Practice 1: Daily Review

In a 1982 paper, Rosenshine underlines ‘Checks for Understanding’, adopting the acronym CFU. Sherrington says CFU has always been the core concept in the Principles and he also states that CFU is probably the single biggest common area for improvement in the teaching that he observes.

Daily Review is the use of simple retrieval activities to activate prior learning.  The use of Daily Review is understood in terms of the cognitive science around recall and schema-building.  When teachers are about to build on prior learning, it makes sense to activate that with a retrieval activity (Sherrington, 2019).

The graph below shows that sixth-grade students performed better on exams (black bars), based on engaging in some type of intervention (not defined here) than those sixth-grade students (blue bars) who either did not receive the intervention or engaged in a different intervention (not defined here).

So how did you do? The words in bold in the solution were selected as key words.

Below, the graph is revealed in its entirety…

If a teacher is struggling to secure good student learning, it might be that more intensity around retrieval activities is something they need to work on.  But, where teachers use Daily Review quizzes, they do so with a clear sense of purpose, judiciously, for a reason, knowing why, using the information to inform next steps. 

Rosenshine also writes about the wrong way to check for understanding. The wrong way is to ask only a few questions, call on volunteers to hear their (usually correct) answers, and then assume that all of the class either understands or has now learned from hearing the volunteers’ responses. Another error is to ask “are there any questions?” and, if there aren’t any, assume that everybody understands. Another error (particularly with older children) is to assume that it is not necessary to check for understanding, and that simply repeating the points will be sufficient.

Watch the video below and consider the following Guiding Questions as you watch:

1. What is the single most useful learning strategy there is?
2. What are the three (3) retrieval practices shared in the video?
3. How does an emphasis on retrieval contrast with “traditional” instructional routines and practices?

Why is it so easy to forget things that we learn?

Previously learned information is remembered and/or accessed in working memory. Our working memory is finite and actually rather small, so we can only absorb a limited amount of information at once (Sherrington, 2019). From here, it is possible that information will be transferred into long-term memory. If we do not re-visit learned information frequently from long-term memory, there is a good chance that we will forget what it is that we have learned or have a difficult time retrieving it.

Take a look below at a simple model for how memory works. Click the green buttons, then hover over the picture for more information.

“…One of the most robust findings from cognitive science research is the importance of getting information out of students’ heads.  Based on a century of research, in order to transform learning, we must focus on getting information out– a strategy called retrieval practice.  In fact, research demonstrates that retrieval practice is more potent than other techniques commonly used by teachers and students, such as lecturing, re-reading, or taking notes.”

Agarwal & Bain, 2019, p. 28

So how does this work in the classroom? Please watch the video below for furthered recommendations…

Continuing through the strategies of retrieval practice, another specific strategy is called the “brain dump.” Please watch the video below to learn more about this favorite strategy…

Please continue to Practice 10…