Daily student recaps

On a Saturday in late fall we held a follow up to our modeling workshop. One of the participants brought a colleague along with her. During one of our discussions she mentioned that she had been having students do a daily recap of the previous lesson. I thought the idea was brilliant and so I started having my IB chemistry HL class do it. I recently expanded the recaps to my chemistry classes. There are multiple benefits to doing this and I wanted to put them together and encourage teachers to try using this tool in your own classes.

1.  Students listen differently to their peers.

When I talk, the students trust me to say “correct” things about what we are learning. When a student is explaining that trust is not there. This causes students to listen differently with a more critical approach. If a student says anything that is slightly wrong or even if the letters they write are slightly misshapen they notice immediately. This type of critical listening is very valuable for student learning. They’re connecting topics and ideas and evaluating whether they fit or don’t. They should do this when I speak. Pointing out to them this discrepancy can be helpful for pushing their learning to a higher level.

2. What I think students know and what they actually know are frequently different.

Being able to see what a student took from your lesson is helpful. Sometimes teachers get wrapped up in the world of “But I told them once, they should understand it!” Spending time listening to students every hour to start things off builds a much better perspective of what they are learning instead of what you are teaching.

3. More student voice

At the start of this year I was nervous to call on quiet students during discussion. In the past students had given feedback that they would participate but that talking in front of everyone terrified them. It was a mistake to listen to that feedback. It created an unhealthy class dynamic where students sought out correct answers instead of focusing on what they currently understood. It pushed the idea that there are smart chemistry students and dumb ones. It was also racist and sexist in that some races and gender combinations were heard from more than others.

However, this is a concern for students and it needs to be handled well to be successful. When students say “I don’t know” during discussion, you’ll want to emphasize that the solution to not knowing something begins by starting with what you do know and building connections to those ideas. Frequently teachers undermine this by making statements about “being happy about mistakes” or “mistakes are opportunities to learn”. Instead it’s important to show students how to cycle through learning something new by seeking out a starting point of what a student does know and how to evaluate possible explanations, logic and evidence to build towards the new learning objective.

It is important not just to say this, but to keep a healthy approach as students do the recaps. Many are nervous but I see a lot of that disappear as I point out the good points of their recaps. As they realize the intentions of finding out what they know they produce more honest recaps. I would also like to say that I am frequently surprised at students that I would expect to struggle with a recap because they are quiet. These students are perfectly capable of doing an excellent recap and hearing from them improves their inclusion in the classroom.

4. Spaced practice

Spaced practice is the opposite of cramming. In cramming a set of ideas is repeated until familiarity sets in. In spaced practice the learning is split up so that forgetting occurs between the intervals of learning. The research strongly supports spacing practice. By allowing students to forget and then re-learn the material the impact on the brain is substantial. Doing a daily recap allows students to forget part of the material and then relearn it the next day. This leads to less forgetting and also better understanding.

5. Reflection

Students know that the next lesson will involve a randomly selected student giving a recap. When two or three minutes are left in a lesson the students can then reflect on what they learned and what they would present if they were to be selected the next day. This can help them evaluate and organize the learning.

This is a new technique to me but the value is already immense. I have thoughts on how to modify the technique such as having two students selected. One gives the recap and the other supplements additional ideas. The time varies because most students will talk for 5-6 minutes and not realize they had talked so much. Some teachers might elect to tell students the day before who will speak (which could be an issue if there is an absence). I roll dice to determine who will speak and they get no prep time to pull things together. Currently students can bring notes with them but they are discouraged from using them and not allowed to just write what their notes say. If they get stuck they are encouraged to ask questions to other students.