In this question and answer session following a Reading Horizons webinar titled, "Why Johnny Can't Remember What He Read," Jay Kelly, MA answers questions from teachers. To read the full article, visit http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2012/01/30/how-to-improve-working-memory-for-struggling-readers-and-all-students-e28093-webinar-qa To view the original webinar (free,) visit http://www.readinghorizons.com/community/webinars/webinar.aspx?id=20120126

1. How to Improve Working
Memory for Struggling
Readers (and all Students)
Q&A with Jay Kelly, MA
Prepared By Angie Stevens on behalf of Reading Horizons

2. Jay Kelly, MA answers questions following his webinar,
“Why Johnny Can’t Remember
What He Read”
To view the original webinar, click here or visit
http://www.readinghorizons.com/community/webinars/webinar.aspx?id=2
0120126

3. Q: How do you measure working
memory?
A: That is very much an open debate. There are a lot of measurement tools
but there is debate about whether or not they actually measure working
memory. There is not a definitive go-to assessment that is widely regarded as
a measure of working memory. Woodcock-Johnson would be the default
assessment that measures working memory, but there is not a recognized,
widely regarded assessment. However, it is an area that is actively being
researched. Honestly, the best assessment is informal assessments. A student
that consistently is struggling to remember what he was taught yesterday – he
probably has a working memory problem.

4. Q: In younger students, are there ways we can
help develop their working memory? Or is
working memory set?
A: No, it’s definitely not set. Especially for younger students. The five
strategies demonstrated in this presentation would be the best way to
promote their working memory growth.

5. Q: I have found that sometimes older students
are too embarrassed to admit they don't
understand, or don't ask a question because
they just want the class to be done. What
would you do about that?
A: What I do is two things… ask questions really, really often to make sure
everyone is on the same page with me. The other thing is that I make sure that
all of my students have white boards (or white paper inside a clear sheet
protector) and markers and I frequently ask them to scale things from 1 to 10
on how well they are understanding a concept, how confident they feel they
could re-teach what I have been taught, etc... If you set the room up
appropriately, others can’t see their answers, but I can see what is and isn’t
being understood.

6. Q: I don’t see how I can follow these strategies
and follow district pacing guides and the need
to meet grade level standards in a given
amount of time?
A: Teachers often say if they use these strategies their instruction is going to
go a lot slower, and it will – at first. Because you are taking your time to do it
right the first time. In terms of pacing guides you are going to be slower the
first time through teaching a concept, but retention and proficiency is going
to be dramatically higher so you don’t have to go back and re-teach. At the
end of the day it ends up being faster.

7. Q: Of the strategies you have discussed which
would you consider to be the most important?
A: Of the five strategies none of them are negotiable, but if I had to pick one I
would choose bundling modalities. One concept or skill, as many senses as
possible, as close in time as possible.

8. Q: Won't this approach alienate students
who are stronger readers?
A: No. Because they are going to learn faster and retain better. This is going
to help all of your students. But even if they do complain, you can tell them
that it’s going to help them learn faster and they won’t have to study as much
and they are going to retain better. These strategies allow you to reach all of
your students even the stronger students, and they allow you to reach your
students that are always struggling and if I can help those struggling students
while still helping those stronger students, that is where I want to focus my
efforts. The return on investment is on the whole far, far greater.

9. Q: During the feedback loop, how do you
approach incorrect answers?
A: You want to do two things… one, you want to ask him why he answered in
the way he did. Push him to answer and provide reasons. This way he’ll realize
he was wrong or he’ll understand better in the end. Two, you want to press
your students why they answered the way they did even if they got the answer
right. Two reasons… one, if the only time I press them is when they are
wrong, you will create defensiveness. The second reason is because that
promotes good thinking… they might’ve guessed and got the right answer
and they really don’t know the reason why.

10. For the full article visit:
http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2012/01/30/how-to-
improve-working-memory-for-struggling-readers-and-all-students-e28093-
webinar-qa
To watch the webinar by Jay Kelly, MA visit:
http://www.readinghorizons.com/community/webinars/webinar.aspx?id=2
0120126