Pie, Anyone?

“Stuff” seems to be a common reply from students when asked what they’re learning or what they did in school. This is only amplified by Zoom classes, where the hours blend together. Then, whether jumping on the bus or logging off the computer, students are faced with homework. Where should they start? Maybe History… or English? Science… or Math? Maybe French? Maybe Art? The list goes on. This isn’t their fault, and it certainly isn’t the teachers’ faults, who are doing their best to engage and strengthen their students’ skills*, but how can we help? How can we empower students to help themselves?

Unless you’re in a pie eating contest, which I’ve never done but would certainly not be opposed to, you don’t just throw an entire pie on the plate and attack from every angle. There is strategy involved, whether you’ve thought about it or not.

You generally don’t eat the entire top crust before having some filling, though no judgement if that’s your strategy. The strategy I take when eating pie is to take a slice, make sure the slice has the right crust to filling ratio, and eat from there. You need some bottom crust to hold the filling in, the filling to keep it from being dry, and the top crust to enjoy some flaky goodness. 

So, what if the bottom crust were the foundations of learning, the filling were the main point of a lesson, and the top crust were the application of the lesson? Hmm, seems like a pretty great analogy. Let’s explore more.

When it comes to learning, taking things one slice at a time can be called “chunking”. Each chunk is a concept. It doesn’t even have to be a whole subject, just a subset of your learning. Maybe in math you learned exponents; a chunk might be simplifying negative exponents. Suddenly you can breathe because you can think through the foundations, point, and applications of that one thing, that one chunk.

Have five assignments for homework? That’s okay because you’re going to take one chunk at a time, in whatever size you need to be able to think it through without getting overwhelmed. Maybe that means writing your essay’s thesis statement and then moving on to some math as a break, or maybe it means writing the whole essay, editing it, and rereading it before moving on. Everyone is different. Just always remember: you don’t have to eat the whole pie at once! That would give most people a stomach ache, and it certainly makes students feel awful to think about the whole galaxy of assignments and concepts at once. 

For most, it helps to write down the chunks. What’s more satisfying than crossing a line off of that list? I’m in graduate school, and the satisfaction I get from scribbling a chunk off of my to-do list is almost as great as eating an actual slice of apple pie! Maybe you like big chunks, maybe you need small ones, but whatever flavor pie you like, take a slice, and get started one bite at a time.  

* Teachers are superheroes.