Practice and Feedback
Why I have students practice and get feedback in the same period
I've taught in a Title I high school for 14 years. I'm ESL certified, and I've built curriculum at the district level. It has always been incredibly hard to teach the required state standards and prepare students for state exams, the ACT, and the SAT. There was never time to do both separately, so I built these lessons to do both at once.
What does research say about practice testing?
Practice testing is one of the techniques a major review rates as high utility. In 2013, Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, and Willingham reviewed ten learning techniques and rated practice testing and distributed practice as high utility. I built these units to align with that work, so students practice in the lesson instead of only restudying.
Roediger and Karpicke (2006) tested that idea with prose passages. Students who took a test later remembered more, after a two-day or one-week delay, than students who restudied the same material, even when the first test had no feedback. On a test only five minutes later, restudy looked better. Of course it did. The page was still in front of them. That is why I do not treat a same-day score as the whole story. The later check tells you more about what actually stuck.
Why give feedback the same day if some studies delay the next test?
Hattie and Timperley (2007) reviewed feedback research and argued that feedback is powerful but not automatically helpful. The type of feedback and the way it is given matter. They frame useful feedback around three questions: Where am I going? How am I going? Where to next? I use those three questions when I plan in-class feedback.
If a quiz comes back a week later, a lot of students have already forgotten why they picked B. I would rather score practice in class and talk through the traps in the key while the work is still warm. That is why the teacher keys are written so you can give that feedback in the same period.
How do the U.S. History units put this research into practice?
I built the high school U.S. History units so students practice in exam-style formats in the same lesson as the required content. Each unit has a teacher key that explains wrong answers, so you can score the work in class and give feedback the same day, while students still remember why they picked B.
A live product line to look at: 1929–Present U.S. History bundle on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Related pages
Sources cited
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
- Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x
- Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112. https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487
Frequently asked questions
Is a practice set the same as a real exam?
No. The studies above are about retrieval practice, including practice tests. A state exam, the ACT, or an AP exam is a different event. I use in-class practice so students can retrieve what they know and get feedback before that day arrives.
How can I use these units for practice testing and same-day feedback?
Each unit includes exam-style questions and a teacher key that explains wrong answers. I built them so you can score practice in class, talk through the traps, and give feedback in the same period.