Before starting group work, do this first
/By Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D.
‘Tis the season for group work! We’ve all been there: some students struggle to get started, one student dominates the conversation, and the rest wait for others to do the heavy lifting.
Here’s an easy solution: retrieval practice. I typically think of retrieval practice as a strategy to boost long-term learning, but it’s a valuable tool to engage students in thinking and learning before collaborating, too. Continue reading for how to incorporate it into group work, with examples from my own classroom.
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How to use retrieval practice before group work
Photo credit: Mimi Thian via Unsplash
Usually, I share how to implement retrieval practice with a brain dump, as the first step in think-pair-share, or as an entry or exit ticket.
But retrieval practice is an effective tool for group work, too. Here’s how you can enrich group work with retrieval practice before groups get together:
Take your time thinking about what students will be working on during group time. For example, will they be completing a worksheet? Answering specific discussion questions? Preparing for a presentation? If you’ve been doing group projects for a long time, breaking this down might be harder than you expect.
Take a step back and zoom out to the bigger picture. Ask yourself: how can students do that work individually? For example, they could complete part or all of the worksheet on their own, write out thoughts to discussion questions beforehand, or brain dump what they plan to share during their portion of a presentation. This is the key step where retrieval practice happens before group work.
Give students time to retrieve individually. This can feel awkward. Remind yourself and your students that during retrieval practice, silence is golden. Yes, this takes class time, but it’ll also save you time later (see step 5).
Give groups a “mission” to have each student share their retrieval before discussion. There is no leader, notetaker, or roles. Everyone is participating equally. If your students are used to jumping straight into group work, they may skip this step! I recommend displaying the mission instructions on the projector to keep them on track.
After each student has shared, now they start their group work. Now, the collective group has richer ideas—and literally more ideas—than they would have had without individual retrieval practice. Plus, because students already generated their ideas in advance, the group work will actually go faster than usual.
Here’s a screenshot of my slides from my Cognitive Psychology course, where students read a research article independently, do a brain dump on a half sheet of paper, and then share before group work:
As my colleague, cognitive scientist-teacher Dr. Janell Blunt says, “Anything students do from memory is retrieval practice.” And it doesn’t have to be after instruction; make retrieval practice part of your instruction. Here’s how to add retrieval practice to group presentations, too. With this retrieval approach, each student takes ownership for their own learning, retrieving, thinking, sharing, and contributions to group work.
