Strategy Spotlight: Student Practice Routines
If our goal is getting all kids to grade-level proficiency, then student practice is a key method that we must get right. Though we like to celebrate student growth, the end goal is not student progress. It is mastery. And mastery only arrives by design, not by accident.
What the research says: The summary findings on practice and student achievement show a consistent positive correlation. Moreover, multiple exposure to content and skills across time is most effective (see Anderson, J.R., 1995, & Marzano, et al. 2001.)
As expected, practice is most impactful when it is focused on each student’s skill deficits. And, yes, practice can be effective in school or at home.
Hattie cautions that “this is not drill and practice, which so often can be dull and repetitive…” The most effective practice is deliberate (i.e., sustained) and spaced (i.e., over time) (Hattie, 2009, p. 185).
Rosenshine supports the notion that direct teacher instruction, along with requisite student practice, is most effective for impacting learning. He found that “the most successful teachers spent more time in guided practice, more time asking questions, more time checking for understanding, and more time correcting errors” (Rosenshine 2012, 17).
The key here is helping students connect practice routines to learning in a way that builds their skills and confidence over time.
In the simplest of terms, students cannot learn what they have not practiced. Yes, students might understand something for a moment if asked about it in class but moving that information into long-term memory requires multiple exposures and repeated practice (Ebbinghaus 1913, Zahn et al., 2018, 1-14, Carpenter et al., 2022, 496–511).
The idea that students need to practice new skills may seem obvious, but it is easier said than done. Of course, the struggle is finding the right time to practice, the right amount of practice, and the best ways to provide feedback. A common concern across schools is finding a proper balance between the amount of practice and the amount of feedback. When we get it wrong, teachers can sometimes give up on the idea entirely because it feels unwieldy and unproductive with so many students to serve.
Practice and feedback routines are key areas for professional learning and instructional coaching that can get lost quickly if we are not careful. For example, it is more likely than not that teachers have taken part in school and district training on discussion and writing protocols. The same goes for administrators. It is less common to see professional development in areas like independent practice, small group intervention, and grading.
If educators are not fully aware of the best practices in these areas, they can mistakenly see student practice and feedback as lost instructional time. In fact, it is not uncommon to see teachers suddenly switch their instructional plans when a visitor enters the room and sees the students working on something independently.
This is a good place to remind us that we do not know if students have learned something until they show us. Student practice is the threshold that we must cross successfully in moving from teaching and presenting something to learning and mastering content. Teachers must know if each student individually has mastered the required content or skill. In the absence of that assurance, we are just guessing, hoping, and moving on.
Things to try
A key growth step for teachers is finding a favorite strategy or two for releasing learning in a way that provides students with time for processing and practicing. Journals, miniature white boards, and various technology applications provide engaging tools for students to practice and be held individually accountable for their responses.
Practice time in class can be easily coupled with discussion protocols via strategies like turn-and-talk, think-pair-share, and even whole-group debriefs.
No matter the methods teachers use to get students to think, practice, and discuss, they are not adequate for ensuring mastery in the absence of a feedback loop. Practice without feedback is inefficient and ineffective.
That is why the most meaningful outcome of any type of practice routine is perfection. Whether students are learning how to solve for x or how to throw a curveball, we are most helpful to them when we pinpoint exactly what they are doing wrong and then don’t give up until they get it right.
Though telling a student we are proud of them for making progress is encouraging, allowing them to not reach proficiency is damaging. In fact, it is common across youth and professional sports for coaches to remind their players that practice does not make perfect.
Only perfect practice makes perfect.
The same thing works in our schools.
Dan