160 likes | 374 Views
Learning to Learn Through Academic Decathlon. Stephen Bergauer. About Me. 6 th year involved with Decathlon As a student: Highest individual scorer at 2012 AZ AcDec State Competition (9,051 ); medaled in all events
E N D
Learning to Learn Through Academic Decathlon Stephen Bergauer
About Me • 6th year involved with Decathlon • As a student: Highest individual scorer at 2012 AZ AcDec State Competition (9,051); medaled in all events • Later: Co-founded Decademy; Study Math, Finance, Economics at ASU; Asst. coach old HS team
Why Academic Decathlon? • Expand “typical” HS subjects and build connections across subjects • Improve test-taking abilities • Learn how to work in groups and as a team • Build confidence in academic abilities/Challenge students who may not see themselves as “academic” • Create lifelong learners
What is the coach‘s role? • Promote the big picture • Focus on recall • Eliminate “learning style” traps • Measure growth • Make learning enjoyable
How to build a “chunk” • A chunk is a mental leap that separates bits of information through meaning • Focus on what you want to chunk • Understand the basic idea that you are trying to chunk • Gain context so that you can see when to use the chunk • Chunking can be bottom-up (practice and repetition build and strengthen an idea) or top-down (knowing where an idea fits in the big picture) – you need both to learn!
Replace This… With This • Rereading • Reading straight through material • Highlighting and underlining everything • Circling key words • Reading out loud • Recall/Anki • Mini-tests • Highlighting main ideas after reading for the first time • Annotating main ideas of paragraphs in margin • Group discussion after individual reading
Questions? • Stephen Bergauer • Email: contact@decademy.org • Phone: 480.200.5506 • See card/forms on sign-in table