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With uncertainty hovering over fall plans, teaching and learning continue to look different from district to district than ever before. While administrators juggle with tough choices, almost every teacher is back to reading, reflecting, and restructuring their lesson plans to keep their learners engaged and learning鈥攁nd as equitable as possible given the constraints. In this post, I share three strategies, informed by the learning sciences, that teachers can use online or face-to-face to deepen student learning: retrieval practice, elaboration, and concept mapping.

Strategy 1: Retrieval Practice

, or the practice of remembering, is a robust learning strategy as summarized in a published by my colleagues and me. Retrieval practice is when you push yourself to write, tell, or draw what you鈥檝e already learned, and it can be especially helpful for concepts you may not remember as clearly鈥攖he process of remembering will help strengthen your memory. Plus, you have the added benefit of identifying what you know and don鈥檛 know. Some teachers use already鈥攎aybe you do too. If not, here are two ways to start:

1. Create a version of your study guide that has only the questions. Ask students to practice answering them without additional support. Once they鈥檙e done, they can share their answers; they can also look up the correct answers, either alone or in groups.聽
2. Use a . Ask students to write down everything they remember relevant to your question (or the topic) on a piece of paper. You can stop here, or have students compare their work to find gaps, similarities, and differences.

Strategy 2: Elaboration

鈥攁lso known as elaborative interrogation鈥攔efers to expanding a concept to be more detailed, allowing our brain to connect multiple concepts to one central idea. The more connections we make, the more likely we are to remember relevant information. Think of the icebreaker 鈥淭ell me one fun thing about yourself.鈥� Not only does it help you remember something interesting about a person鈥攖hey like rocky road ice cream, for example鈥攂ut you may also think of that person every time you see the flavor. In a learning context, elaboration can often be done by asking questions that require engaging deeply with content. So instead of asking learners to simply memorize information, they can聽compare and contrast right and wrong answers. This approach is so simple, you likely use it in your class already. Here are two ways to start:

1. Ask learners to compare two examples of the same concept or share specific examples. For example, when covering concepts of reusable energy, ask questions such as, 鈥淲hat are three similarities and differences between wind and solar energy?鈥� Use these questions in a discussion board, in a short answer prompt, or to jazz up the thinking quotient of your worksheet.
2. Learners can explain the topic out loud to themselves, friends, a sibling, or a parent. You can also incorporate it into group activities鈥攍ike a jigsaw鈥攐r have students role-play as the teacher and explain the topic to the class. For virtual classrooms, Flipgrid is an excellent tool: Students can record themselves reading about a topic and then answering questions like 鈥淗ow do I apply this topic in my life?鈥� For younger students who may need more scaffolding, you can ask a more targeted prompt, like 鈥淗ow do I consume energy every day?鈥�

Putting It All Together: Concept Mapping

combines retrieval practice and elaboration through the process of drawing one鈥檚 understanding of relationships between concepts. A map usually contains at least two concepts (nouns), a relationship (verb or concise description), and a directional arrow connecting the concepts. When reading the map, we create mini sentences (excusing poor grammar, of course). For example, a student learning about bacteria can create a concept map that includes any relevant ideas鈥攕uch as specific types of bacteria (鈥�Helicobacter pylori鈥�) or ways to describe them (鈥渟ingle-celled organism鈥�). This layout allows learners to identify what they know and where the gaps are, in addition to the relationships between concepts.聽A suggests that this strategy is superior to rote memorization because it encourages students to make richer, more meaningful connections within a topic.

There are six stages in concept mapping, starting with the instructor providing learners with a specific guiding question.

1. Focusing stage: Learners are given or are asked to identify a guiding question鈥攕uch as 鈥淗ow is ice formed?鈥濃�攔elevant to the current topic.
2. Brainstorming stage (making use of retrieval practice): Learners do a brain dump in response to the guiding question, writing down any concepts and ideas that come to mind.
3. Organizing stage (elaboration): Learners review their brain dump and pick out concepts that are central to the guiding question, followed by asking themselves, 鈥淗ow are these concepts connected?鈥�
4. Layout stage: Learners build their map connecting the concepts with directional arrows showcasing their understanding. At the top of the map, they can start by writing down the main ideas of the topic, and then start connecting words together.
5. Linking stage: They complete the first draft of the concept map by labeling the arrows with these descriptions. For example, if they start with the words 鈥渋ce鈥� and 鈥渃old,鈥� they can connect the two with 鈥渋s.鈥� This encourages learners to think about the relationships between different ideas.
6. Revising stage: There is no perfect concept map. Give learners the opportunity to redo and update based on their understanding.

In the past, I鈥檝e done , replacing words with pictures, and it鈥檚 so much fun to have them form sentences using images. The goal is to help them retrieve, elaborate, and share their understanding. (I also recommend looking into Dual Coding for Teachers and other resources by .)

A final tip: You don鈥檛 have to do all of these strategies for every topic. Pick and choose, mix and match. Start small and build up. These strategies work because they engage the learner鈥檚 attention and encourage them to think more deeply about the content.