We’re all currently locked in a battle: we are fighting against our students forgetting.

Even in more normal times, it is an issue that we must overcome, but now, with pupils having been away from learning for such a long period, it is likely that they will have forgotten a lot.

So consideration must be given to how we combat the forgetting curve moving forward. This is surprisingly easy to do: running recap and recall alongside new ideas actually makes learning much more efficient.

So here’s a quick reminder for teachers on how recap and recall can be built into lessons.

1. Start each lesson with a recap

By recapping and revisiting content from the last lesson, the last week and the last month, even the last year, we can help to strengthen recall skills. Not only does this build on ability, the process also builds confidence and allows you to identify gaps very quickly - a tool that will be of paramount importance when we return to school.

2. Low-stakes testing

Low-stakes testing is a staple to help students to remember information. Moreover, it is a great way for you to quickly and efficiently ascertain if a student remembers something that they have been taught. Low-stakes testing helps students to identify gaps in their own knowledge, too, and with the correct infrastructure in place, this approach can be used to build self-efficacy around revision.

3. Spaced practice

Spaced practice ensures skills are frequently revisited and not forgotten. Obviously, if you test or assess ability in applying a skill directly after teaching it, you are likely to get a good result (but not always!). By spacing out the practice, you ensure that students frequently apply the skill taught, alongside other skills, so that their learning is consolidated and they don’t forget how to carry out a task. So those recaps and low-stakes quizzes should not be done as bolt on activities. Instead, the same topics should be revisited often with careful planning.

4. Keep things simple

School is an intense place for students and they take on a huge amount of information in any given day. By keeping the core content simple, we allow them to process information more efficiently. By simple, I don’t mean easy - but I mean consider linguistic economy, cut out what doesn’t need to be said. Build a commonality of language and stick to it. Use your resources effectively and don’t make learning patchy: the journey should be clear.

If these factors are considered, it is easier for students to take information in. It is more straightforward for them to remember correctly in the first place. Often, we assume that students have forgotten something if they cannot apply it at a later date. But it is frequently the case that they never properly learned it in the first place.

5. Teach study skills explicitly

It may sound intuitive, but we, as teachers, often assume (wrongly) that students can effectively revise, take notes and work independently. Taking the time to teach students how to use approaches such as Cornell note-taking and even how to make flashcards can be a great way to ensure that they combat the forgetting curve by effectively and efficiently revising.

In the build-up to the return to school, we mustn’t get caught up in catching up. Covering missed content and skills is, of course, vital, but recapping previously taught material is just as important.

Adam Riches is a senior leader for teaching and learning, specialist leader in education and head of English. He tweets @TeachMrRiches

This article originally appeared in the 21 August 2020 issue