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What should you do when your students can't retrieve anything?

Pooja K. Agarwal

By Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D.

When someone asks me what I did last weekend, my mind goes blank. I struggle to mentally time travel to the past, but eventually, I can come up with something.

Do your students’ minds go blank during an in-class retrieval practice activity? You’ve probably had at least one student who was frustrated and said, “But I can’t retrieve anything!” Here are 4 steps you can take to help your students retrieve something.

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How to scaffold retrieval practice

Retrieval practice is a mental struggle (a “desirable difficulty” for long-term learning), which means it can also be frustrating. Contrary to what your students might feel, there is always something they can retrieve. Here are 4 steps you can take to scaffold an in-class retrieval practice activity:

  1. Remind students that we all need time to think. A reminder for you and your students: the mental struggle during retrieval practice is good for learning, whereas easy learning is easy forgetting. Telling students to “try harder” isn’t going to help. Validate that retrieval is hard, remind them that taking a “mental moment” will boost their long-term learning, and don’t skip the think step during think-pair-share.

  2. Encourage students to sit with the struggle a little longer. We have the natural temptation to jump in and help students as soon as they struggle, but this is a disservice to them and their learning. Instead, give students a clear instruction to try for another minute, and use a clock or timer to make sure you give them the full minute. (I’m a fan of radial timers.)

  3. Emphasize that silence is golden. It’ll feel awkward for you and your students to sit in complete silence during step #2. We have an ingrained belief that students must be talking in order to be engaged. Quite the contrary! We think best and engage in learning when there aren’t distractions (some of my students close their eyes to help them think). Plus, once your students experience a minute of silent retrieval practice, you’ll be surprised by how quickly they get used to it and then ask for more silent time to retrieve.

  4. Give your students a retrieval cue. A retrieval cue isn’t necessarily a hint, but a reminder that might lead to that “ah ha!” feeling when something comes to mind. For example, I asked my students to retrieve what they learned when we discussed implicit bias a few weeks ago. If they draw a blank, a retrieval cue I provide is “reliability and validity.” That “cues” their memory without giving them a direct hint (we discussed the implicit association test). In the same way, if you ask students to retrieve what they learned in class last week and they can’t remember, give them a one-word or two-word cue. Avoid the temptation to give students the answer.

What should you do when some students retrieve more quickly than other students? Ask them to retrieve more! If you had your students retrieve two things, ask the students who finished first to add one or more new things to their list.

Summer reading: Powerful Teaching and Make it Stick

Are you reading Powerful Teaching and Make it Stick this summer? We’ve got resources to support your learning!

Are you hosting a Powerful Teaching book club this summer? Contact my co-author Patrice Bain (patrice@patricebain.com) for more resources, including a welcome video, personalized autographed book plates, and an exclusive PDF with even more discussion questions.

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