[On-screen text] Revisit and review: What it is:
- Supporting students with revisiting their prior learning for consolidation.
- Planned, regular reviewing – and reteaching where necessary – focused on recent or past learning.
- A supportive technique for students who need additional instruction and opportunities to practise.
- A formative assessment opportunity to guide decisions about the teaching and student practice needed before moving on.
[On-screen text] This video demonstrates examples of the following techniques to revisit and review:
- Focus on knowledge and skills that will maximise learning progress
- Include regular, short, appropriately paced reviews
- Design review for high participation rates
- Use a variety of review routines
Polly Anderson, Year 2 teacher, Serpentine Primary School: Using a daily review in my practice helps me to consolidate learning that's already happened. It also helps me to identify gaps in students' learning. I can give immediate feedback to the students then, at their point of need, or I can then use that to plan for future lessons.
Fantastic. This time, I'm going to say the word. You're going to say the sound. Sounds good?
[On-screen text] Include regular, short, appropriately paced reviews
Class: Sounds great.
Polly Anderson: The word is ‘bump’. What is the word?
Class: Bump.
Polly Anderson: What are the sounds?
Class: Buh, uh, mmm, pa – bump.
Polly Anderson: The word is ‘melt’. What is the word?
Class: Melt.
Polly Anderson: What are the sounds?
Class: Mmm, eh, ll, ta – melt.
Polly Anderson: The word is sand. What is the word?
Class: Sand.
Polly Anderson: What are the sounds?
Class: Ss, ah, nn, duh – sand.
Melissa Watson, Year 10 humanities teacher, Aveley Secondary College: So, checking for student understanding is essential throughout a lesson. It has to be done frequently.
[On-screen text] Focus on knowledge and skills that will maximise learning progress
Melissa Watson: So students need to be engaged consistently and giving me feedback throughout the lesson so I know when I can and cannot move on.
Who can remember what HDI stands for? Tamsin, thank you.
Student: Human Development Index.
Melissa Watson: She's got it. What does HDI stand for, everyone?
Class: Human Development Index.
Melissa Watson: Well done. Thank you, Year 10s. Now, we're going to partner up for this one. You can use your reference map in your notebook to help you if needed. But I would like Partner A – they're sitting closest to the windows – can you please list 3 countries which are classified as developed?
[On-screen text] Use a variety of review routines
Melissa Watson: And Partner B – closest to the side here [points to the opposite side of the classroom] – list 3 countries which are classified as developing.
Jessie Griffiths, Assistant Principal, Year 3/4 teacher, Briar Road Public School: During a daily review, if I notice that less than 80% of students have mastered the content, then I'm able to say, ‘Okay, this is not – this is going to become a reteach moment.’ And I'll park that, and I'll put it aside, and I'll say, ‘Okay, that needs to be explicitly taught again.’
[On-screen text] Design review for high participation rates
Jessie Griffiths: Okay. This time, which 2 sentences use ‘brink’ correctly? Read with me.
Jessie Griffiths and class: The soccer ball rolled on the brink of the field. The children stood on the brink of the playground, eager to start their recess. The cat stopped at the brink of the window, peering out at the birds. Iron Man stood inside the brink of the building.
Jessie Griffiths: So which 2 on your board? Is it A, B, C or D? Remember, there's 2 that are correct.
Okay, you have about 5 seconds left. Okay, 3, 2, 1 – chin your boards. Okay, great job. All right. Brooklyn, what are the answers?
Lauren Vickery, Year 3/4 teacher, Riverwood Public School: So the daily review should be quite pacey. It should be fast. It should be super engaging the whole time.
[On-screen text] Include regular, short and appropriately paced reviews
Lauren Vickery: So we use a variety of engagement norms. I'll use the mini whiteboards. I'll use the choral response, so students use their voices to respond. Sometimes we have ones where they get to vote using 1, 2, or 3 or 4 fingers. And we like to mix it up. And also the types of questions that are asked as well.
[On-screen text] Use a variety of review routines
Lauren Vickery: So it's not just recite and recall, we also ask students to apply. So we might give them some world problems, like some real-life word problems, just to mix it up and keep it super fast and pacey and engaging for the kids.
All right. We're going to start our daily review.
[On-screen text] Match techniques to the purpose of the review
Lauren Vickery: When you see a yellow symbol, you'll use your [points below mouth] …
Lauren Vickery and class: Choral response.
Lauren Vickery: When you see a blue symbol, you'll use your [drawing rectangle in the air] …
Lauren Vickery and class: Mini whiteboards.
Lauren Vickery: Okay. 4 × 5? [Clicks fingers.]
Class: 20.
Lauren Vickery: Go.
[On-screen text] Design review for high participation rates
Lauren Vickery: Okay. What is the big number that we are dividing? We are dividing …
Lauren Vickery and class: 24.
Lauren Vickery: 24 divided into groups of 6 is …
Lauren Vickery and class: 4.
Tanya Judd, Assistant Principal, Year 1 teacher, Briar Road Public School: When we're designing our daily reviews, we plan that content and we select that content really, really carefully. As a school, we understand that the best retrieval practice is spaced and interleaved.
[On-screen text] Include regular, short and appropriately paced reviews
Tanya Judd: So we look at what's been on the curriculum for that year. We use a kind of a map where we plan it out, so that learning is in for a couple of weeks after it's just been taught. We leave it out and give students the opportunity to forget. And then we bring it back in multiple points throughout the rest of the year, just to make sure that it's really solid and that they can take that learning and then apply it to different situations.
[On-screen text] Design review for high participation rates
Tanya Judd: All right. Chinning your boards in 3, 2, 1 and done. Chin your boards.
[On-screen text] ‘Budyari’ means ‘Good’ in Dharawal language
Tanya Judd: And budyari to those people who got all of the challenge and all of the super challenge done as well. Fantastic job. I'm going to put the answers up. Now, turn your board around. Check your answers.
Class: Yes! Yes!
[On-screen text] Focus on knowledge and skills that will maximise learning progress
Tanya Judd: For our students, we know if some of that key content is automatic, it frees up their working memory to deal with whatever is the new part that you're exposing them to in that lesson. So daily review gives them the opportunity to build towards automaticity. It also gives them the opportunity to practise in multiple different ways, and in different contexts, the learning that you're trying to get to become automatic. I think it's critical for students to have that success at repetition and practise every day. And then, when they come to that content or they use that content in a lesson, they can draw back on that from your previous practice.
Trent, is this one a double?
[On-screen text] Focus on knowledge and skills that will maximise learning progress
Student: No.
Tanya Judd: Why not?
Student: Because it has 4 + 6 = 10. But the other one's right because it says 4 + 4 = 8.
Tanya Judd: Budyari, what a great explanation. And you are correct: that one is not a double.
Loren Sorgiovanni, Year 11 mathematics teacher, Aveley Secondary College: So, also during that Do Now and daily review, I noticed that there were a couple of students who hadn't remembered it as well as I wanted them to. So then that kind of gave me some insight into how I should run the lesson with them specifically. And even though I had 80%, and I felt I could move on with the rest of the class, I know that I needed to go back to those students during the lesson and that they would need a little bit of extra support and scaffolding in order to find success with unit pricing.
[On-screen text] Include regular, short and appropriately paced reviews
Loren Sorgiovanni: All right, guys. In 5 more seconds, I want to see your boards up.
[Whispering to student] There's 1,000 grams in a kilogram. Yeah. So times it by 5,000. So that's 50 to 1,000. Yeah, [inaudible] grams.
Can I see boards up?
[On-screen text] Focus on knowledge and skills that will maximise learning progress
Loren Sorgiovanni: Three, two and one. Boards up. Beautiful. What have you got? Beautiful. Beautiful. All right, pop it down. So I'm just going to ask a couple of people. So let's do A and C.
Polly Anderson: My advice for teachers that want to incorporate a daily review into their practice is to just start small. Look at one of the concepts you've already taught and pull out 1 or 2 basic skills from that concept.
About this resource
The revisit and review practice is part of the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)’s model of learning and teaching and related practice guides.
Revisiting learning is the practice of regularly coming back to content that’s already been taught. Revisiting learning can activate prior knowledge to connect new learning with what students already know and help consolidate new learning.
Each example in this video aligns with a consistent set of techniques teachers can use to monitor progress. These techniques include:
- Focus on knowledge and skills that will maximise learning progress.
- Include regular, short and appropriately paced reviews.
- Design review for high participation rates.
- Use a variety of review routines.
You'll also hear teachers reflect on how these techniques support learning.
This video features teachers at a range of primary schools and one secondary school. It includes exemplars across different subjects, year levels and contexts.
How to use this resource:
- Watch this video after reviewing AERO’s Revisit and Review practice guide.
- Take notes while reflecting on your own practice or discuss observations with colleagues.
- Use these videos to spark meaningful professional conversations.
Acknowledgements
AERO extends its gratitude to the staff, students and families from these schools for their support and participation:
- Aveley Secondary College (WA) on Whadjuk Noongar Country
- Briar Road Public School (NSW) on Dharawal Country
- Riverwood Public School (NSW) on Darug Country
- Serpentine Primary School (WA) on Gnaala Karla Booja Country.
We would also like to thank Professor Lorraine Hammond; Dr Nathaniel Swain; AERO’s First Nations Expert Reference Group; and the teachers and school leaders who reviewed these videos.
Country information was sourced City of Swan, Briar Road Public School, City of Canterbury Bankstown and Gnaala Karla Booja Aboriginal Corporation.
Keywords: student progress, explicit teaching, primary, secondary, disability and inclusion, evidence-based teaching, evidence-based education, pedagogy, practice implementation, professional learning