Review

Today, in our 6th grade classes at Hanmin, we did a review of the first three units of our textbook, in preparation for the students' upcoming test later this week. I went all in on this lesson and created a Jeopardy-style game for them to practice on during class, complete with six subject categories (2 for each unit; one word- and sentence-based, one phonics-based), and 5 difficulty levels.

The kids were nervous at first, but within a few turns, they had the game figured out and were working the system; whenever lower-level English students were called to the board, their classmates would tell them to pick the hardest question still available, since they probably wouldn't be able to answer the easier ones either, and, with our ask-a-friend-for-half-points system, picking a hard question was actually their best bet.

As a result, a huge number of the harder questions, such as reading a sentence with brand-new words in it (eg, Read this sentence: "The caged canary is scared of the calico cat." -- 500 points) actually went like this:

Student 1: Uhhhhhhh
Bekah: You can ask a friend for half points!
*Student 1 runs into the sea of waving hands and picks someone*
Student 2: The cage-eh cannery (common mispronunciation on this one) is scare-eyd of the ca-li-co cat.
Bekah: Okay, you can read it first, but he still has to tell me.
Student 2: The cage-eh
Student 1: The cage-eh
Student 2: cannery
Student 1: cannery
Student 2: is scare-eyd
Student 1: is scare-eyd
Student 2: of the
Student 1: of the
Student 2: ca-li-co cat
Student 1: ca-li-co cat
Bekah: Good job! 250 points for the boys' team...

It took a little longer than I might have expected, but I'm actually glad it worked out this way: it enabled lower-level learners to attempt hard questions, assisted by their peers, and to succeed! In the five classes we taught today, not a single student couldn't, in the end, get the answer right. And that was the point of the review, after all: remind everyone of what they'd learned, and remind them that if they continue to study, they will get even better.

The concept of doing review got me thinking. Especially with this whole write-a-blog-post-a-day thing, my entire life has essentially turned into a constant review. I don't mean to say I'm not learning new things, because I am--living in another culture will do that to you--but at the end of every day I come to review what I've done during the day, and come to the realization that the vast majority of it is exactly like what I've done on any other day. (And that's when you get blog posts like this one.)

In college, we did a lot of reflecting and purposeful thinking-about-thinking. I had one professor who was obsessed with the concept of metacognition (being aware of and being able to express what you're learning), and how it actually helps you to learn better. By the time I graduated, I was absolutely sick of metacognition and reflection papers--those two often go hand-in-hand--and I was all but ready to swear off the whole concept.

Not quite ready, though, it would seem. Because in my daily reviews, metacognition is exactly what I'm practicing.

And I learn a lot, much like my students did today. In their review, they learned words like "guzzle" and "calico," and had to stretch their memories to recover old information so that they could apply it in new ways. In my reviews, I discover patterns in my daily life, analyze them, and have the opportunity to either change them or improve on them, applying old experience to new situations and finding a fresh perspective in the mix.

It's not Jeopardy, but it's a useful brain exercise nonetheless. And, as a bonus, it does not feature the annoying theme music.