Students love to memorize facts. While it is not only hard for our human brain to memorize isolated facts, it is also not showing you truly comprehend the topic or concept. Good tests will check for true understanding of the material and whether a student can apply what they know, or make CONNECTIONS.
Try these strategies to make sure you don't merely memorize:
Teach material out loud (even to your dog): When students can teach material, they are focused on the WHY and the HOW. Merely memorizing facts focuses on WHO, WHAT, WHEN, and WHERE.
Make connections with a concept map/mind map: Making a mind map that shows connections between ideas within a lecture helps to organize ideas and see the bigger picture. Doing a mind map forces your brain to start connecting the relationships between ideas and dig deeper. See examples from Conestoga College HERE.
Flashcard Shuffle: If you have made flashcards (or you can print your terms in flashcard form from quizlet), you have probably rehearsed them to make sure you can recall each term. To dig deeper, shuffle your cards, deal yourself three cards, and then write out how those three terms are CONNECTED. For example, I may have dealt myself the cards: Global Warming, Weather, and CO2. If I dig, I will see that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. When it increases in our atmosphere, it causes a temperature rise. This results in Global Warming. Global Warming has many detrimental impacts including crazy weather, like hurricanes, tsunamis, and tornadoes. These three terms are definitely connected in a causal relationship.
Use the REFLECT step of Cornell: Cornell has 5 R behaviors, Record, Reduce, Recite, Reflect, and Review. The fourth step (REFLECT) asks students to dig deeper by making connections. The Big questions to ask yourself are :
a) How is this connected to what I already know? (WIAK?)
b) How is this connected to last lesson?
c) How are these ideas connected to each other?
d) How is this connected to the ongoings of the world at this time (whatever time period being studied)? and how is it connected to the world today?
See Reflect Connections doc HERE: Connections REFLECT (1).docx