How To Design Whole-Class Retrieval Practice
My students say my class is repetitive. Constantly. Just kidding... Not constantly.
But I am not too proud to tell you that I have a set of systems, routines, and activities that I know work well and I also know how precious every moment with my students is, so I don't waste time doing "fun" activities that lack a clear purpose. You could say I am risk-averse when it comes to trying new activities with my students.
But I also know that learning is social, students' attention spans are short, and it is neither healthy nor motivating to sit at a desk for 7 hours a day, five days a week.
So I love repeatable, purposeful activities that get students moving, learning from each other, and showing off all of the amazing knowledge they acquire throughout the year.
One of my favorites is a game called "Pepper," which I first learned about from Teach Like A Champion.
It's pretty simple. Students stand up, knowledge organizers in hands. I post a retrieval practice question on the board. I read the question aloud, wait..... and then cold call on a student. The student answers the question, if they can. If they cannot, they look down at their knowledge organizer and read the answer. Either way, the knowledge enters all students' working memories, increasing the likelihood they will remember it later. And because I provide wait time and avoid giving away who I will call on, every student has the chance and the incentive to think about every question.
Here is my expectations slide and a sample question slide.
Pepper can be used for any subject or topic. Here are five tips to make this activity as impactful as possible.
1. Review expectations. Instruct students to try to formulate an answer to each question without using their knowledge organizers. Tell them to use the knowledge organizer only if they cannot recall the answer. Remind students to project their voices so all students benefit from their responses and to answer in complete sentences that include the key term in the question. If a student is confused, they can always say, "Please come back to me." And they know that I will.
2. Ask about key terms and dates in the order in which they appear on the knowledge organizer, so students avoid wasting time searching for answers. That's a drain on their working memory and slows the activity's pace and momentum.
3. If a student answers a question correctly, follow up with a higher level question that requires the student to elaborate. For example, the answer to the question in the sample question slide above is, "The year 1763 is significant because it marked the end of the French & Indian War and the beginning of the conflict between the American colonies and Great Britain that eventually led to the Revolutionary War." A possible follow-up question could be: "Please identify and explain a specific law that Britain passed in the 1760s that infuriated the colonies." If the student struggles to provide an answer, point them to where they should look on their knowledge organizer, or take a volunteer.
4. Mix in higher-level questions that require students to connect multiple bits of knowledge and apply historical thinking. For these questions, give students 30-60 seconds to turn and talk to a partner or jot down their thoughts. Then cold call on a student.
5. After a student answers a question, show the slide on which you originally introduced the information. This visual reminder will give all students an additional opportunity to review the information and will allow you to effectively fill in knowledge gaps that you identify in students' responses. See the slide below, which I showed after asking the question above about 1763.
Pepper works well as a formative assessment activity before an exam or when you have spare five minutes during class. I aim to do it at least twice per week.
If you try this activity, please let me know how it goes and share suggestions for how to make it even more effective.
Sincerely,
Ben Katcher
P.S. Unit 2 of our AP US History curriculum is now available on our website! Please check it out and share the link with anyone you know who might be interested.
