Curated OER
How the Brain Learns
Students identify the basic function of the lobes in the brain. In this memory lesson students complete a lab activity on how fast they can react.
Curated OER
What's the Hold-Up?
Students explore the current plan by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to retain underperforming third graders in public schools. They research and debate social promotion versus retention.
Curated OER
Half-Life Lab
Learners participate in a lab in which they are introduced to carbon-dating. In groups, they use the holes of paper from a hole puncher and determine the rate of retention after shaking coins onto the same area. They record their...
PBS
Pbs: Misunderstood Minds: Reading Resources
PBS presents this comprehensive site outlining common causes of reading difficulties. Strategies and suggestions for solving these issues are discussed here.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Building Reading Comprehension Through Think Alouds
The Think-Aloud method has be shown to improve information retention. The lesson plan contained within this site models for teachers how to model this strategy. There is a rubric included for assessment.
AdLit
Ad lit.org: So if Retention Is So Harmful, What Should We Do? Teach!
Studies on grade retention reach the same conclusion: Failing a student, particularly in the critical ninth grade year, is the single largest predictor of whether he or she drops out. What must teachers know to identify students' needs...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Classroom Strategies: Semantic Feature Analysis
The Semantic Feature Analysis strategy engages students in reading assignments by asking them to relate selected vocabulary to key features of the text. This technique uses a matrix to help students discover how one set of things is...