Chapter 3: Success Starters:

Our brains can’t store everything and so they’re selective about what they keep. Does an akonga remember learning due to an experience; the more memorable a learning experience, the more readily an akonga can access this learning for later use.

Learning experiences need to be more hands on for better retention, according to Willis, 2006. Predictable sameness or repetition lowers the brain’s interest (Sousa, 2008) and therefore the brain is less willing to store this repeated learning.

“Success at learning something new largely depends on the brain’s ability to connect it to prior knowledge”. (Rollins, 2014).

This chapter encourages kaiako to embed a starter in their lesson to warm up the brains of their akonga.

Strategies described by Rollins, 2014:

Role-playing: one common denominator is that students are in charge and they physically dramatise the learning, and their actions / decisions about highlighted content demonstrate what learning is important to them. The job of the teacher is to recommend / prompt with deep questions.

Surveys: quick formative assessment, ‘knowledge’ tasks, fast-paced, sets up the lesson.

Prediction: thinking about what is known, and then applying it to a new situation.

Questioning: exploring what is relevant and piques interest is inherently authentic and purposeful. Encouraging curiosity and wonder is key to inquiry learning

Brainstorming: structured ideas on a graphic organiser, using a sort and label model of writing. This can involve collaboration if discussion is encouraged.

Concrete representations: developing context of a concept or idea will support an akonga to better understand said notion. Making this compelling is the job of a kaiako.

The idea that success starters need to be in lessons is a notion that doesn’t quite sit with me. I think referencing past learning is necessary, and so is making it interesting, relevant and valuable for learner. But, when you have a 15 minute workshop, spending 5 minutes on a warm up / starter isn’t practical.