THE FORGETTING CURVE - Training Video Transcript
The Writing Academy, LLC
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[OPENING — Graphic: The Forgetting Curve]
There is a reason The Writing Academy does not believe in teaching an important writing skill once, checking it off a list, and moving on.
More than a century ago, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus studied how memory changes over time. His research led to what we now call the Forgetting Curve.
The idea is simple—and incredibly important for teachers.
After we learn something new, forgetting can happen rapidly. Without opportunities to revisit and retrieve that learning, our ability to recall it generally declines over time.
  (0:00.0 - 0:34.3)

[ON SCREEN: LEARN → FORGETTING BEGINS]
But here is where teaching can make a tremendous difference.
We can interrupt the forgetting.
Research on distributed practice and retrieval has continued to demonstrate that learning is strengthened when students encounter important information again across time—and especially when they are asked to retrieve and use what they have learned.
  (0:34.9 - 0:52.2)

[GRAPHIC: Show a second curve. Each time the curve begins to fall, an arrow labeled RETURN interrupts it.]
That is one of the principles built into The Writing Academy, LLC Supplemental Support System.
We don't want a student to learn a writing concept on Monday and then not encounter it again until a test weeks later.
Instead, we create a deliberate series of interruptions to forgetting.
And some of those interruptions begin almost immediately.
Within our GRADUATE Infinity Learning Cycle, students Gather and Reveal learning, Attempt it, Discuss it, Use it, receive an Award or acknowledgment of their current performance, Target their next step, and Explain their thinking.
So even within the initial learning cycle, students don't simply hear information.
They encounter it.
They retrieve it.
They talk about it.
They apply it.
They receive feedback.
And they return to it.
  (0:52.8 - 1:35.4)

[ON SCREEN: GATHER → REVEAL → ATTEMPT → DISCUSS → USE → AWARD → TARGET → EXPLAIN]
Then we interrupt forgetting again.
Across the week, concepts are revisited through instruction, discussion, student application, writing, and assessment.
Then we interrupt it again across subsequent modules and clusters.
And we continue doing it across the school year as important writing concepts return in new contexts, with new passages, new applications, and increasing levels of student independence.
That distinction matters.
We are not simply repeating the same worksheet.
We are returning to important learning and asking the brain to do something with it again.
Modern research on spacing tells us something else that is important: there isn't one magical number of repetitions or one perfect interval that works for every kind of learning. The appropriate spacing depends partly on how long we want that learning to last. 
That is why The Writing Academy builds opportunities to return at multiple frequencies:
within the lesson,
across the week,
across the cluster,
across later clusters,
and across the year.
  (1:36.0 - 2:41.4)

[ON SCREEN: TODAY → THIS WEEK → THIS CLUSTER → LATER CLUSTERS → ALL YEAR]
Every return is another opportunity to interrupt forgetting.
And every return gives students an opportunity to move beyond simply recognizing something they've been taught toward being able to retrieve it, explain it, apply it, and ultimately use it independently.
That is the goal.
Because our job isn't simply to make sure something was taught.
Our job is to design instruction so important learning has repeated opportunities to become lasting learning.
  (2:42.0 - 3:07.1)

[FINAL SCREEN]
Interrupt the forgetting.
Retrieve it. Apply it. Return to it.
Then build upon it.
The Writing Academy, LLC
Relieving stress. Raising scores.

  (3:07.7 - 3:17.5)