If we practice something the wrong way over and over again, we permanently engrave the wrong action into our habitual responses. Practice without guidance and feedback is almost counterproductive, especially if students are practicing a procedure or strategy incorrectly. When I do assign a spiral review, it’s essential for me to discuss and correct the review with my class. This is when my students get valuable feedback, and it allows me to assess student learning. When I studied brain research for my Ed.S., the one thing that stuck with me more than anything is that practice does not make perfect. I don’t like to spend excessive amounts of time on spiral review, because I need everyone focused for those lessons-not to mention I don’t have any extra time to spare! Since most students typically don’t have long attention spans, I try to keep my spiral review short and to the point. However, spiraled instruction has not been shown to improve student outcomes. There is a great deal of research, including the Institute of Educational science, showing that spiraled review has been shown to positively impact student learning. There is no way I would expect my fourth graders to grasp fractions in just a week or two of fraction instruction. I don’t recommend teaching or introducing concepts through spiral instruction, because students need time to master concepts. It keeps challenging skills and concepts fresh in students’ minds and prevents them from forgetting content taught early in the year. This is why I like to add a mix of spiral review into my daily instruction. It significantly reduces the amount of class time needed for test prep. When students are able to review and practice material over long periods of time, they are more likely able to store and receive that information and content from their long-term memory. Spiral review provides students with a chance to strengthen areas they might not have completely mastered early in the school year. Spiral review is when skills that have been previously introduced and taught are reviewed throughout the school year. The book shares how students’ minds work and how to review to promote concepts being stored in students’ long term memories. If you’re like me and need to see the research behind the practice, I highly recommend the book Why Don’t Students Like School by Daniel Willingham. This is why consistent spiral review is so important for students. We’ve spent time thoroughly teaching a concept, but once we leave that concept, students begin forgetting what they have learned. Then a few weeks after your fraction unit you have a student ask, “What’s a denominator?” Head meets wall. I imagine we’ve all been there in one way or another. You also have students writing about fractions in their math journals. Your students complete a variety of problem solving tasks in authentic situations. You incorporate hands-on activities, multiple models and visual representations. Who has ever experienced this scenario? You spend weeks conceptually teaching fractions.
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