6. Students must reinforce or exercise new learning repeatedly in order to really know it. The more often our brain uses the same information, and the more different ways our brain uses information, the more likely it is to be remembered.

Our memories require that we be exposed to new information repeatedly before we can recall it easily. The more we use it, the better we remember it.
"What Do We Know from Brain Research?" Pat Wolfe and Ron Brandt, Educational Leadership: "How the Brain Works" (Nov. 1998)

When our brain is exposed to new sensory information, it makes a micro-second decision on what to do with the new message - store it or discard it. If the new message has a connection to existing stored impulses there is a much greater chance it will be retained. Our memories rely on micro-level electrical impulses flowing through synaptic connections. These connections become more powerful and function more quickly the more times they are used. The more a student is exposed to and is required to use information or skills, the more they will remember it and become more proficient at manipulating it in different situations.

We need to find ways to repeat key concepts, themes, understandings and skills throughout a lesson, and from lesson to lesson. Notetaking, review games, activity sheets/ fill in the blanks/crossword puzzles, image analysis, student created review activities, summation exercises, drawing images, review q and a, are all ways to repeatedly use stored information.

During and after the learning experience students are engaged in synthesizing the knowledge in both linguistic ( summarizing, note-taking) and non-linguistic ways ( pictures, symbols). Help students synthesize new information by:

- Asking students to take notes on content
- Asking students to construct verbal and written summaries of the content
- Asking student to represent the content as pictures, pictographs, symbols, graphic representations, physical models or dramatic re-enactments
- Asking students to create mental images of the content