How to create an optimal environment for language learning
(5) First and Last in a Sequence
What’s first and last in a sequence is what students remember best.
Therefore, the first minutes of class are the optimal time to present new material. This is what students will remember BEST!
This theory is called the “primacy-regency” effect, first coined by Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German researcher from the 1880’s.
Once the class is “called to order,” what happens next is considered the first thing in the sequence. So warm-ups or bell-ringers are great, if this means students are working independently while the teacher quietly and quickly takes attendance and handles other urgent tasks. [DO NOT use this time to go over homework.]
Immediately after calling the class to order, teachers should present the new and/or most important part of the day’s lesson.
Ending class
The final minutes of class are crutial to reinforce the most important material of the day. Whatever teachers do LAST will be remembered almost as well as what they do first in a learning episode.
Ideas:
- Remind students of what they learned that day
- Use an “exit ticket” for students to tell/write something they just learned or ask a question about the lesson
- Reinforce a lesson with end-of-class activities
Implications for block schedules
Provide multiple beginnings and endings (2-3 mini-classes).
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Source:
101 Best Strategies for Teaching World Languages (Bureau of Education & Research)
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