The Master Teacher Blog

We typically think of review as something in which we engage students as they prepare for a major assessment. After all, we know that revisiting past learning refreshes memory and helps to retrieve previously learned concepts and skills. While such retrieval can lead to better performance on assessments, of course, review can also play important roles in learning beyond simple test preparation. In fact, review is a key to building long-term information recall, and it is crucial in preparing for new learning.  

Regular review of previously learned content needs to be a priority if we hope to have students retain what they have learned beyond the next assessment, or even the end of the year and beyond. The more opportunities we give students to review what they have learned, the longer they are likely to retain it. Further, review can build students’ confidence that they are making progress and building a strong memory base that will serve them well in the future. Let’s examine six learning benefits of regular review. 

Review builds and freshens background knowledge. Distributed practice is an effective way to review previous learning and refresh recall. It can also remind students of details and reinforce nuanced elements of previous learning, thus dispelling misconceptions and avoiding faulty memory.  

Review creates space for working memory. Working memory has limited capacity, as it functions as a temporary location for new information. When students review information and concepts to which they have recently been exposed, they accelerate the process of moving information from their working memory into their long-term memory, thus creating space for new learning to occur.  

Review strengthens long-term memory. Not only does review create space for new learning, but it also builds stronger, more accurate long-term memory. Over time, recall can become selective, and perceptions can drift. Even a quick review of key information and brief practice with previously learned skills can sharpen and reinforce long-term recall.  

Review builds connections and schema. When we initially learn new concepts or are introduced to new information, we can miss subtleties and overlook how pieces of information and actions are related. When we return to previously learned content, we often see connections and patterns we missed the first time. As a result, we can build schema that deepens our understanding and insight and increases our ability to apply what we know in new and more effective ways. 

Review increases automaticity. We know that frequent review of information such as math facts or standard procedures and processes makes them increasingly easy to recall. When combined with practice, the information becomes so familiar that we sometimes call it muscle memory. If we want students to easily access and apply what they have learned, frequent review is a must.  

Review builds expertise. The combination of review-related benefits we have discussed contributes to high levels of proficiency. The journey to becoming an expert is paved with review and practice. Regular engagement in review can prevent a drift into bad habits and faulty shortcuts.  

Obviously, review needs to be part of our ongoing learning-support routines. As examples, information learned last week might be a priority for review on the following Monday and learning from the past month might be the focus of review during the second week of the next month. The key is to make review a regular practice if we hope to have our students retain what they learned with us—after they leave us.  

Feel stuck in a rut or just plain tired of doing the same things you’ve done in the past? Are you in need of a new idea, a different approach, or an innovative take on a long-standing problem? Maybe you want to write a newsletter, a blog, or an article for publication. Possibly, you are pondering a new strategy for teaching a skill or introducing new content. Or maybe it is a behavior challenge that you want to solve, rather than just punish. Or it might be that you have an urge to create something larger, more significant, and life changing.  

Regardless, the truth is that we do not always feel creative, or at least as creative as we would like to be. We may be facing a block that’s getting in the way of our writing. We may struggle to think of options and opportunities outside of our lived experiences. Or we may just have a vague feeling that we are on the verge of creating something unique and useful, but it remains just beyond our reach.  

Our challenge, then, is to engage our brain and stimulate our “creative juices” to move our thinking forward in a productive direction. The good news is that there are several research-based and experience-proven strategies we can employ to help “unstick” our thinking and, as a result, free us to create. Here are six actions to consider and try.    

• Take a walk. It does not have to be a long walk. In truth, it does not necessarily have to even be a walk at all; the key is to engage in moderate exercise that allows us to think, reflect, and imagine. Activating our muscles, appreciating nature, and observing what is beautiful and interesting around us can help us to get into a creative flow.  
• Step back and relax. Anxiety and pressure are the enemies of creativity. Pressing to find an answer may lead to an acceptable outcome, but it is likely to be less than we really want to create. In fact, when we press too hard, we are more likely to fall back on what we have done in the past and try to make it work than create what meets our goal.  

• Just try something. Often, just by us making an attempt, even if we may be fairly certain it won’t work, we learn more about what might actually work. We can hold on to what has potential while adding, adjusting, and adapting in areas that need more work. Falling short is not failure; it is an opportunity to sort, examine, and learn.  
• Think about something unrelated. Shifting our focus to something other than the problem we are trying to solve or the solution we want to create can give our brains time to process and prepare to return to our challenge. Meanwhile, we may discover a new insight, develop new a new perspective, or make a connection that leads to a breakthrough.  
• Try talking it out. Verbalizing our struggle can help us to connect the dots and arrive at new insights. We may just need to organize what we know in order to see patterns and possibilities that point to our destination. We might engage a friend or colleague as a listener, or we might just find a quiet place and talk out loud about our thinking and explore options and possibilities. Talking about what we are trying to figure out can reveal that we know more than we realize and are closer to a solution than we imagine.  
• Take a nap. If all else fails, sleep on it. Even though we may not be conscious as we sleep, our brain continues to work. Our subconscious mind is busy trying to find an answer to our dilemma. Free from the distractions present when we are awake, our brains can be remarkably creative. We may find that when we wake up, we are ready to tackle our challenge, and we will likely see possibilities we previously did not notice. 

Of course, these same strategies can also be helpful to our students when they struggle to find a unique idea, design a project, or develop a solution to a learning or life challenge. Anyone can struggle with finding and tapping their creativity. Feel free to share with those in your life who might need a little creative boost. 

Seeing students become ensnared by misconceptions and slowed by learning barriers can be among the most disappointing and disheartening experiences we confront in our role as educators. Our disappointment is only further compounded when our students are otherwise interested, engaged, and committed to their learning.  

Fortunately, there are several steps we can take to help students avoid predictable misconceptions and sidestep common learning barriers. However, we need to anticipate potential problem areas and learning traps, and then we need to develop plans to help our students avoid them before they are encountered in order for our efforts to be effective.  

A good place to start is sorting through our experiences with student struggles in the past and refreshing our knowledge of how our students learn. We might think about what has worked and where students have been challenged with past learning, especially with the learning that parallels what they are about to learn.  

We can pre-assess our students to measure their current understanding and recall of the key content and skills necessary to be successful with the planned new learning. However, we must remove any hint or intention of consequences for their not knowing or recalling. In short, we need an accurate assessment of what students know—and what they are ready to learn.  

Using the information from our prior knowledge and pre-assessment activities, our next step is to coach and support students to activate their prior knowledge. We might use practice problems, reteaching, or simply a discussion with students to bring what they have learned into an active state that can be employed to support new learning.  

Next, we can design scaffolding to support students to find success as they approach the next learning challenge. The scaffolding design might include key vocabulary words students will need to know, important concepts and skills to employ, strategies to consider, and background information that might be helpful. 

Depending on the nature, scope, and challenge of the new learning, we might develop a more comprehensive preview guide to create interest, stimulate curiosity, and build confidence in our students. The guide might include questions that students will find compelling, provocative statements to consider, and hints regarding the value and purpose of what students will be learning. Any scaffolding and supports we have designed can be included in the guide, as well as reminders of the prior learning and skills that students already possess, that will be useful to their new learning.  

Of course, we want our preparation to help students avoid needless and distracting barriers and missteps as they learn, but our purpose is not to remove all the challenges and struggles students may encounter. Learning that comes through effort, and even mistakes, is also important to our students’ development, competence, and confidence to take on future learning challenges. The bottom line is this: Our goal is not to prevent all mistakes and setbacks that will occur as students learn. We want students to experience enough success to create learning momentum, but we also want to build learning resilience and flexibility that will serve them long after they leave our classroom. 

Educators know all too well that there are times when we can feel as though we are talking to the wall or speaking into an empty echo chamber. We think that we are being clear, and we know what we want our students to know and do. Yet we may discover that they didn’t hear what we intended, are confused by what we said, or did not hear us at all.  

We may be tempted to blame our students when we discover they have not received the messages we sent. Of course, it may be that they have indeed not been giving us the level of attention that we expect. However, before looking elsewhere to assign responsibility or blame, we need to consider whether our communication has been clear, timely, and complete enough to capture the attention of our students and if it was presented in a way that made it memorable. 

Typically, the problem is not that we do not know how to communicate effectively, but that we can become preoccupied with or distracted by other issues and tasks. We may be in a hurry to cover instructional material, or we may not be clear about what we want to communicate. Often, just taking some time to review what we know about effective communication can be enough to remind us to practice the techniques and strategies we already know. Here are six reminders that may be helpful.  

We need to be sure the message is timely. We must consider what students need to know and when they need to know it. Just because something is on our mind does not mean that now is the time to share it. Communication that sticks is both relevant and well-timed. Of course, there also are times when we may preview or prepare students for future work, so hearing a preview now can help them to be ready. Think of it like this: just in time and just enough. 

Then, we must keep it simple. We need to avoid vocabulary and concepts to which students have yet to be exposed. Simple words and short sentences are most likely to be absorbed. The best communication is confined to the smallest number of points, expectations, and tasks students need to hear and absorb; the more complex our communication, the more likely it is that students will become confused, seek interpretation from other students, or ignore what we have to say entirely.  

Next, we can structure the message so that students get both our point and the key supporting information. Start with the “headline.” What is the core message on which we want students to focus? Follow with crucial supporting details; what else do students need to know? Limit the information to avoid overloading and creating confusion. Finally, we can complete the message with an example or two to clarify implications and ground our key points.  

We increase the probability that our message is received when we employ multiple modes to convey it. Say it, send it, and show it. We may even sing it, sign it, or signal it when we really want to be sure. The more ways students receive information, the more likely they will hear and remember it.  

Closely related to communicating via multiple modes is to repeat what is most important. We may think that students should always be paying attention, ready to hear what we have to say, but that is not reality. The more times our messages are repeated, the more likely they are to be absorbed. Repeating important messages as many as seven times is a good goal. 

Despite our best efforts to communicate, we still need to check for understanding. We may think that we have been clear, but what matters is whether students hear and understand what they need to be successful. Regardless of how well we may have instructed, students may still have misheard something, or they may still be confused or uncertain. Only when we check in with students can we be certain that what we thought we said is indeed what students heard.  

Taking some time to review our practices and make key adjustments can make a big difference in how well our students pay attention and understand what we need them to know. Of course, these same reminders will help us to be more effective communicators with colleagues, parents, and even our partners and our own children.

Taking breaks to support learning may seem counterintuitive. We might assume that learning results from students listening intently, practicing a new skill, or concentrating on a new concept. Certainly, absorbing information and practicing the application of a new skill are important, but it turns out that brief breaks from focusing and working also play a key role in the process of learning.

In fact, several recent studies have documented that when students are engaged in learning a new concept or skill, a brief time away from intense thinking can increase their rate and depth of learning. A study that utilized highly sensitive brain scans found that when students took a break from learning, their brains remained on the task, flipping between processing the information and storing it in the memory at amazing speeds, repeating the transfer dozens of times in as little as 10 seconds!

Periodic breaks during learning have also been shown to enhance learning focus, increase engagement, improve cognitive functioning, and support other learning-related factors. Failing to give students’ brains opportunities to process new learning risks compromising the work we do to introduce and reinforce said new learning.

The frequency of “brain breaks” matters. Researchers suggest that young learners can benefit from breaks as frequently as every five to fifteen minutes during intense focus and practice. For older students, breaks every twenty to thirty minutes appear optimal. Brain breaks do not have to be long; as little as three to five minutes can be enough for students to be able to refocus and continue learning. Although, when what students have been learning is particularly challenging and exhausting, we may need to extend the break with a walk outside or trip to the gym to run around.  

Furthermore, what students do during brain breaks matters. Physical activities, from standing and stretching to running outside, and from mingle minutes (walking about and conversing with classmates) to dancing beside their desks accompanied by energetic music all are possibilities. We need to consider the age of students, their current levels of energy, and the time and space available to us. The goal is to have students shift their conscious attention away from what they have been learning to allow their brains to process, organize, and refocus. Consequently, whatever we have students do needs to feel like a break, not an extension of what they have already been doing.

The bottom line: Breaks during learning play an important role in allowing the brain to continue its work of moving new information and skills to parts of the brain where they can be integrated and retained. They should not be inserted “if there is time.” Brain breaks need to be part of the design and scheduling of our instruction.

We also need to recognize that we can benefit from brain breaks in our own learning and during our instruction. Our brains have the same needs and can benefit in the same ways from breaks as our students’. Additionally, during our instruction, having a few minutes to reflect and assess how the lesson is going, what adjustments might be made, and where our instruction needs to go next can enhance our effectiveness and renew our energy. So, as it turns out, brain breaks are necessary for us, too!

This is the time of year when we face the challenge of preparing our students for upcoming assessments and exams. Students have been exposed to a wealth of content, concepts, and skills over the past weeks and months. We know that students often forget much of what they’ve heard and taken in over time. Now we need to understand how well they’ve absorbed, stored, and can recall and apply what they’ve learned. Our challenge is to bring what students have learned to a conscious level and shore up what they still need to learn. Test preparation strategies that refresh learning and extend recall can help students do this.

However, our goal shouldn’t simply be just to have our students do well on an exam. While having our students do well is part of their and our success equation, we really want them to be able to recall, apply, and connect what they’ve learned beyond the exam. Test preparation may be the immediate activity, but it’s a great opportunity to help students to refresh, reinforce, and ramp up what they’ve learned. Our real goal is to have students be able to retrieve what they’ve learned and access it long after they’ve finished the exam and left our class.

Giving students practice questions that mimic the format they’ll encounter on the exam and reviewing strategies for developing and choosing question responses can assist students to accurately demonstrate what they know. However, these activities do little to reinvigorate what students have learned or uncover gaps and “soft spots” in their learning. Interestingly, some of the strategies we used during initial instruction to help students remember can also be useful in refreshing and reinforcing past learning. Here are four strategies that can help our students get ready for major exams while also extending their learning recall.

Schedule brief, frequent, and focused refreshment sessions. Start early and allow plenty of time. For example, we might take the first or last few minutes of daily class routines for quick review and assessment of what students know and what may need to be reinforced. Students will be better able to re-activate prior learning if they engage in small doses of review over time, rather than large dose cramming in the final days before the assessment. These sessions should include concepts and skills with which students did well during initial instruction and areas of struggle. Just because students scored well on previous assessments doesn't mean they can recall and apply previous learning now. In areas where students struggled during initial learning, we need to pay particular attention to aspects and elements that challenged them. We can also challenge ourselves to find new approaches that might sidestep learning traps and trip-ups and create more successful learning paths for students.

Have students engage in retrieval practice. This relatively simple research-based strategy can provide a significant advantage to students’ preparation. We start by giving students a specific topic, process, or skill on which to focus. Students then do a “mind dump” by recounting, orally or in writing, everything they can recall from prior learning related to the recall target. Students can quickly refresh their memories while identifying areas that may need reinforcement. Interestingly, this approach has been shown to be more efficient and effective than reteaching. Of course, we can encourage students to repeat this process on their own as they prepare for exams individually or in small groups. A key benefit associated with this activity is its ability to extend recall well beyond the completion of an exam.

Coach students to engage in self-quizzing. We might encourage students to generate questions they anticipate will be on the exam. We might “prime” this activity by reminding students of the major concepts and skills they’ve studied and likely will be included in the assessment. By developing questions, students will focus on key content they need to know. Their answers to the questions they generate can build confidence and uncover areas needing more focus and study. A twist to this activity is to have students exchange questions and have classmates develop responses for review by the question creator. The exchange likely will broaden the thinking and preparation in which students engage, as different students predictably will focus on different aspects of the content.

Have students build “mind maps” to demonstrate elements, relationships, and key concept hierarchies. Mind maps can be particularly helpful to students who prefer to organize their thinking and recall with visual representations. Seeing the map in their minds can be a great assistance to them as they respond to exam questions, and "mind maps" retain easily long after the exam is complete. If students build "mind maps" during initial learning, now is a good time to have students retrieve them, review them, and explain their meaning to a classmate. The process of explaining will further solidify recall and may surface areas of confusion or memory loss that’ll need to be addressed.

Obviously, we want our students to do well on key unit and end-of-year assessments. However, we also know students often focus their attention on upcoming exams and quickly forget content once the assessment is complete. These strategies can help students learn more effectively now, as well as build long-term memory they can access in the future.

This time of year elementary schools start thinking about and planning next year’s schedules and staffing assignments. For most schools, the choice arises among three options: self-contained classes, platooning, and looping. A key consideration that’ll drive this decision is which model best serves the students. Fortunately, a growing body of research helps clarify the learning implications of these decision options.

But first, some definitions. The self-contained classroom, the dominate model for generations, has one primary teacher responsible for core instruction and learning for a defined group of students for a single year. Platooning retains a defined group of students, but instruction and responsibility for learning in core subjects are shared among a group of teachers, each of whom is responsible for a portion of the curriculum, such as math, English language arts, etc. Teachers rotate among the classes at a specific grade level either by going from room to room, or by having students come to them. In looping, students have one primary teacher for core subjects, and they remain with the teacher for more than a single year.

From a research and experience perspective, self-contained classrooms provide opportunities to form strong relationships between students and teachers, but many teachers have a stronger background and better instructional skills in some subjects than others. Consequently, instructional focus and student learning can vary across subjects. Platooning addresses the potential for instruction in each core subject to be of higher quality and delivered by a teacher with a higher level of commitment to the subject. But this risks sacrificing the close relationships that typically develop in a self-contained classroom. Looping supports even stronger relationships between students and teachers as the relationship spans a longer time. However, like self-contained classrooms, uneven preparation and instructional skills impact learning.

So, how can we sort for the best option? Multiple studies show platooning doesn’t result in better academic achievement as measured by standardized tests. In fact, past multiple studies highlight decreased scores in reading and math when specialists deliver instruction. Equally concerning, the number of student absences and suspensions grew. Sadly, the negative impact was greatest for the most vulnerable students, including students with special needs.

Students in self-contained classrooms perform better than matched students in platooned classes despite concerns about uneven teacher preparation and skills. The factor driving the difference is the crucial role of the relationship between students and teachers in early grades. Also, the knowledge teachers have about individual students allows them to respond to students' unique learning needs.

Meanwhile, studies show that students in looping classrooms do better than students in either self-contained or platooning classes. Again, this additional time students and teachers spend together leads to strong relationships, a key differentiator. Further, the additional time allows teachers to tailor instruction and support for students with distinctive learning needs. Interestingly, a variation on looping multi-age classes offers different grade level students greater benefits. It allows teachers flexibility to teach content as students are ready, as opposed to limitations of a tight, grade level curriculum.

Admittedly, many factors go into decisions about scheduling and teacher assignments. However, evidence shows that placing relationships at the center is a crucial consideration to make for our youngest learners.

Takeaways:

For young learners, the presence of strong, positive relationships with their teachers has a greater influence on learning than teacher expertise alone.

Investing in teacher expertise across subjects in elementary grades offers a better return than having teachers teach in their strongest curricular area.

Vulnerable students need a combination of strong relationships. A teacher who knows them well is able to respond to their individual learning needs.

For middle and high school students, multi-disciplinary teaching teams that work closely together provide important support and shared knowledge about student needs, despite exposure to multiple teachers each day.

Through our experience with and the ongoing research on platooning, looping, and self-contained classes, we strive to distill the best learning methods and strategies for our students.