How is Retrieval Practice Used at Classroom Secrets?

How is Retrieval Practice Used at Classroom Secrets? 

Do you remember what the capital of Mali is from our previous blog about retrieval practice? 

There could be all sorts of factors that affected your ability to remember this knowledge – maybe it’s been a few days since you read that blog, or something major could have happened to you since then, or you have been busy with paperwork, or you simply haven’t had the chance to actively use that knowledge in context? 

As outlined previously, retrieval practice is a teaching and learning strategy that involves actively recalling information from memory to improve learning. The key word in that definition is ‘actively’ – it highlights the importance of children consciously and deliberately recalling prior knowledge to support ongoing learning. This process helps strengthen the quality of it in long-term memory and prevent it from being forgotten. 

The capital of Mali is Bamako, by the way! 

In this example of Mali’s capital, if you’d had opportunity to retrieve that knowledge between the last blog and reading this, the science behind retrieval practice confirms that you may have remembered this key fact quicker and more confidently. But what could the techniques for retrieving that knowledge look like? 

Now that you are familiar with the theory, we are going to showcase how we are utilising retrieval practice within our resources at Classroom Secrets to help you deepen pupils’ learning! 

Rapid Arithmetic 

Our Rapid Arithmetic resources have been created with consideration of how to engage all learners in a classroom with no printing required. These are designed to be displayed on an interactive whiteboard (but can be printed if required), with each set comprised of 6 questions that each tackle the same objective at different levels, for pupils to answer independently using a whiteboard (or directly onto the sheet if printed). All answers are included too, so that children can self-mark, thereby making it time-efficient as a key principle of retrieval practice.  

When following the Classroom Secrets maths scheme, these objectives are all ones that have been previously covered by the week that the Rapid Arithmetic is designed for. The example shown here is Year 6 Summer 1 Week 5, meaning it is showing Year 6 Maths objectives that have been covered up to that point in the year, as well as objectives from Year 4 and 5 (writing digital times as 12-hour times, in question 6). The Summer 1 Week 6 Rapid Arithmetic resource might cover some of the same objectives but will also include different ones, so that a range of aspects of previously-learnt maths are being retrieved. It is also worth noting that this example is from later in the school year – Year 6 Autumn 1 Week 4, for example, is entirely comprised of Year 5 objectives to retrieve important learning from that previous year.  

As this is an arithmetic-based resource, questions are entirely number-based but cover all areas of arithmetic such as number, place value, the four operations and decimals. 

There are 12 Rapid Arithmetic resources per term for each year group, meaning 36 sets of questions available for the year group you teach! Each one has three sets of questions, giving a number of opportunities for each learner to retrieve previously-taught knowledge and strengthen that within their long-term memory, to be deployed whenever suits your teaching week. Could it be the perfect way to start three of your maths lessons, or could it be displayed on the interactive whiteboard during registration time? Whatever works for you! 

Maths in Minutes 

Another of our popular Maths resources is Maths in Minutes. These are also designed to be displayed on an interactive whiteboard (but, again, can be printed if required). The resource is designed for all children to progress through all questions, with the questions retrieving prior knowledge from across the Maths curriculum. Questions are designed for children to answer entirely on whiteboards with no activities such as drawing shapes or line graphs that would be challenging to handle without a copy of the resource (but children can answer directly onto the sheet if printed). Each set of questions has an answer page for self-marking, which also shows the Classroom Secrets maths objective code for the questions should you wish to source further resources to help children further within our website. 

Again, when following the Classroom Secrets maths scheme, the objectives will be ones that have been covered up to that point in the year. The example pictured is Year 5 Spring 1 Week 3, meaning it uses objectives that will have been covered by that point in Year 5 within the Classroom Secrets maths scheme but none from the Summer term such as comparing angles or perimeter of rectilinear shapes. As with Rapid Arithmetic, there may also be objectives from previous year groups – in this example, questions 3 to 5 are based on Year 4 objectives. The following week’s resource will recap different objectives to promote a range of recall.  

Similarly to Rapid Arithmetic, there are 12 Maths in Minutes resources per term for each year group (with 9 in the autumn term), meaning 33 opportunities for recapping key skills. Each one has three sets of questions that cover all areas of maths (not just arithmetic!) so they give all pupils plenty of opportunity to retrieve what has already been taught. There are a number of ways these could be used, such as supplementing Rapid Arithmetic as maths starter activities, interventions or revision of areas ahead of assessments. However you use it, it will still promote retrieval. 

Science  

Our science PowerPoints use a range of retrieval opportunities! 

Within our science scheme, we have four units for Key Stage 1 and five units for Key Stage 2, focusing on the required areas of the National Curriculum. Each unit has an overview, stem sentences and pre- and post-unit assessments, as well as 6 lessons (some of which are investigations), with further resources in the pipeline – watch this space!  

Each lesson begins by showing the unit’s key vocabulary then has a slide of two questions. These questions are designed to retrieve different areas of knowledge that are both important for the lesson – one from the last lesson and one from a previous year group that will be built upon within the lesson. 

The example is from the final lesson of the Year 2 unit on animals including humans, titled ‘What is Good Hygiene?’. The left-hand panel recaps learning from the previous lesson, which was about the importance for humans of eating the right amounts of different types of food, while the right-hand panel retrieves learning about the parts of the human body and which parts are associated with each sense from the Year 1 unit on animals including humans. As these knowledge bases will provide foundations for learning about hygiene, these have been chosen. 

In the first lesson of a sequence, both panels retrieve learning from a previous year group that is relevant. In this example from lesson 1 of the Year 6 unit on electricity, both questions prompt children to recall information learnt within the Year 4 unit on electricity. 

Answers are always provided for these ‘let’s think back’ slides, meaning there is an opportunity for children to self-assess with no additional workload required by the teacher. 

At the end of each science lesson, there is also a chance to consolidate what has been learnt by retrieving key facts from the teaching slides, which links to one of the key principles from the previous blog about prompting children with what facts are the most important pieces of knowledge from a lesson. 

This example is from a lesson within the Year 3 unit on plants, titled ‘what is seed dispersal?’. These three facts have been set as the most important ones from the lesson and therefore the taught information that it would be most useful for children to know moving forward. This retrieval opportunity is presented as a multiple-choice low-stakes quiz, which means it is accessible for all learners and can be answered easily using a whiteboard. All answers are plausible (some plants really do disperse their seeds by exploding!) so any misconceptions can be addressed. The questions are easy and quick to understand, with only three possible answers to reduce cognitive load. The correct answers are given on the following slide, where pupils could explain their reasoning for how they have answered. 

Five-minute Science resources are also launching soon, which will give further opportunities to revisit learning from a unit within one easy-to-use document – watch this space! 

Geography 

Our geography resources follow the same structure as science; each lesson begins with one retrieval strategy on an important piece of learning from the previous lesson ready to be built upon. Again, answers are provided! The example above is from a Lower Key Stage 2 mountains lesson titled ‘how have humans made mountains their home?’. 

The first lesson (lesson 1 of the Upper KS2 volcanoes sequence is shown above for reference) has an opportunity to retrieve any prior learning. All science and geography lessons list which National Curriculum objective the retrieval opportunity links to, so you can be confident that tasks are appropriate.  

As with science, geography lessons conclude with an opportunity to check understanding and ensure important facts are retained. 

One of the key principles of retrieval practice outlined in the previous blog was to vary the retrieval practice used so that children become skilled at applying their learning in different ways when retrieving knowledge, thereby strengthening what is already known. Our science and geography resources use a range of styles of retrieval (which can be seen in the examples), such as images or text to prompt what is in long-term memory, opportunities to write extended answers to share with a partner to promote oracy or free recall where children think of everything linked to a specific subject, meaning that pupils will be actively engaged with what they are doing and reducing the workload needed by the teacher to think of different strategies.  

Maybe our lessons will inspire you to use an image from a previous RE lesson to retrieve at the start of a lesson or identify the odd one out from a group of images, and why, as part of Music? 

There are a number of other resources available on our website that also use aspects of retrieval, such as Year 6 Mistake Investigators, Year 6 consolidation tasks and GPS consolidation activities. 

However you choose to use our resources, you will be helping children embed and deepen their learning through handling what has been already learnt in different ways. We hope that this has been useful for explaining how retrieval practice has been used within our resources and that this will inspire you to download some to enhance your class’s key knowledge – please let us know what strategies you use from our resources and how they have impacted your pupils.  

At the very least, hopefully you’ll have remembered the name of Mali’s capital city! 

Images: Classroom Secrets and Stock Images