They Snooze, You Lose Ch. 4

In the fourth chapter of They Snooze You Lose by Lynell Burmark (2011), the author discusses ways to get students’ attention without distracting them, ways to keep their attention, and discusses the importance of building on prior knowledge.

The velcro metaphor is a good one, and makes a lot of sense.  However, I’m ashamed to say it took me reading through the chapter three times before I understood the quote “We might say that the primary job of educators is ‘to transform todays hooks into tomorrows loops’” (Burmark, 2011 p. 65). The buzzword in education that would have made me make the connection a lot sooner is “Prior Knowledge.” In fact, I wrote it in large letters on this page.  Of course, we present new information and try to “hook” it onto prior knowledge, or build schema.  Once it’s connected to something in a way students remember, it in turn becomes prior knowledge, on which you can build new concepts. 

References

Burmark, L. (2011). They Snooze, You Lose: The Educator's Guide to Successful Presentations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.