Shannon and Mary chat about how to best support learners with working memory challenges. This is a companion episode to a deep dive learning topic we went through with our Patreon community about Working Memory. Listeners to this episode will walk away with increased awareness about which students may have working memory challenges AND strategies to help those students during reading instruction.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE
Shannon and Mary chat about how to best support learners with working memory challenges. This is a companion episode to a deep dive learning topic we went through with our Patreon community about Working Memory. Listeners to this episode will walk away with increased awareness about which students may have working memory challenges AND strategies to help those students during reading instruction.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND ONES MENTIONED DURING THE EPISODE
6.15 Supportive Strategies for Working Memory (1)
Shannon Betts: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge. Come join the conversation with other curious teachers as they discover teaching strategies and resources to reach all of their learners. I'm Shannon.
Mary Saghafi: And I'm Mary. And together, we bring an honest and experienced point of view to the topics we cover to shed light on best practices.
Whether you're a new teacher seeking guidance, a seasoned pro looking for fresh ideas, or a curious parent, Our community offers something for everyone. So grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea and cozy up in the virtual lounge with us and eavesdrop on our professional conversations.
Shannon Betts: Listen, learn, and immediately add to your bag of teaching tricks.
Find what works for your students with us in the Reading Teachers Lounge.
Mary Saghafi: Hey Shannon!
Shannon Betts: Hey Mary!
Mary Saghafi: Alright welcome to the Reading Teachers Lounge! And today, we are going to do a follow up episode from one of our Patreon [00:01:00] Working Memory Deep Dives. So, today this is Working Memory, How to Help Teachers Identify Struggles for Students with Working Memory Challenges, for an episode 16 of Season 6.
Shannon Betts: And so we're today we're going to talk about specifically strategies that teachers can employ in their classroom to help their students improve and work on working memory, our Patreon every month in our Patreon we do a. We have a number of live zoom calls. Some are Q and A's with our patrons, where we help them with specific things going on in their reading instruction.
And then also each month we do a deep dive learning topic and we've covered things like systems for reading teachers. We've covered, what are some of the things we've covered? We did so many. Oh, let's see. I mean, working memory was this month.
Mary Saghafi: Working memory. We've done sequences Open sequence,
Shannon Betts: lesson flow, language comprehension, [00:02:00] breaking down the standard vocabulary strategies.
We've done a lot. And so, you know, Mary, Mary and I are big reading nerds. And so we'd like to go deeper with a topic and learn more. And so we do that with our patrons each month and. Yeah. You know, we're able to, to present visuals with that, you know, in a way that we can't do on our podcast. And so this past month Mary shared with me a lot about working memory.
And so there was so much information that we wanted to do an episode specifically for the podcast with working memory strategies. So these are things, you know, that teachers after they listen can definitely start using in their classroom to help students. If they have, if they notice that they have executive functioning issues, specifically with working memory, that they can work on these strategies to help their students.
Mary Saghafi: So yeah, so the deep dive goes a little bit deeper. So if working memory is a little bit of a foggy topic for you, you're not alone. A lot of teachers kind of just get surface level training on this. And [00:03:00] so what we need to be aware of is that students who are identified with learning disabilities or other frustrations might actually just be having some working memory challenges.
It's common in your class to have students who have varying abilities of working memory. So let's just talk about what is it in the first place. So working memory is where all the sensory information comes into your brain at first, and it's going to sit on this visual screen. And it's going to need to be manipulated or moved or used at some point.
So this could be a noise that you hear outside. It could be a dog barking. It could be the teacher's instructions. So all of these inputs that we have. are going to be conducted by the central executive person. So sometimes people refer to this as like the conductor of the orchestra. They tell you where to go.
So you might be having a visual spatial or like using your, inner eye to [00:04:00] see something or you might be have using your phonological loop or your inner voice and developing this inner voice is really crucial. You're going to take that information and then you're going to move it. It may move into your short term memory.
It may move then into your long term memory. So for example I like to think of, I like to think of working memory almost as see, there's a number of different ways, but I think for me, the best one is when you have an internet browser and your internet browser has lots of tabs open. And so you are working on a complicated task and you have to switch from one tab to the next tab.
And those are kind of placeholders for the information that you need. That's used, that's working memory. And then sometimes when your working memory is a little bit taxed, or on your computer, your tabs are taxed, you get a message that says heavy use of RAM. And it says, you know, you need to close down some [00:05:00] of your windows.
So that's similar to working memory, except for your working memory is going to do it automatically. You don't get that message. It's limited. So your, your working memory Slots or available spaces to use and manipulate information is limited. And so, it's going to just pop right out of your brain, and you either need to start back at the beginning, or reopen a tab, for example at, at the beginning.
You can't remember that information any longer. It's being taken up by something else. So, It's kind of mental juggling that we do and we have strategies, especially as adults now to memorize or keep that information in our brain. Sometimes it's rehearsal where you repeat the same thing that you need to do, but whether it's directions, turn left, then turn right, then go straight until past the second light, keeping that in your brain as a rehearsal strategy so that you don't forget that information.
Maybe following a [00:06:00] recipe, you're following a recipe and you walk to the cabinet to go get that ingredient and then you think how much was I supposed to get and you can't remember, you've, you've already had an input, something has taken up that space. So we need to know that it's limited. We also as elementary school teachers, we need to understand that our job is to help students move their information into short term or long term memory.
So they need to recall it in their visual spatial side or their their phonological loop. They need to remember hearing it. As elementary teachers, specifically this critical age right in the median of second grade, so you'll see ages 5 to 12, there's a developmental spectrum that our students have, and those students are going to have varying abilities of using their computer.
mental work pad, their working memory between five and seven, the ability to follow complex [00:07:00] directions, independently initiate tasks, that's going to change. And it's going to be dependent upon, you know, That individual student. This has nothing to do with intelligence. And that's the really critical piece that I need to point out.
Elementary teachers have to understand that there's this developmental spectrum. So you may have some students who are really struggling with Keeping that and, and moving your, that information that you are giving them complex tasks into long-term and short-term memory. And it has nothing to do with their intelligence, but it is a predictor of how they will struggle later on in school.
So we need to make sure that we are working on that as much as possible. So, making sure that you can identify what working memory challenges look like, and then scaffolding activities to support students, that's our job. That's what we need to really be very aware of. And so I'm going to give a little bit of insight and illuminate that a little [00:08:00] bit today, so that we can, you know, make sure that we're, We are helping our students as much as possible.
So I will say…
Shannon Betts: Can I interrupt for a second on a personal note? After my brain injury, I experienced some of this in a way that I hadn't ever before that. So listeners, if you're not aware in season, during season two of our podcast I was teaching kindergarten. I ended up getting a car accident and I didn't realize at the time, but I had a brain injury and, you know a long term post concussion syndrome developed after that.
And I had tons of memory issues. That was one of the most affected areas of my brain. In fact, I had problems with short term memory, long term memory, and working memory. Short term memory and long term memory were improved with medication. I'm actually on an Alzheimer's medication. That, [00:09:00] immediately.
I'm not sure if I'm in a hurry, but I'm just, I'm just improve my life. Like almost overnight. Cause I, I used to have to write on a sticky note. Going from upstairs to downstairs to remember why I walked in the kitchen. And the medication bought me. The first time I took it. It bought me about five minutes of memory.
And then we increased my dosage one time and that gave me another like 10 minutes. And so now I can like somebody can tell me something in the hallway. And I don't immediately have to go write it down, you know, I can remember it by the time I get to my desk, or I was also it was affecting me socially because I was having to, I was interrupting people in conversation all the time because I would have forgotten my response otherwise.
And so I kind of became like a rude conversationalist for a while, but the working memory part was really interesting and I had to work on that with my speech therapist because she was the one who worked on executive functioning with me. Okay. And it got to the point where we were playing all these, like, memory games and things, and what was happening was those [00:10:00] slots, like you talked about, were getting filled, and my brain wasn't automatically emptying them.
Like it wasn't sending it to short term, wasn't sending it to long term, they were just, it was just this, it wasn't like a sieve, it was just like, you know, a bowl that was getting filled up. And it would be like silly information, you know, like remembering if it was, you know, a hearts or clubs in this card game or something, but like, I could do so many of the tasks and then we would get to a number and I couldn't do it anymore.
Like after 10 reps or something, my brain, my working memory was filled. And so like we had to learn, we use my metacognition to help me where I would tell my brain, this isn't important. You can forget it now. And I would almost have to try to like. control my brain because it wasn't doing that automatically.
Because, you know, at age 40, we don't really pay attention to that. These become, like, so automatic functions at that point in our [00:11:00] lives, so we don't pay attention anymore. But I had to, like, repay attention to those things to tell my brain to, like, make it routine or not routine anymore.
Mary Saghafi: I think that is absolutely a perfect example.
Especially now that you have this like metacognition, this awareness of, you know, how you were able to just kind of go throughout the day and, and juggle mentally juggle so many tasks. And now you have to be so much more cognitively aware. And the big thing that we as teachers need to be aware, which now I know you are acutely aware of, is the cognitive overload.
Shannon Betts: Yes. I definitely feel so much more empathy for the student, because I know what that feels like when you have that overload and your brain floods, and then you can't do anything. Like when your brain is full and overloaded, like 2 plus 2 becomes like, a calculus problem.
Mary Saghafi: [00:12:00] Yeah.
Shannon Betts: You really, you can't even do simple math at that point.
Like there's just nothing computing. And so that's why sometimes you talk to the students and you're giving them the simplest, you know, question and they're looking at you with these blank confused eyes. It's just totally glazed over. I mean, it's better at that point to just let the students just like go walk in the hall, go get something from the locker, go get some water, you know, go to the bathroom or whatever, because they just maybe need just that mental walking and space and time to just sort of let things filter out.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah. And what you're describing is a brain break. So I think that's where we need to be really specific with teachers to understand that a brain break is not necessarily putting a video on. The board and allowing the kids to jump up and down. It very much could be and some people need that movement.
That's good. But sometimes quiet and like just some deep calming breaths where literally you're not responsible for manipulating any information can be really [00:13:00] helpful and useful to students, especially when they're working on. really complicated tasks. And speaking of elementary education, I had mentioned before, there's this general spectrum of so much growth and development that happens within your working memory ability from ages 5 to 12.
So we need to remember that this is a continuum, and not all students are going to be at the same level. Pace in their continuum, and we need to be able to recognize when that cognitive overload happens. So I think that that's really crucial. Secondary to that is that we have a big responsibility of, as teachers, especially when students are in third grade to ensure that they are learning to read and then they have this responsibility of reading to learn information and take responsibility for it.
When a student has working memory challenges, there inevitably are these task abandonment issues because their [00:14:00] brain floods with information and no other information is able to come in. That eventually leads to gaps in the foundation of being able to really process these complicated tasks that are expected of our students within this discipline.
And so when you have a student who is either identified with working memory challenges or hasn't been identified with working memory challenges, you will likely see frustration in all academic areas in reading and math and writing activities because the foundational gaps are are increasing as the complication of the tasks is increasing.
And what needs to happen is that students need more time to process, or more supports to free up some of that mental space so that they can move the information into the long term or the short term memory, however it needs to be manipulated. So that's what we're really talking about. And I think that's the part that gets glossed over.
quickly in our [00:15:00] education prep programs. Not by intention, but because it can look so differently in every single brain that you encounter. Right? So, okay, so this is complicated, but I do want to say this part is critical to children with low working memory scores that have been identified on a Thank you.
psychological evaluation, they are seven times more likely than those with average working memory scores to fail to reach expected levels in reading, writing, and math. And and that that is just a baseline calculation that they've done research on. That's a lot that it is a lot,
Shannon Betts: but I can understand why because, like, let's say, when you're reading a chapter book, for example, or even a multi paragraph essay, you need to have.
Working memory and comprehension at the word level, the sentence level, the paragraph level, the passage level available. [00:16:00] So they have to have so much capacity and have to hold so much in their mind at one time to like keep track of the meaning of the story. And then with writing. Oh, my goodness, they're having to, like, remember their own thought, then remember all the spelling rules and punctuation and conventions to try to, like, communicate that thought and put it into writing.
Exactly. That's a lot too. And then with math, it's not just, we're not talking about calculation, for example, we're talking more about, like, problem solving with math.
Mary Saghafi: Well, we could be talking about more complex cop kept a multi
Shannon Betts: step operation, multi step,
Mary Saghafi: especially so if you're asked to do you know, long division in your head, because those multi step functions have to be, you know, you switch from using addition, or I mean, do multiplication, subtraction, all these things.
Yeah, exactly. So having if you have some students that have that. Having a workspace that has dedicated arrows or spaces where they can [00:17:00] have a predictable routine will free up some of their working memory to remember. Ah, the next step. So I think that's something that's really critical that I'm kind of glossing over myself is that developing the inner voice starts in second grade, right?
So you, you start to develop this ability to have rehearsal or hear the, the inner voice of yourself or hear the inner voice of your teacher and coaching you through and being able to remember those things. Some kids have better abilities to do that than others. And that's important information for teachers to know.
So you want to make the information that students need as accessible as possible. And by doing that, you need to be really explicit and make the invisible visible. So that might be writing down directions on the board having it written there so that as they switch their task and they're organizing through their folder, they don't forget the information or the question that's being asked of them.[00:18:00]
keeping it right there in front, then they don't have to raise their hand. And when you raise your hand and call attention to yourself that you're not paying attention, there's a negative stigma that comes with that. And they feel that they're being wrong or bad. And that typically leads to a student not raising their hand and not asking the questions and perceiving themselves
Shannon Betts: as, you know, they just try to mimic what their classmates are doing, but they might be two steps behind.
I see that. So often in the classes that I go in. Yep. Yep. So as teachers, we need to be asking ourselves, how can I free up working memory for my students?
Mary Saghafi: And so that's what we're going to talk about a little bit. We're going to talk about what you're probably doing in class and why it's so important and this why I think is critical.
So first you want to call attention and recognize working memory failures. So can you identify if a student is incompletely recalling information? How do you know that? Do you have evidence from paper? Are they asking questions in a small group set setting? [00:19:00] Are they having difficulty following directions or are they having difficulty with place keeping errors or task abandonment?
All of these can be reflected as working memory failure. So first we wanna identify it. Second, you wanna monitor the child, so you're gonna be looking. for those warning signs. And then you're also going to follow up and ask the child. Maybe that is, do you need me to repeat the directions for you? Would it be helpful if I wrote the question on this sticky note and put it on your desk?
monitor and check in with the student to see if that's helpful. You are likely doing this already, but we need to call attention so that we know. So this comes from seven principles of working memory intervention. These can be combined or done in isolation. GatherCole and Alloway have done studies and this comes from Working Memory and Learning Strategies for Teachers.
It's a book that I'm going to recommend in our show notes. So I highly recommend it. The next piece that teachers are going to be doing is [00:20:00] evaluating their working memory loads. So what I want to really emphasize is we want to avoid that cognitive overload. So what is causing a a cognitive overload?
Lengthy sequences. unfamiliar or meaningless content, they're not connecting it to something, and then demanding mental processing activities. So they, they are in need of some scaffolding and support. It's not happening independently for that student. We want to be able to reduce those working memory loads when necessary.
Sometimes this requires a little prep on the front end, and sometimes it's something that you're doing just in the flow of the lesson. So you want to reduce the amount of material to be remembered. You're going to call attention to the most important things. So you're going to call attention to that.
You're also going to increase the meaningfulness and familiarity of the material. And this can be done in a lot of different ways. Relating it to a story, using a comic, having a visual you want to [00:21:00] simplify the mental processing and maybe even restructure the task so that it helps students in that way too.
Shannon Betts: I remember One of my colleagues at the first school I worked at, she was the math interventionist for the upper grades when I was the reading interventionist for the upper grades. And one of the things that she did for the students in terms of long division and then also like when they were working on like complicated fraction tasks is she taught all the multiples and she taught them with songs.
So she used like a song to teach like 7, 14, 21, 28, you know, 35. So like all the multiples of 7. And she would train the students to like sing those songs automatically. You know, she taught like each one each week or something. So that by the first nine weeks of school, the students had all the multiples memorized.
Then she trained them how to write them very quickly on scratch paper so that when they were taking the state test, they could write them on the scratch paper within just three to five minutes. [00:22:00] And then they had those multiples. available to reference during long division, like I said, during those, you know, least common, multiple greatest common factor, all of those, you know, fraction kind of tasks.
And it reduced what I'm realizing. I didn't know it at the time. We just knew it was an effective strategy. We, we had very good math scores when she was working with the students, but I'm seeing now that you're sharing this, that what it was doing was was reducing the working memory load.
Mary Saghafi: That's exactly right.
Yep. And I actually used to do that in when I was teaching fourth grade math as well. And we would call it a brain dump. And so we would have the students create a grid and they would dump the most difficult multiples for themselves. And so it would be, it might be the sixes and sevens and sevens.
Yeah. And that's exactly right. And we would teach it with a song. And our goal would be we would like time them to see if they could get it within five minutes to get them all on their paper for five minutes. And if the students [00:23:00] had already you know, created their grid within that five minute time, we would just let them sit and, and focus on You know, what are some good math strategies I should do for taking a test?
And then afterwards we would share those. So if you didn't have the ability to do the brain dump as quickly as other students, we still were sharing some really good strategies at the end. So that's how we always started our math class. Actually, it was it was an effective strategy to get students to understand how to utilize a multiplication grid too.
And so that That worked really well as well. When we started to, I didn't expect all of it. We would give them some blank spots within the multiplication grid so that they could figure that out. So yeah, exactly. So, yeah, using these memory aids. is essential. So as I stated before, you want to repeat important information.
Let me just like recommend that sometimes that repetition can [00:24:00] be supplied by teachers and sometimes it's students. So maybe it's an elbow partner on the carpet. Okay, who can repeat the directions one more time or tell your partner the definition, you know, that we just stated, tell your partner in your own words, what is, you know, this topic that we were just talking about.
And then teaching students to utilize all of the supplies that we have, so maybe how to use cubes or other manipulative devices, the unifix blocks, the number lines how to use a calculator, how to create a personalized dictionary. Where they can find information on wall charts and posters, where are the resources within the classroom that they can find the information that they're seeking?
So being as explicit as possible about that information is crucial because again, we want to make the invisible visible. And we might assume that
Shannon Betts: the students know how to [00:25:00] use those Unifix cubes or something, but if they haven't been explicitly taught, they just like look like blocks to them. I don't realize, you know, for example, I use them for counting on, you know, so I do like a train of two colors where it'd be like seven of one color and two of another color, and the students would wanna go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
I'm like, no, guess what? You can go to the back of the train. 7, 8, 9. And that taught counting on. But I had to teach the students that.
Mary Saghafi: Exactly. And not just a one time teach. Exactly. Yeah. So you have to use it multiple opportunities. Gradual release of
Shannon Betts: responsibility. I did it until they could take it on and do it independently.
Mary Saghafi: So, as I'm stating again there is this huge developmental spectrum. Some kids are more able to do these tasks independently, and it has nothing to do with their intelligence. It has so much more to do with the ability to manipulate that information that you're trying to get across to them inside their [00:26:00] own brain and that is essential.
So, you can have a student who. has exceptional, really exceptional academic abilities and maybe gifted in many areas, having really high scores. And then there's a discrepancy between their working memory score and their ability to communicate what they know is significantly diminished. And that is very frustrating.
So we need to make sure that we are really, really providing the best scaffolding and the best interventions for these students.
Shannon Betts: Right. Because we have to remember that the directions and the work is different than the content we're asking them to learn in their long term memory. Exactly. And so we have to be as teachers aware of both because if those directions and just that the work itself is so complicated for the students at that [00:27:00] level, they might have.
More issues with executive functioning, then they really aren't, they're going to be so focused on just completing that task that like, they don't have a ghost of a chance of getting that content, putting in their long term memory. And that's what we really want as teachers.
Mary Saghafi: The frustration comes with standardized tests, because the way that we are teaching these students to learn the information, and then the way that we are expecting the output from the test is so very different from what the expectation is.
That's a really good kind of, You know, mirrored example of how, how working memory like the language of, of the directions could be confusing or unfamiliar to students. And that can impact the outcome.
Shannon Betts: And so we've talked before about like routine activities and how that helps students as well, because then they can give more attention to the content.
Mary Saghafi: I'm so glad you brought that up.
Shannon Betts: We want the students to pay attention to the content. Yep. And so, the more we can make that easier and [00:28:00] automatic for the students, the more effective we'll be as teachers. So in terms of learning,
Mary Saghafi: I think this like kind of just like reiterates. I know that teachers are doing all of these things.
It's just that we need to really understand the why are we doing it. And so this is why we're doing it for some of these students to level the playing field. And I think that this. This last piece here is to develop the child's own strategies to support memory. This is the most crucial intervention that we can help with.
So this is teaching the student to ask for help, teaching them to identify where their gaps are, teaching them, and we've said this again and again, What does it feel like to feel sure? How do you know that you're sure about something? Does your body have a reaction? Do you feel like the task is easier to go on?
This is re what does it feel like when you're overloaded? How can you communicate to me that you're overloaded? or that you don't understand. [00:29:00] And then also recognizing what strategies work best for that child. So are they using rehearsal, self rehearsal? Are they able to take notes or use sticky notes when they're reading for comprehension and asking questions?
Sometimes that works really well for students and sometimes it doesn't, and that's okay. We just need to make sure that we have strategies in place can help them take their working memory and free up the space that they need with a routine or with a, with a some sort of support.
Shannon Betts: Oh my goodness. I do that all the time.
Like when I have to remember where to park my car. Right. The pediatrician's office. They're all like level P1, P2, P3, whatever. So I always remember like P3 is where I try to do it because that was like the name of the club in Charmed. All their names were P. So that just makes sense to me. Of course. But then if I can't get on P3, Then I'm like, okay, well, P4.
Okay, [00:30:00] there's four people in my family. Okay, so I can remember that now I'm on P4, you know, or whatever it is. And I make up a story in my mind for like so many things, or if it's like a color level, I have to make up something about the color and the number.
Mary Saghafi: You're spot on, Shannon, and that's where we need to share with our students that we do this all the time, too.
Yeah. Well, like my invisible, visible
Shannon Betts: and my my speech therapist taught me to be an advocate for myself in those ways. That's what my brain therapy was about was developing these strategies or. Being able to communicate when I didn't have a strategy, you know, like for a while, I was telling every person, please don't talk to me in the hallway, send me an email about it, because I'm not going to remember by the time I get to my desk.
And I just made it a kind of funny kind of thing, and they knew, you know, okay, I need to do this to help out Shannon, you know.
Mary Saghafi: I, I think that that's, that's one of the most beautiful things that I really like about speech therapists. And so they are really good at communicating. [00:31:00] at helping student, their students specifically, but also helping teachers understand the executive function breakdowns.
Because they do a lot of training with with stroke victims when they do their training. And so that brain based understanding is really crucial. So if you are having some questions, like some, you know, difficulties with some students and you happen to, Be sitting in the teacher lounge with the SLP pick their brain.
They usually have amazing strategies. And, you know, previously in this season we met with Dr. Karen and Dr. Karen is an incredible speech therapist. And I have always advocated make friends with the speech therapist specifically for reasons related to this, because to the
Shannon Betts: brain, not necessarily to speech and articulation.
Mary Saghafi: Right.
Shannon Betts: Which is what you typically think, oh, okay, I have a student with a stutter, a lisp, or something. Let me talk to the speech therapist. But you can talk to the speech therapist about so many other things, too, that [00:32:00] are brain based.
Mary Saghafi: I hope that some of these next strategies that I'm going to share can kind of elevate the conversation about what can we do to help boost memory for our students.
And so the first thing that I think is, It needs to be, you know, the basis for all of this is understanding that we want to prevent the cognitive overload. So we need to identify what that looks like. Do we see the student glazed over? Do we see that they are unable to articulate the answer? Do you see the task failure?
What, what do you recognize within your student? And so in order to do that, we're going to take a break. So what does that break look like and how does it best work for that particular student and identifying that should be something that you have a conversation with that student with. Also, if you're a special education teacher, this is something that you want to communicate with all of the teachers who are working with.
That particular student, if it's identified in their IEP that they need frequent breaks. Let's make sure that part of the conversation talks about what is the best [00:33:00] type of break for this student.
Shannon Betts: I like that because I was just learning about that. And some of my in my concussion kind of community, they were saying that like, Old concussion advice is just like go in a dark room, but that's not necessarily what we should do.
You still want to use your brain, but what somebody broke it down really simply and they just said basically, if you're doing a cognitive task, then take a physical break. Yes. I love that. But if you were, but if you have overload for physical stuff, because like, If you've ever, like, you know, done something like lifting weights for a long time, you get almost, or like, trying to learn a complex dance routine, your brain can get tired doing a physical thing as well.
So in that case, do a cognitive thing, like, you know, a word puzzle or something. So, you don't want to give a student who has cognitive overload, like, oh, go read a book right now. You know, that's actually not going to help them. It would be better to just say, take five minutes and organize your desk, because that uses no cognitive.
Space, really, you know, you're just stacking books and throwing away trash and then all of a sudden your brain feels a lot [00:34:00] better.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah, or and if that's the case, if that's how you're, you know, helping the student to organize it, like, I know that there are some that get, like, panicked at the idea of cleaning out their desk because they don't know how to organize.
That might not be the best break, but yeah, sorry,
Shannon Betts: cleaning is really good for me as a physical task. Well, that's to say. But, yeah, but walking in the hall might be a better choice for that student.
Mary Saghafi: It might be having or sweeping.
Shannon Betts: I had students who love to sweep my room and I think they needed that for the physical break.
Mary Saghafi: That's what I was going to say. Taking a folder to another teacher or if they're a very social kid, you know, having a friend conversation or a friend go with you to go deliver something that might be positive for some kids. So being really specific and individualized with our students is. is essential.
And once they feel recognized and seen for what the struggle is that they have. They will respond so much better for you. I just, I can't [00:35:00] overemphasize that,
Shannon Betts: you know, that give me a break, give me a break, but it's like, give me the right break. Give me the right, the break that's right for my brain that I can, that I can, you know, the opposite of what my brain is tired of and what fits the personality.
That's what needs to be the type of break they get. And it doesn't have to be very long, like two to five minutes is enough for that working memory slots to just kind of, you know.
Mary Saghafi: Well, I'm thinking of another kiddo that I have that is he really needs more physical breaks and he really needs, like, outside air physical breaks.
Okay. So, like, if he doesn't receive recess, it's really impacting his behavior for the rest of the day. Mm hmm. So, yeah. If, if it's a rainy day outside I forget exactly what the circumstances were related to this because part of it was like the teacher wasn't able to go outside for recess with them.
They didn't have another person who could help all of the students. So they were giving them more breaks where they could just choose what to [00:36:00] play on their tablet for recess. And so that was really impacting this particular student. So if he could have had the opportunity or some of the children in this.
this classroom could have had the opportunity to even go to the gym and run around a little bit, that would have made a world of difference. And I know that a lot of the, especially boys, and I'm not saying it's just boys, but boys who have ADHD need that big physical output. And I think that we can't underestimate that.
So administrators, if you're struggling with, you know, a teacher who might not be able to take them out, Making other plans could really result in a much more positive day for a number of students. So I just wanted to kind of like advocate on that part because I'm seeing that more and more. Students are going to choose a screen activity because that does feel good, but it might not be exactly what their brain needs at that point.
So I want to just kind of overemphasize that. That part too. [00:37:00] Okay, so let's move on to another strategy that you're likely already doing, which is chunking information into manageable segments. This is really important. First, we're going to do this part. We're going to break down that task into tiny segments.
Might be we're talking about directions. And we're going to say, first, we're going to do this, then we're going to do this. After that task is complete, then we're going to give directions for the next task. It might be that while you're giving directions and a sheet to hand out for a project, maybe you divide that project into different parts that could have separate due dates for your and then just really making sure that you are chunking information and giving a written explanation if possible so that they don't have to keep that information tucked away in their brain to manipulate it.
If you can have that in a written location, that is always helpful. So if they say, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do, you can direct them. Yes. And, and then you don't [00:38:00] have to re answer that question one more time. Give them, give them a reference. And then we want to work on visualizing skills. We want to work on teaching how repetition and review can reinforce learning.
Teaching students, okay, we're going to work on this because we just practiced it, being really explicit. Okay, I want you to do this problem 10 times. Let's see if this increases your ability to, you know, work faster or memorize more words longer or you know, keep this information in your long term memory.
However, whatever the task is, you want to then also talk about how it reinforces your learning. Oh, remember at the beginning of this project, we first talked about this little piece and then we built upon this piece and it got bigger and now we have a whole concept that we can relate it to lots of different topics.
Given that
Shannon Betts: I had to teach my middle schoolers the last two years how to make note [00:39:00] cards. So they were just writing like almost full paragraphs or long sentences on their note cards that were from the, you know, the paragraph in the textbook or something. And I'm like, what are you doing when you go home?
And they're like, we just read over them. And I'm like, that's Not how I did note cards when I was in school. I was like, there's a reason that there's a blank side and a note side on the index part. I was like, you put the word on the blank side, and then you put the shortest definition, the most concise definition possible on the line side.
And then you, Test yourself both ways. You read the line side and then you try to guess the word. That's the easier part. Or, if you want a harder, you know, more challenging way, closer to the test, then you look at the word and you try to define what's on the back, on the line side. And they were like,
Mary Saghafi: Oh!
Enlightening, because you're making the invisible now visible. This [00:40:00] is how we use a note card. And this is so true in so many pe I think that it's, it's a multifaceted issue. If parents see that students are struggling with this, they want to create the scaffold and they often will create it for them. Not saying just specifically parents, I'm also referring to teachers, parapros, anybody who is trying to support a student and having this, like, you know, real desire to help support and sometimes the time limit is there and we have to be really specific about that, but let's just, let's be cognizant of the fact that we need to teach students to be able to do this On their own.
I had a conversation and to know the
Shannon Betts: how and the why.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah. I had a conversation with a parent and this student is moving from a more supportive program to a less supportive program. And one of the accommodations is to use audio books and when they're using these audio books it was, it, it came down, and this [00:41:00] is a private school, so it came down as a recommended, but not like a solid accommodation for the student.
And I said, well. in many of those other more supportive classes, they're giving it to her. And now this is a really great opportunity for her to learn how to advocate and search out and seek out more of these you know, sources and materials for the class that she can seek out independently to have an audio file with it.
So whether that's using learning ally or searching on the internet, I said, let's use this one class and make this a goal of hers for this year and this less supportive class to seek out and learn how to do this task independently. So we can't forget that there's a lot of teaching that can still happen.
without just providing for our students. They need to learn how to do this and, and seek out information on their own to reinforce their own learning. So this can also be, you know, [00:42:00] when they're playing games, Oh, did you notice that the faster you go, the more points you get? You know, like sometimes you got to spell it out really clearly for them.
So. As I always say, and I'm sure many of us are doing this, we're trying so hard to incorporate as many multi sensory activities to engage the different learning styles of students, but also to make sure that their full brain is engaged in the topic. That's something
Shannon Betts: that's definitely helped me on my own.
Brain recovery. Like I was never a sketcher before, but I sketch out processes and steps and do little doodles and things. And that helps me so much. I love that because I couldn't, I used to be able to automatically picture it in my mind as sort of a movie or rehearsal. And I don't have that much abstract thinking anymore.
And so. modeling it. Like sometimes I'll act it out with puppets and little, you know, pieces of paper. Sometimes I just sketch it out. It makes a [00:43:00] huge difference.
Mary Saghafi: And I think it's such an amazing gift now that you have the ability to have a before time and then an after time to reflect on how differently your brain works because it makes it so clear.
Yeah. You know, for other adults who don't necessarily have this perspective, and it does require a different level of patience and understanding. And so I want to be really clear about that too. That's it, you know, the empathy, I think that I'm hoping to impart to our listeners today is to understand how a cognitive overload is really an exhausting task and, and no matter how much you love this student and you really want to do it.
If you aren't like. Effectively supporting them. They're not going to be able to progress. And so we want to make sure that we're using the most effective strategies that they are then taking and as their own having ownership and then and independently employing those those activities. It's a [00:44:00] big order.
So another it's
Shannon Betts: more learning
Mary Saghafi: than it's worth it. What's the, what is our purpose? Our purpose is to help students direct information into their short term or long term memory. That's what teachers do along with many other things. I
Shannon Betts: like what you said about laying the playing field, loving the playing field too, because that's giving equity.
You know, this is another way to provide equity.
Mary Saghafi: I think I think that that is sort of an irritant for teachers right now because it seems like I, I've, I've heard this trickle online a lot too. Everybody's getting accommodations. Everybody's getting this, this, and this, and this, and this, and, and the teacher has a lot of work.
But truly, these accommodations need to be taught to the students. And if there is not a person who is responsible for teaching this to the students, it really becomes all of the teacher's responsibility and parent's responsibility to collectively understand it and help that student [00:45:00] progress through it.
And if we're just handing them note cards, if we're just handing them information and not teaching them to use it, it's not meaningful yet. They don't have ownership in it. So I feel really strongly about trying to help teachers understand this and come to know that their teaching will be much easier when they learn to understand what students need.
And I don't believe that students are just getting accommodations willy nilly. They have to have a full psychological evaluation. There has to be a meeting. I often see parents fighting for accommodations. And I getting a getting an IEP is not usually just a here you go. Here's your your certificate that enables you to modify and accommodate the information here.
This is based on data. A lot of information.
Shannon Betts: Can we say this to even if it's like, especially needed for the sum. It's also for the good of [00:46:00] the all everybody in the class would benefit from these strategies. Exactly. They would have better study skills. They would have better learning habits. You know, these things would be very helpful in the later grades, like in high school and college when, you know, the content gets even longer and more complicated.
Mary Saghafi: I think this is where the, the task of teaching is, you know, boiled down to, okay, you have to teach these standards. And while that is what our task is, we are teaching so many other things as well. And
Shannon Betts: And really it's, you know, we're making sure the kids learn the standards. And so if we need to do these things to ensure the learning happens, then that is part of our job description.
Mary Saghafi: I don't think that there's as much support as teachers really truly need and want for this type of empathy and understanding that comes with it. But many of I don't know any teacher who is still teaching and in the [00:47:00] field of teaching who doesn't want their students to succeed. It doesn't exist.
Right.
Shannon Betts: And then also I would say this is more of an offensive strategy because if you front load this. You're going to be doing less reteaching, you're going to be getting less Fs that then you're going to have to have the students do error corrections or reteaching and things like that. So if you put these things in place, yes, it's a tiny bit, it's some more work on the front end, but it's less work on the back end.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. I'm going to share another strategy that I love, and these are mnemonic devices to aid memory recall. Love those too. And, you know, mnemonic devices, having kids create their own mnemonic devices is such a fun way of getting them involved in their learning. And some students are really good at it, and this is an amazing task to give a group of students to try to do.
Demonic devices will then free up that [00:48:00] working memory load because they have to just remember either the acronym or the, the poem that they're using or, or a rhyme or an image that they've created within their mind to remember all of the, um, vocabulary or, or whatever, whatever is expected of them.
So the next thing is Something you probably employ as well is having the student teach the concept. If you can teach it, then you know it. And so that, that's really helpful. So collaborating with parents or other professionals is really great. And they can teach it to others. And then if those people are, you know, knowledgeable about this topic, then they are likely to also be able to help correct it a little, but give the student the opportunity to really do the teaching and have ownership in that topic.
I think that that really helps. I'm going to just get myself organized and find another topic that I want to talk about. So I have a great resource actually And that resource is Dr. Erica Warren. [00:49:00] She is very dedicated to studying executive functioning and she has so many great resources and workshops and webinars and some really great games that she has used and studied.
For effectively helping to do some brain training and, and help with executive functioning. So I have linked that in our show notes as well. So that's Dr. Erica Warren. But what she really talks about is gamifying to help students. So sometimes at home we could partner with parents and help them play games.
So games like Go Fish, Uno, Memory and Concentration Chess, where you have to have a visualizing component and a strategy component. That can really help with working memory. So playing these games and being really explicit about your own strategy is going to really help these students develop strategies.
So in my tutoring space, this is a really good opportunity. These are things that I do. a [00:50:00] lot actually with my students. And I am really specific about noticing whether or not they have a strategy or giving them a chance to explore a strategy and then saying, Oh, I wonder why he made that choice. Cause I'm going to make this choice and I'm going to skip over you and I'm going to score a point this way or something like that.
And then it becomes competitive. Well, and those
Shannon Betts: games helped my, me and my speech therapist actually realized. How my brain was working
Mary Saghafi: soup. Right. Exactly. We would
Shannon Betts: communicate and she'd be like, how does your brain feel now? What does it feel like when we do this and we weren't even playing like very specific card games We were doing things like okay, turn over one card.
Okay, turn over in the next card. Okay the previous card Was it red or black? Okay, now turn over two more cards. The previous, you know, the two previous cards was a red or black and I was just having to remember red or black. Then later I had to learn the suit. Okay, was it clubs or spades or hearts or diamonds?
And like I said, [00:51:00] I got to where I could do about 10 or so and then working memory was full. But then I was able to communicate that and that's, we developed the strategies after I was able to recognize how my brain was working.
Mary Saghafi: I think that's, that's really where you're making the strategies really clear and then giving some insight.
So as the adult, you want to have insight into how the student's brain is working, and you want to give them language to talk about that. So you're, I think you're super spot on with how to do that. So here's, here's an example of a game that can strengthen working memory. And there's a there's a grid and on this grid, there are different colors and within each color is a color word.
So like red, green, pink, orange, gray. So those, those words are now also in a different color, usually than the color that they say. So
Shannon Betts: like, for example, the top left, it looks like a quilt square or something. I'm like the top [00:52:00] left, the background. is the color blue, but then typed inside of that square is the letters R E D, which represents red, but it's in a yellow font.
Exactly. So, yeah, so either of those are actually the color red, except for it's the word red.
Mary Saghafi: So, so what, what the student is expected to do during this game would be to read the color of the square, so it would be blue, read the word in the square, red, and then the color of that font is yellow. So, so we're going to read that, and then we're going to go across.
There are five, it's a five by five grid, and so you're going to race and see how many you can, how many you can get in a specific amount of time, and so you want to see if you can increase that. So you're switching these three different identifiers, there's no distractors except for the [00:53:00] time commitment, and so time definitely is another piece that, that, that, Comes into the working memory.
So this is a fun activity that kids can use just to challenge themselves. And this is something that I could do. Sometimes, this is a brain break. Sometimes it's not a brain break. Yeah, this would never be a brain break
Shannon Betts: for me. I would actually be very good probably on the first or second rows. And then I would start to slow down.
I would really, like, have to be like, okay, what is step one? And I'd probably have to look at the rules of it. You know, because I would, I would, and it would, it would get slower and slower. So it would be like, my pace would be different the more repetitions I did.
Mary Saghafi: I think that's really interesting because, What teachers often expect students is that when there are more repetitions, they students tend to go faster because they've understood that concept.
And that is not always true when you're working memory is impacted. So that piece is really critical in understanding the more taxation that you [00:54:00] put on your working memory, the slower that you might go.
Shannon Betts: Yep.
Mary Saghafi: And that doesn't always equate with what the expectations of the teacher are.
Shannon Betts: But then if I took a break, my pace would increase again when I started it again.
Mary Saghafi: Yep. So so if you were my student, what I might say is, hmm, how many things, how many do you think you could do in one minute? And maybe you might just say, I can do the first five. And, and you say, okay, well, let's see how much you can do. Or you know, let's see how many you can do Let's see if you can do the whole page, and let's just set a clock and see how long it takes you.
Mm hmm. And, and that might be an okay time too. So, changing that and, and being really specific with the student about that might be helpful. So, this could be a brave break for some students, this could be a really challenging activity for others. There are some other games that I would love to talk about, so one that I do in my tutoring practice is called No Match Penguins.
[00:55:00] And so this is a Dr. Erica Warren one too, and so I have these cute penguin cards, and there is a mama penguin, and then there's a baby penguin, and the two cards are not the same, and the hat is different on either the baby penguin or the mom, and then there's a scarf color. So what you want to do is say that the if all three match, like the hat is the same, The hat on the baby penguin is the same, then they're going to be a match.
It's, it can be complicated, so you want to have the student kind of like talk it through with you. But, but this is a really great way to pay attention to differences and similarities. I do that with
Shannon Betts: tiles, it's like a game on New York Times puzzles I read in.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah, yeah, yeah, great. There's another one that's called Focus.
And this also has color words on it. It happens to have [00:56:00] horizontal or vertical gray lines on the background of this card. And so you're looking to see if it's horizontal. It's going to give you the clue that you are to just read the card through. Like the color is purple. If it's horizontal, then you're going to read the color.
And so
Shannon Betts: you have to remember the directions.
Mary Saghafi: Yes. So the direct, and there are two different words that are flipped one side or the other. So you want to find matches. So that's a focus game. Another one, and this is the one that my students actually like the most. It's called in or out. This has four different visual images on it, and they're all superimposed on top of each other.
So, there is a cat. The cat is the distractor. So the one that I'm looking at right now has a car and a car in the background of both of them. Then one has a raindrop. And the other one has an alien head, and then there is this half semi circle, and either the top is filled in or the bottom [00:57:00] is filled in.
And Dr. Erica says think of it like a basket. If the contents are going to fall out of it, you're going to look in the outer image. If the contents are like a basket and it's right side up, then you're going to look on the inner image. And so you have to find matches that way, and there's still a distractor.
So this is, this is another really good game, in or out. I love this game, and I will share a picture of it. This is from This Reading Mama, and this is one of these B's and D's games that I like to play. I might have shared this on another episode or a few but this is a favorite game of most of my students.
So we roll a dice. If you get one, two, or three, then you get to trace the letter B. So you have to find B on this game board, and your goal is to connect four B's in a row, or four D's in a row, or however many your color is in a row. So there's some strategy involved. Plus they are writing on top and creating the correct B and D.
So I [00:58:00] love this. This is actually a brain break for some of my students too. They love this game because it's competitive and they get eager to learn. So that's great. And I have one more, and this is probably similar to any of these online games that you also maybe play to help memories. I know a lot of adults play these online memory games.
Students can play this as well. So it might be You get like a bonus activity in your centers for some students. This could be a fun option. So I have one called memory master and this one you have to pick the right student. Let me tell you this game, but it's really.
Shannon Betts: Hello listeners, it's Shannon here and I want to take a quick moment to tell you about one way I'm committing to my health this year. [00:59:00] I've started making green chef meals again, and my family and I are loving them. The food is delicious and easy to prepare. There's tons of sauces, there's and spices and other ways to add flavor to the meals.
There are also tons of gluten free options for me each week. I use the app a lot. It makes it easy to make changes to the menu choices and pause a week if needed. The great news is they've given me free boxes to give away. So if you're interested in trying Green Chef, head to the show notes for this episode to get the link.
Or you can visit www. readingteacherslounge. com backslash quicklinks and click on the button for Green Chef. Happy cooking! Watch our stories on Instagram to see some of the meals I'm making.
Mary Saghafi: Okay, so Shannon, here is my memory challenge for you. So I would say, Shannon, pull your [01:00:00] ear, and then you would say the words back to me. Pull my ear. Then you would, I would say, wiggle your hips, and you'd say, wiggle my hips, pull my ear. Ah! Hi, Shannon. You back? Yes. Our recording was having some issues. Okay.
So Shannon, I said wiggle your hips. What would you say?
Shannon Betts: Wiggle my hips or do I say pull my ear?
Mary Saghafi: Nope. First you just say wiggle hips. Okay. And I say clap hands. Okay. Clap hands. Okay, so Shannon, I've given you three, do you think you can remember three in a row or do you want to try four or five in a row?
Three. I think it's Okay, so let's, let's do it again. Okay, so the first one is, what did I say? Pull my ear. Pull your ear. Okay, so when you are imagining pulling your ear, are you pulling your ear? Is a friend pulling your ear? I'm doing
Shannon Betts: it.
Mary Saghafi: Are you pulling your dog's ear? Okay. So now I want you to remember the second one.
What was the second [01:01:00] one?
Shannon Betts: Wiggle my hips.
Mary Saghafi: Wiggle your hips. What does it look like? Tell me. Like a hula hoop kind of thing. Okay. So you're hula hooping. I can see it now. Great. All right. The third one. Can you remember it? Clap your hands. That's right. Clap your hands. Okay. So who's clapping hands right now? I am.
Great. Okay. All right. I see it now. I want you to act it out. Ready? Go. Do the first one. What are you doing?
Shannon Betts: Pulling my ear.
Mary Saghafi: Good. What's the second one?
Shannon Betts: Wiggling my hips.
Mary Saghafi: Perfect. Now, clap your hands. Okay. Okay, you did it. You did all three. Now, I want you to sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Row, row, row your boat, gently down the That's your distractor.
Okay, you ready? What was the first one that I just asked you to do? Blow my hair. Good. What was the second one?
Shannon Betts: Wiggle my hips.
Mary Saghafi: And what about the third one?
Shannon Betts: Clap the hands.
Mary Saghafi: Excellent. [01:02:00] So, Shannon, which one helped you remember it the most? Was it just to repeat it back or to visualize it or to act it out?
Which one felt best to you?
Shannon Betts: Acting it out.
Mary Saghafi: Okay, great. Okay, good. So, you might need to actually act out a lot of things when we're trying to memorize stuff. No problem. Do you remember how I told you to, like, actually do it. So when you are needing to memorize some information, you're going to really want to first visualize and then act it out and make it kind of silly so that you remember it.
Does that make sense? So that's a memory challenge. That's how that game works. So there's a distractor. It's a
Shannon Betts: game, but it's also teaching them a strategy at the same time.
Mary Saghafi: So this is a really fun way that you could do, you know, just a transition with your students. You know, and you may pick just one student at a time to do it.
That may be fun. Make sure you're choosing students wisely for this game. And then once you teach it to them, then [01:03:00] maybe they can start to play this game with other students too. I would give them about three for, for a, a task. At the most, because they don't need to remember every single one. And they're all just silly ones, like rub your belly, look at the ceiling, stick out your tongue.
And the distractors change to like, say the days of the week. But all of them are say it, see it, show it. So that's the memory master. I like that. Yeah, so I highly recommend these games especially in the tutoring space or if you're a parent working with a, you know, with a child who has working memory challenges, you can find them on Good Sensory Learning and they are for purchase.
So usually we try to do some free free things, however, I have to say, I've been using these since like 2018, they stand up, they're great. So this is a good thing just to kind of keep in your bag of tricks your resources. So I
Shannon Betts: use some free apps on my phone.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah, what do you use?
Shannon Betts: I use Lumosity, L U M O S I T [01:04:00] Y and Peek, P E E K, and BrainHQ.
I can't remember which one has this game, but it's one of my favorites because it works on memory end. Reaction time, but it has like all these different trains that are coming out of a train station. Okay. And then you have to like, put them in the parking spot. So like, if it's an orange train, you have to put in the orange parking spot.
It's pink train, pink parking spot. But then it also has all these like broken tracks that you have to like, Fix, you know, so you're turning it to the left or the right to make it go to the correct, you know, tunnel or whatever, and so that then it can get to its own little parking lot and like they start coming out faster and faster and you got to remember, okay, well, this one, you know, in two seconds, I need to like, For the second step, I need to make it go to the right, and then this one, I need to make it go to the left, and then, oh, where is that blue parking spot again?
You know, when you're starting to, you're really clicking and moving, and like, I mean, there's some, I get them wrong, and I'm just like, whoops, it's going in the wrong parking spot. Yeah, and then there's just lots of [01:05:00] really fun, like, visual and things games, like, with those, and they don't feel like I'm working my brain, but I am, and like, I actually, They're not really brain breaks for me because I have to, I kind of get tired and my brain hurts after a while after I use them, but it also, I think, is helping keep my brain sharp and, you know furthering me in my recovery.
Mary Saghafi: I think that's great. So there are a lot of ways that we can support our students. But I think that the first and most important is to lead with empathy and try to put yourself in your students shoes. I think that's the first. Step two, understanding and secondarily, remember that they might not have developed their inner voice yet to kind of help them through some of these tasks and persevering some through some of these tasks.
So we may need to be that voice for them. I think that's my my, my parting wish for all of us as teachers that if we can start to really make [01:06:00] that Invisible visible for a lot of our students that will help tremendously.
Shannon Betts: Yeah, because we have that empathy, then we'll start to pay attention. We'll notice some of the warning sense with these students.
And then because we're hearing teachers. We're going to, you know, pull that extra little energy and effort out to try some of these strategies to help them be more successful. And then it becomes like a good feedback loop where we see the students feel better. We feel better. We feel like we're filling their needs and meeting their needs.
Their learning is, you know, improving. And so then you, you'll keep doing those strategies. And they'll also become just part of your natural teaching style at that point.
Mary Saghafi: Yeah, I totally agree. And I think that we can't forget too that so many of this is really just talking about how our brain is working and processing.
So, if you're having a game night with your family, Then you may also be just sharing that information, like, Oh, you know, you're playing, I love the name, [01:07:00] the game code names, which is also really great for a working memory. And if you're like a spy and you want to find the other spies. And so it's a team game actually, but it's a wordplay game too.
So that's a fun I would say maybe ages eight and up to make connections, it's a really great game. So don't forget that most of this can just be fun and. Bringing awareness to how we can bring that information into our long term memory. And I definitely encourage our listeners to go back and hear the deep dive that we've done so you can understand a little bit more about the long term and short term memory.
Shannon Betts: So if you're interested in that, you can go to www. patreon. com backslash reading teachers lounge. You can always try it free for a week and you can also see every single one of our past posts. Yeah. You know, to reference those and we've talked a lot about some visual things in this episode. And so definitely follow us on social media on [01:08:00] Facebook or Instagram at reading teachers lounge so that you can see some of the things we talked about.
We tried to use, you know, words to describe what we were seeing, but, you know, sometimes a picture is just an easier way to understand what we were describing.
Mary Saghafi: Also if you're curious about those games that I was just talking about too, Dr. Erica Warren has a YouTube channel and she shows how to play all of those games as well.
And so that would also be an amazing resource. And that's already linked in our show notes too.
Shannon Betts: And we mentioned our show notes just in case you're not aware, you can always find those on each, episode within your favorite podcast app, or if you go to our website and, you know, click on the season and then each episode has its own webpage and the show note links will be there.
And then as a courtesy to our patrons and then also people on our email list, we send out our show note links a few days after the episode airs. And so if you want to join our email list, you can find information about how to do that on readingteacherslounge. com, either on the [01:09:00] homepage at the bottom, or you can go to backslash quick links.
Great. Okay, thanks Mary. I knew some of these strategies but not all of them and so I'm going to be using these not only for my own proofing of working memory but also for my students.
Mary Saghafi: Of course. Love chatting. Thanks Shannon.