The Funnel Concept

When explaining new concepts and teaching your child, it’s easy to assume that there is an unobstructed pipeline between the two of you.

You explain something—like the concept that “every word has a vowel”—and you expect that your child will automatically file that little nugget of information away and remember it in the future. You assume that, since you taught it, your child will “get it,” and your work will be done.

As nice as that would be, it isn’t always the case in real life. Sometimes you might feel as though your child just isn’t “getting it,” or you might worry that the lesson went right over your child’s head.

When you teach, there are three possible outcomes.

• No learning—when nothing sticks at all.
• Fragmented learning—when your child remembers some information, but just bits and pieces of the lesson.
• Meaningful learning—when your child remembers the information that you taught.

Obviously, meaningful learning is the ideal goal, but if your child is struggling with spelling, then this type of learning is probably not occurring as often as you would like.

A quick look at how the brain works will illuminate the path to a solution.

Research shows that there are three types of memory:

• Sensory memory. This is where we store our first impressions of sights, sounds, and touch. Sensory memory is unlimited, and we can store vast amounts of sensory input. 
   
• Long-term memory. This is where we store information for longer periods of time, anywhere from thirty seconds to a lifetime. Long-term memory is unlimited in capacity. When you teach, you want your child to store the information you introduce in her long-term memory.
   
• Short-term memory (which can be divided into immediate memory and working memory). This is a temporary holding place for new information that comes in through sensory memory. Short-term memory then pays attention to some of that input and integrates it into long-term memory. 

Unlike sensory memory and long-term memory, short-term memory is quite limited in capacity. A classic 1950s study conducted by psychologist George Miller found that anywhere from five to nine items could be held in short-term memory at a time. Since then, additional studies have shown that the capacity of short-term memory is more like three to four “chunks” of information. For example, we remember phone numbers in groupings: the first three numbers, then the last four numbers.

Over the last 50 years, educators have acknowledged the limitations of short-term memory, yet they usually do not integrate this understanding into their lesson plans.

If you’ve been picturing an unobstructed pipeline that transfers information from you to your child, then it’s time to rethink that concept.

Instead, it’s more accurate to picture the narrow opening of a funnel, with information passing through it. With so much information to share with your child, it’s tempting to teach too many things at once—but the limits of short-term memory can prevent this information from being permanently retained.

The funnel concept explains why a child may retain nothing from a lesson, or may achieve only fragmented learning. Although you pour a lot of information into the top of the funnel, your child’s memory can only attend to a certain amount of the new information. Your child’s memory becomes overloaded and either dumps the new information entirely, or is only able to store fragmented pieces.

At this point, you lose control over what actually makes it through the funnel. 

That’s why it’s important to be very selective, and to carefully choose new information that will make the biggest difference for your child. 

To apply this concept in another way, let’s take a look at this common spelling test, which focuses on the sound of long i. 

The list includes the following information:

• long i spelled y, as in cry
• long i spelled with an i in an open syllable, as in item
• the letter i sometimes says its long sound when followed by two consonants, as in kindness
• long i  spelled igh, as in light
• long i spelled ie, as in pie
• the letter i can be long when it is followed by a consonant and Silent E, as in time

Getting confused yet? Has this list given you information overload? Wait—there’s more!

The authors of this spelling list have thrown in two other curveballs:

• The word timed has suffix ED added, so the child must determine when to keep the Silent E and when to drop it.
• For the word cried, the child needs to know she must change the y to an i before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel.

That’s a lot of information for one spelling list! 

Contrast that spelling list with this one:

1. night
2. right
3. high
4. might
5. light
6. tonight
7. sight
8. fight

This is an example of the lists used in the All About Spelling program. Only ONE concept is introduced in this spelling list—long i spelled igh. And that single concept is practiced using multisensory methods—auditory, visual, and kinesthetic.

Now, ask yourself: Which list acknowledges and respects the child’s short-term memory? Which list is more likely to get through the funnel and result in lasting learning?

Research has shown that when short-term memory isn’t overloaded, increased learning can occur. In the case of these two spelling lists, it may look better on paper to be covering twenty words at once, but the truth is that your child will achieve a higher percentage of permanent learning when the limits of short-term memory are respected. If you avoid presenting your child with more information than he or she can process at one time, the concepts and skills are more likely to be stored in long-term memory, and more significant amounts of meaningful learning can occur.

With that funnel in mind, consider introducing one main concept at a time—the benefits are limitless!