one and an outside setting.

So some of the pitfalls had to do with things we would already expect, technology. If it was a remote tutor that was employed [00:05:00] from a university that was close by, just trying to have students log on and wait their turn for tutoring, that proved to be a challenge. It also was hard because some of the tutoring that was happening was during an intensive period of time.

Students would have been working one-on-one with their classroom teacher, and that individualized instruction was lost based on when the tutoring was available. It was also frustrating for remote tutors not being able to talk with the students’ teachers regularly. It's interesting that eventually they switched course and decided to not have outside folks working with students, but they worked with teachers at the school who could tutor in person.

And in interviews with the teachers, even though they said they enjoyed the stronger relationships that were forged with their students, there were trade offs because they had to plan for the tutoring work, and there are concerns with then that increasing teacher burnout. [00:06:00] And this is a quote from Matthew Kraft.

“I wonder if customized instruction can be accomplished at scale at an affordable price. To really help students who are behind, tutors will need to diagnose each student's learning gaps and then develop a customized learning plan for each student. That's pricey and maybe impossible to do for millions of students all over the country.”

So then that made me think a lot also about Cognitive Load Theory. When Leah brought up John Sweller's work, Cognitive Load Theory was developed by John Sweller in the 1980s. It is widely supported by educational psychologists, theorists, and research. And what this theory does, it integrates human cognitive architecture, which is the organization of the cognitive processes such as memory, with practical classroom applications.

I'm going to tuck a link in the show notes, breaks down what Cognitive Load Theory is, different types of cognitive load, how teachers can reduce the [00:07:00] extraneous cognitive load of learning activities. Tips for teachers, tips for students. I wanted to just break down what Cognitive Load Theory really is though, and then how we can help students in the classroom with the way we teach to lessen that cognitive load.

Because cognitive science is fascinating to me, I have really begun to study in-depth different types of memory. So there is sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. So, as information is coming in through sensory, then you have to pay close attention to what you want to commit to your short-term memory and what you want to just ignore and block out.

Once something is lingering in short-term memory, then it has to be repeated or rehearsed in order to be transferred to the long-term memory. It's also fascinating, short-term memory has a limited capacity. You can really only take in between five and nine pieces of [00:08:00] information for about 30 seconds. So if information is required for longer than this, it has to be repeated or rehearsed in order to be transferred to long-term.

And then long-term memory, that's the store that is unlimited in capacity and duration. And there's a quote in this piece that I think is important to remember. “Learning is said to have occurred when information is successfully encoded into the long-term memory in a way that allows learners to retrieve the information when it's required.”

So I want to go back to that notion of short-term memory. If you are a teacher and you are hearing this, think of the directions, how many different pieces of information we give students in a classroom at a time before they're starting an assignment. If you are a caregiver, think of the amount of pieces of information or directions you provide a child with, and then [00:09:00] sometimes the child comes back downstairs and says, wait, what did you want me to do?

We do the same thing as grownups. So go back and think of sensory memory. What are all of the stimuli that are received through our senses only for a split second? And then information that has to be attended to for longer has to be transferred to the short term. And once it's committed to the short-term memory, if it's not repeated or rehearsed, it's most likely going to be lost.

I think this is just so interesting for how our brain works. There's information in this piece about the working memory model. I am not going to get into that. But it is important to note that the learner's working memory is the gateway to their long-term memory for listening. And to better understand the internal cognitive processes in the short-term memory, there is a model called the Working Memory Model.

It was developed by Baddeley and Hitch in 1974. And what it does is it explains how our working memory [00:10:00] capacity and processing capacity can be increased or decreased depending on the sources of information it's presented with. In the Working Memory Model, there is central executive, visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop, and episodic buffer.

Remember, learners working memory is the gateway to their long-term memory. So, the working memory capacity is limited, and if it becomes overloaded quickly, that is what cognitive overload is, and why we have to avoid that as teachers in order for learners to officially transfer new information into their long-term memory.

And then it makes me ask, you know, what are the different types of cognitive load? So there's the working memory load, and then this theory also recognizes three other types of cognitive load. Intrinsic load, extraneous load, and germane load. [00:11:00] Intrinsic is “the mental effort required to complete a task, and that can be influenced by the task difficulty and the expertise of the learner.”

Extraneous load “is caused by the instructional design or the way a task is presented.” And germane load refers to “the cognitive resources that directly enhance learning. Like the effort required for schema construction or to automate new processes.” And why does this matter? There's a quote from Merrienboer and Ayers, and what they say is that “it is difficult to change the intrinsic load of a task, but it is possible to reduce the extrinsic load of a task so that students can invest more effort and resources into increasing their germane load.”

There are two sections at the bottom of this piece: One of them is called Cognitive Load Theory Tips for Teachers, and then there is another, Cognitive Load Theory Tips for Students. I love these tips, and [00:12:00] I think they could be really helpful. So, some tips for teachers: “Direct instruction instead of discovery-based learning for novice learners; Modeling through worked examples; Scaffolding and presenting partial solutions; Presenting images with narration; Removing redundant information and images from slides and worksheets; Providing opportunities for students to reduce anxiety; Include animated images where possible and verbal explanations; Use perspective-taking to activate prior learning for expert learners; And teach using an I do, we do, you do approach.” 

And so these tips for teachers make me go back and think about a teacher I was coaching last week and working with and a bigger conversation we had about the need for modeling through worked examples. I would even add alongside a [00:13:00] rubric or learning progression so students know where they're going. But this is grounded in Stiggin’s research. Students need both strong and weak examples of the task that they are going to be completing so they can have that mindset of here are examples, here are ways that this can look and feel as they're crafting their own.

That would also greatly reduce anxiety in many cases. And thinking of that idea of direct instruction instead of discovery-based learning for novice learners, that explicit direct instruction still cannot be a lecture model of where the student is just sitting and taking in information endlessly. We have to go back and think of that cognitive load and short-term memory's limited capacity.

Some of the tips for students, I think these are vital, especially as our children get older: “Creating a learning environment free from distractions.”

Put your mobile phone out of sight when you [00:14:00] are working. So much research is coming now. There is so much research to support even having a mobile phone. It doesn't matter if it's face down, in your learning environment, in your sight.

It is a distraction. “Work in silence if you're reading or writing; Do not watch TV or listen to music when you're working. Focus on one learning activity at a time.” This is interesting. “Watch your teacher when they're talking and make notes afterwards; Ask your teacher how new topics relate to the previous ones; And use model answers and worked solutions to learn new techniques.”

Many of these tips are what I am living and experiencing as a caregiver, in addition to my work coaching in middle and high schools these days. A few of them I can speak to is the idea of working in silence if you're reading or writing.[00:15:00] 

I'm noticing more and more that when students are comfortable with independent work time and just having quiet, sometimes the grownups may not be comfortable with that quiet. A lot of that factory model mindset is that it is our responsibility as teachers to lecture and share our stories and fill time in classrooms, where I believe it needs to be the flip of that.

And students need so much time to rehearse and practice to transfer short-term memory into long-term memory practices and skills. And so that idea of silence. Make sure if, if you are a teacher that you're thinking of, if you finish or extension activities, so for your students that may read faster, they can go on independently with autonomy and continue their work.

And so they don't bubble up and [00:16:00] start to have side conversations while someone that is a slower reader. Or maybe striving to understand the content is having distractions from their peers around them. The other example I can offer over the holiday break, my older son received a 30-page packet from one of his AP teachers, and it was asked of the students to review the packet.

It was new information. So he decided he was going to try to really teach himself this information. And so when he came back from the break, it would be that when the information was presented in class, that it would be a review for him in a sense. He wanted to build his schema and what he said after coming back from the break a week or so, it, how effective that was for him because he was already familiar with some of that knowledge.

So because he had that schema that he had built for [00:17:00] himself based on the packet that was given by the teacher, now when he is sitting in the classroom and that information is being solidified for him, he has something to connect it with, which is interesting. It's also important that students question and that they are able to ask their teachers how new topics relate to previous ones.

Hopefully, the grown up that's preparing instruction is already thinking of that. And so there's this thread that goes through each unit of study that they're embarking upon and that connective thread should be apparent without the student asking how the new topic relates. But if it's not clear, then the students do have agency and they speak up and make those connections for themselves.

The last piece I am thrilled to share with you - It's called MagicSchool. A group of middle school teachers introduced me to this AI tool, [00:18:00] and it has been groundbreaking. What it can do is endless. It is a free tool, which I think needs to be spoken to. And then once you sign up, it's for teachers, it's for schools.

You log in and you, there's a screen that says I will be using Magic School AI as a student under the age of 18 or an educator age 18 plus. I signed up for a free account. It only took seconds to create my profile. And the profile just helps the AI tool offer experience matching your content areas, the age of the students you're supporting.

And right in the opening screen, recommended for me based on my preferences, there is a rubric generator. There is a tool to help write feedback. There is a tool for text dependent questions. There is a tool for AI resistant assignments. [00:19:00] You can receive suggestions on making assignments more challenging for AI.

There is a tool to craft exemplar and non-exemplar responses to specific assignments. It is absolutely incredible. So then I tried this with a teacher. She created her own magic school account and we wanted to play around with feedback. We know students thrive when they're offered feedback and it's timely.

And we also know teachers are drowning, and especially when you get into high school, an ELA teacher may have four preps, each prep 30 students, that's 120 essays that they need to offer timely feedback on. And that becomes harder and harder to have that work life balance. What you can do is you select your grade level, you can put a description of the assignment, you can attach a rubric or the type of feedback that [00:20:00] you're looking for Magic School to give students.

You can even type in additional instructions for the type of feedback like conventions or focusing on the use of evidence. And then you can attach or insert the writing that you want feedback on. It will immediately, within seconds, offer you strengths for that writer and that piece of writing. It will offer you areas of growth and any other additional instructions, feedback wise, that you asked it to provide.

What a teacher and I were talking about last week is the myriad of ways that this can support each learner in your class. So, I love that it offers different strengths and a couple areas of growth. I would present this feedback once I've tailored it because I'm not just going to copy what Magic School tells me.

I'll obviously adjust and make sure it makes sense based on what I [00:21:00] know as the teacher about the student and what I know about previous assignments and how it links to them. But at least it's saving that time of initial feedback read, that first read. And so, I would offer students both of the suggestions, I'd name the strengths for that learner, and then say, look, this is, these are a couple of options that you could try.

Do any of these feel like they're something you'd want to give a go? The other piece I would want to use this for as a teacher, I would create some type of grid for each of my preps, if I'm teaching middle school or high school, and I would want to have some patterns. a way of finding patterns. And so once I, you could migrate this to a Google sheet, you can migrate it to a Word doc or, um, some tool where you'd be able to track what's happening over and over, because that would help me then quickly adjust my future [00:22:00] instruction.

If there's a pattern where it's in need of most. I am going to possibly have to talk a mini lesson in, or if it's a pattern I'm noticing for most of my learners in a particular prep, I'm going to have to add some direct instruction in to address it. If it's a need of only some of the learners, I don't need to address it with my whole group, but I definitely will scoop up a small group that needs that skill set.

And then if it's just a one on one, that's a one on one conference I could have. I cannot say enough about MagicSchool. It is saved so much time for educators and it's incredible feedback. I wouldn't recommend something unless I've tried it and lived it with several teachers. There is a middle school teacher that is using Magic School to create exemplar text to offer access for students.

Because you can also enter Lexile levels or a grade level that is based on the content that you're teaching. Endless [00:23:00] possibilities. I hope you give it a go and then circle back and let me know how it worked for you. Work life balance is really important for educators and this is a tool I highly recommend trying to give your students the timely feedback that will help them thrive.

Again, if you have not tuned in yet, To season four episode 19 with Leah Mermelstein and Dr. Jennifer Gioia, please do and I am excited to hear your takeaways from this bonus episode when it comes to tutoring success tutoring pitfalls and the research behind Cognitive Load Theory as well as let me know how magic school AI goes for you I can't wait to see you next week. Take care.

Schoolutions: Coaching and Teaching Strategies is created, produced, and edited by me, Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son, Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. [00:24:00] You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get your podcasts, or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube.

Now I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. Let me know what tutoring programs look and feel like in your school district. I'd also love to hear how you're experimenting with AI as teachers, students, leaders, and caregivers. Tune in every Monday for the best research backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care.

And stay tuned for my bonus episodes every Friday, where I'll share how I applied what I learned from the guests in schools that week. See you then.