Ideas for Actively Engaging Students in Learning-Based Review
Toni Enloe
Oct 24, 2011
How do I keep students actively engaged in the review process?
Does this sound familiar? - It is three weeks before the state test and all instruction comes to a grinding halt because it is time to review for the upcoming test.
How can you avoid the loss of instructional time while increasing student retention of content?
Activities that extend student thinking and a scheduled monthly review increases long term retention. Exemplary schools have some type of planned review schedule. In LEARNING-FOCUSED Strategies: Planning Units for Learning, the process for Learning-Based Review is outlined (page 5). Learning-Based Review serves as distributed guided practice/summarizing but on a larger scale over the course of the year. Unfortunately, it is rarely implemented because teachers often feel so much pressure to cover the material that they don't think that they can take the time each month to have students review. A monthly review schedule (1 to 2 periods) must be planned and should incorporate activities that actively engage the students in the review process. If it isn't planned, it will not happen, and if it isn't engaging, then it will be a waste of both the teachers' time and the students' time.
How do I decide what to review? Let your Student Learning Maps be your guide. Remember that you already decided when you designed your standards driven Student Learning Maps that those lessons are the most important concepts that students need to know or be able to do for the unit. Many times the Unit Essential Question can guide the review.
How do I keep students actively engaged in the review? Put THEM to work! Remember that those doing the most talking are the ones who do the most learning.
Some good ideas for review include the following:
Pairs/Team Huddle - Post the Unit Essential Question and pairs of students may brainstorm all that they can remember about the question. Pairs then combine with another pair to form a team and share their ideas. Each student is responsible for keeping his or her own list and they may add new ideas to the list. You might then follow up with a team Whip-Around activity. Following up with Whip- Around will give the teacher feedback on what the students have retained.
Roundtable Recall Y'all (Canady) - Much like the team huddle, this activity is designed to help individuals and then pairs of students review key points from past lessons. Without using notes, students recall key elements from the lessons and then refer to notes to fill any gaps. The teacher may then circle up the chairs to have students share their information. This type of review strategy may be very focused by having students evaluate each of the Lesson Essential Questions or more broadly used to answer the Unit Essential Question.
Graffiti - This is a variation on carousel brainstorming. The teacher posts questions on sheets of flipchart paper. Individuals or groups (with different colored markers) visit each paper and write their answers. This activity can be a great way to not only review past learning but push student thinking.
Send a Solution (Canady) - In this activity, each pair begins with a folder/envelope with a stated problem/essential question on the outside. On slips of paper, they place a solution inside the folder or envelope and pass it on, receiving a new problem/essential question. No peeking is allowed. Without looking at the solutions, they must come up with their own. Students keep passing the folders or envelopes depending on the number of problems/questions until their original one gets back to them. The pair reads all the solutions and selects the best one to report.
Graphic Organizer (see sample below)- Students can individually review the material, jot down their thoughts and then collect ideas from their peers. Synthesizing the information, students can summarize key points from that unit. The collection of all the graphic organizers or notes from each review session can become the basis for a "course survival guide."
Sample:
Unit Topic/Title: A River Runs Through It
Unit Essential Question: How have rivers played a role in the social and economic development of our society?
Lesson Essential Question:
My Thoughts
Thoughts of Others
How do I use primary and secondary sources to collect historical information?
How do rivers impact the economy of developing towns?
How do historical events influence activities on the rivers?
How do I use maps to help me identify water resources?
How does human activity impact the water quality of a river?
Summary:
Some strategies adapted from Selective Strategies for Engaging Active Learners, Robert Lynn Canady, University of Virginia
For more information on Learning-Based Review, check out LEARNING-FOCUSED Strategies Model: Planning Units for Learning
