Don't Shouldenize, Woodenize
It seems that after the pandemic, my students have shown up to APES each fall with fewer and fewer of the executive function skills needed for basic academic success. In these instances, it’s tempting to bemoan what my students should already know. But rather than should-ing on my students (or their previous teachers), I’ve turned to one of my favorite Dave Stuart Jr. strategies: Woodenizing.
As one of my colleagues is fond of saying don’t shouldenize, Woodenize.
Woodenizing is a term Dave coined for explicitly teaching the BEST way to do a specific procedure or skill in your classroom that is highly conducive to their learning and success. The name pays tribute to legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, who famously started every year’s first practice with a lesson on the best way to lace up a pair of basketball shoes.
Since taking notes, writing FRQs, and studying for tests are three of the most learning-conducive behaviors in APES, I try to explicitly teach the best way to do these practices. And then when I see a student who is going about one of these behaviors in a less-than-ideal way, I try to remind them of the places in the classroom where they can review the Woodenized steps for doing these processes more effectively.
For note-taking, I added this step-by-step process to the front of my revamped note frames. Feel free to print this out and add it to your existing note-taking method! Or, if you want to try out the revamped note frames, units 1 and 2 are available in my free, flipped instruction mini-course and units 3-9 are included as a bonus for any schools that bulk order students Ultimate Review Packet licenses.
I know this feels like a clunky solution for sharing these new note frames but it’s part of a process of consolidating my old Targeted Review Guides over to the Ultimate Review Packet as a part of my new contract. If you’ve previously purchased these soon-to-be decommissioned Targeted Review Guides, send me an email and I’ll explain how you can access these new note frames.
For FRQ writing, I showed my students my most recent YouTube video and had them fill out this guide that they can use when we write FRQs during the first semester.
And for studying, I added this woodenized study process to the front of their Ultimate Review Packet for each unit as a reminder that just going through the unit summary videos or looking up the answers in their notes is a really ineffective way to retain the information needed on test day and the exam in May.
The Real Work of Woodenizing
At this point, it would be tempting to consider the work of Woodenizing these three keystone APES habits complete. I’ve modeled how to do them throughout units 1 and 2, given students a detailed set of instructions directly attached to the corresponding assignments, and even written them on anchor charts around the classroom that are visible to students at all times.
But alas, the work of Woodenizing has just begun. Once we’ve explicitly taught and modeled these key processes, the rest of the year is reinforcing them. Whenever we see a student writing too much or not enough on an FRQ, we remind them to double check their task verb sheet.
Whenever we see a student copying another student's notes or filling in their study guide directly from the answer key, we refer them to the graph on the front of the packet that shows how little information is retained from re-reading notes, let alone from copying them.
The trick with reinforcing our Woodenized study habits and note-taking skills is that they occur largely outside of class time. To really know whether or not students are studying or taking notes the most effective way, you’ll need them to do some honest reflection, using the checklists on their notes and Ultimate Review Packets.
You can explicitly encourage this by having students go through these checklists during class and self-assess how consistently they’re following them. Or when your students inevitably ask you how they can raise their grade with a few weeks to go in the semester, you can ask them to bring their most recently completed study guide and notes packet over to your desk and walk you through the process they used to complete them. I almost always find that students who are struggling on tests in class bring largely incomplete or clearly copied notes and study guides to these conferences. Rarely if ever have they taken the time to answer their retrieval practice questions in their notes packet or correct their Ultimate Review Packet with the answer key they’re given.
A response I’m fond of when trying to reinforce these Woodenized note-taking and study habits is: “your current system is perfectly designed to keep getting your current results.”
In other words, whatever you’re doing right now to take notes and study is going to keep producing these test results. So we need a different system if you want different results. And it just so happens that we have a great system right here, directly attached to your notes and study guide!
I also like to lean on case studies or student testimonials to reinforce these note-taking and study skills. Every year I have a few highly motivated students who just don’t bring the level of intentionality or focus to their note-taking or studying and end up doing pretty poorly on the first few tests.
These are the kind of students who will come to tutoring after school or ask for help, which always leads back to the Woodenized set of steps for note-taking and studying. Once they really commit to taking notes or studying more effectively (what DSJ calls giving wise, strategic effort), they almost always see a clear increase in test scores.
At this point I’ll ask them if they’re willing to share their story with the class and encourage their classmates to join them on their quest toward wise, strategic effort.
If you've already taught your students the best way to put forth wise, strategic effort in APES this year (and I'm sure you have) and you find that they still need constant reminders, remember to Woodenize, not shouldenize.
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As always, I can be reached at apesvseverybody@gmail.com with any questions or comments.