retrieval practice – Educational Aspirations

This school year has been a bumpy ride. Many teachers have been asked to teach students in-person and online at the same time. Along with the hybrid model, time with students has been limited, which can cause retrieval issues. I’ve noticed that students need more retrieval opportunities with more feedback this year compared to years past. More check-ins and reviewing has been necessary. Out of necessity comes a different approach. For the last couple months I’ve been using a digital math review practice at the beginning of each week. I’ve been finding different ways to use Desmos to help students think about their own mathematical thinking. I have created a few original decks in the process, but have had the most success with copy –> edit with other decks. There are so many brilliant Desmos users (I’m looking at you RCS Desmos Team!) that’ve already put together amazing decks with CL self-checking abilities.

The Desmos activity in this post was primarily used to review math concepts. My rookie level CL skills gives the students a higher, lower, or just right designation. The small written feedback has been helpful so far. The deck begins by reviewing math concepts explored during the unit.

The next slides offer students an opportunity to review the results and go back to change them.

Students take around 5-10 minutes to complete the task. From the teacher dashboard I can tell how each student is doing and if additional review is necessary. I’m hoping as I learn more CL that I can make these types of practices better. Feel free to use the activity by clicking here. I’m looking forward to seeing what you create!

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There’s around one month of school left and it feels like the home stretch. The next month is full of changes. The weather changes from chilly temps to sunny days (at least in the Chicago burbs), class lists and sections are starting to take form, driving to/from school with the windows down is the norm, and planning for that final month is in full swing. The majority of my math classes just finished a unit assessment and there’s one unit remaining. So often I find that students perceive the end of a math unit to “close out” the learning on a particular skill set. I observe that this idea often gets pushed out as grade deadlines approach.

As my classes start a new unit I’m pausing to reflect on how my practice has changed. Last year I read How to Make it Stick and I intentionally planned to use more retrieval practices. This year I’ve incorporated more review opportunities through online formative quizzes and by trying to make implicit connections to past learning. I’ve often asked students how today’s objective connects to this week’s learning.

While digging through my resource materials early this year I found optional mid-year and cumulative assessments. Generally, I find that there’s not enough time to complete all of the assignments/tasks in the resource so these particular tests aren’t used frequently. This year I decided to use them to help with spaced retrieval practice. Instead of using a mid-year and cumulative assessment directly following a unit I decided to space out these assignments and take off the grading emphasis. These types of assignments take multiple days to complete and I often have students work with partners to reflect on their progress. So far I’ve seen positive progress as students this year are referring back to past skills more quickly and bridging the connections on a frequent basis. I’m looking forward to using a similar strategy next year.