Quick Tip | Retrieval Practice with White Boards

Hello educators. My name is Carrie Co with SideBide Educational Consulting. Thanks so much for joining me for today's quick tip Tuesday as we continue exploring strategies that help learning stick. This week's strategy is retrieval practice using whiteboards, a simple but powerful tool that strengthens memory, encourages active thinking, and boosts long-term learning. Now, just a reminder, retrieval practice involves asking students to pull information from memory rather than reviewing notes or just rereading texts to find the answer. Why? Because the effortful act of recall actually strengthens neural pathways and leads to more durable learning for the long term. And I want us to consider that whiteboards aren't just for elementary classrooms. In fact, in the book Smart Teaching, Stronger Learning, many examples of whiteboard based retrieval come from middle school, high school, and even college. The benefits include increased engagement and participation for students, flexibility in the kinds of questions or prompts that the teacher can ask. It's a low stakes environment. Students can easily erase and try again, no big deal. and it's immediate visible formative assessment for the teacher. So, what's the quick tip? I want us to think about trying whiteboards for rapid retrieval. For every 10 minutes or so during instruction, teach like you always teach, but every 10 minutes or so, you're going to pause and ask a question about the content that you've just covered. Have students write their answer on their whiteboard and hold it up. It's fast, effective, and keeps everyone involved. To make this a habit, here are some other tips. Consider setting a timer or adding visual cues to your slides about every 10 minutes as a reminder. This aligns with the chunk and chew or the ten ten and two approach where for every 10 minutes of instruction, you pause for two minutes of retrieval practice to reinforce learning and boost retention. With just a set of whiteboards and a few well-crafted prompts, you can create frequent, meaningful retrieval opportunities that build confidence and mastery in your students. I challenge you to give it a try. just two to three retrieval questions per lesson and see the impact for yourself. Thanks for joining me today for today's quick tip Tuesday. I'll see you next time. Have a great rest of the week.