Learning in the Fast Lane
by Suzy Pepper Rollins, 2014
A literature review…
Key idea behind ideas in the book:
That high impact instructional approaches will effectively improve outcomes for all students including those who are struggling. Targeting only the “tail end lag” with remedial gap filling will not help accelerate learning.
Chapter 1: How can we help students with gaps from the past succeed today?
- Prior knowledge frees up working memory (Hirsh, 2003)
- New concepts need to be connected to existing schema
- The misconception is that to learn new things, one must go back and “fill the gaps”
- Going backwards decreases student motivation
- Acceleration is about having success in the present by preparing the student for what is happening that week
- Acceleration puts students in the “fast lane” as they already have the prior knowledge and the basic pre-requisite skills ready to learn the new content alongside their peers
- Vocabulary is key – students need to know both the pre-requisite vocabulary and the new vocabulary as it will help to link with prior knowledge.
- Student confidence and participation will increase when they are prepared for this new learning
- Time needs to be set aside to work with the acceleration group
Explicit and student friendly. Helps define the purpose of the learning.