Our students' brains come to us already wired by years of deep cultural experiences. As we learned from Hammond's three levels of culture, deep culture shapes the mental models — or schema — that guide how the brain processes and stores new information. These aren't conscious choices; they're neurological patterns developed through cultural practices around storytelling, discussion, and meaning-making.

For many of our students from oral tradition cultures, the brain has been wired to process information through interaction, narrative, and collaborative sense-making. Understanding this deep cultural wiring is key to Hammond's "Chew" stage—the critical phase where students actively work to connect new information to existing knowledge and build the neural pathways that enable independent thinking.

The Brain's Processing Cycle

Hammond uses a powerful analogy to explain how working memory functions. Think of the brain like a coin-counting machine that flashes "Stop and Wait While Processing" when it reaches capacity. Our students' brains work the same way — research shows they naturally take in information for 12-20 minutes before needing 5-10 minutes to consolidate what they just learned.

When we see students getting restless or making more errors after 15 minutes of instruction, their brains aren't telling us they need a break from learning. They're telling us they need time to do the cognitive work that turns information into understanding.

What "Chew Time" Really Looks Like

The Chew stage isn't downtime — it's when students actively work to understand and store new information. During this stage, the brain connects new content to existing knowledge, identifies patterns, and creates the neural pathways that enable complex thinking.

Unstructured Processing Time

Students need time to actively work with new information — connecting it to what they already know, identifying relationships, and storing it in ways they can access later.

In practice: After introducing photosynthesis, we might say, "Take four minutes to work with what we just learned. You can write connections you're making, draw relationships you see, talk quietly with a partner, or just think—whatever helps you process and understand this information."

This approach particularly leverages how many of our students' brains are wired. Students from oral tradition cultures often process information best when they can move, discuss, or work through ideas relationally rather than in isolation.

Cognitive Routines That Build Independence

Hammond emphasizes teaching students cognitive routines — structured ways of processing information that become internalized habits. If we want students to become independent learners, we need to coach them in how to think without us. These routines help students develop what she calls their own "cognitive power plant."

The goal is for students to internalize these thinking processes so they can tackle complex content on their own. Hammond's four key processing questions become the mental habits that independent learners use automatically:

• How is this new material connected to what I already know?
• What are the natural relationships and patterns in the material?
• How does it fit together? What larger system is it part of?
• Whose point of view does it represent?

High school scenario: After learning about World War I causes, students work through these processing questions, connecting to modern conflicts, identifying patterns in how tensions escalate, and examining different national perspectives on the same events.

Talk to Learn: Processing Through Discussion

Hammond's research reveals that students from oral tradition cultures process information most effectively when they can talk through their thinking. This isn't just social — it's neurological. When we process information orally, multiple parts of the brain activate simultaneously, creating stronger neural pathways.

Many of our students come from cultures where collaborative thinking is the norm. Their brains are literally wired to process through interaction and discussion.

Practical strategies:

• Processing conversations: Students discuss with partners not to share answers, but to work through their understanding together
• Overlapping talk: Allow simultaneous conversation that mirrors many students' home communication patterns
• Think-alouds: Students verbalize their thinking process as they work through problems

Story-ifying: How the Brain Naturally Processes

Hammond explains that our brains are wired for stories. When we create or hear narratives, neurons fire not only in language processing areas but also in regions that would activate if we were actually experiencing the events being described.

Stories help the brain take abstract concepts and transform them into something concrete and memorable.

High school example: In chemistry, students process chemical reactions by creating analogies or stories—like describing molecular interactions as a dance where elements "find new partners" based on their properties.

Building Independent Learners

When students internalize processing routines, they develop metacognitive skills that serve them across all subjects. They learn to recognize when they need processing time, use specific strategies to make sense of new information, and monitor their own understanding.

Many of our culturally and linguistically diverse students come from communities that already use sophisticated collaborative processing techniques. Instead of trying to change how their brains work, we can build on these existing neural pathways.

Processing routines must become habits through repeated practice with gradually reduced scaffolding. We start by explicitly teaching and guiding the routines, then slowly release responsibility until students use them automatically.

The Bottom Line

The Chew stage isn't about slowing down our instruction — it's about ensuring our instruction actually builds lasting understanding. When we give students time to do the cognitive work of connecting, processing, and storing new information, we're not pausing learning — we're making real learning possible.

Our culturally diverse students often come to school with brains already wired for sophisticated collaborative processing. When we build on these neural pathways instead of working against them, we see deeper understanding, stronger retention, and more independent learners.

When we work with the brain's need to process, connect, and store information, we're not just helping students understand today's lesson—we're building the intellectual capacity they need to become truly independent learners.