Tips for Designing Effective Review Sessions to Support Student LearningBy: Michelle Rogers-Johnson, Ph.D. Educational Specialist When designing a test review session, it is important to have clear goals and an agenda. The goals of any review session are to:
Sharing and engaging students in discussion about the test blueprint is one way to clarify assessment expectations. The test blueprint summarizes the specifications for the exam. Specifications will include the content and cognitive level (e.g. Bloom’s taxonomy) emphasized on exam, number of questions, time given, etc (example shown below). Providing this information in advance helps students see the connection between the lecture objectives, coverage of course material, and exam content. The instructor can use the blueprint to check alignment as well and make sure that the content and cognitive levels emphasized on the exam are what students had an opportunity to learn and practice through lecture, lab, etc. In addition to the clarifying expectations for assessment, the instructor will also want to provide multiple opportunities for students to practice the knowledge and skills they will need to demonstrate on the assessment. There are a variety of ways to structure practice. Below I describe a possible method.
Exam Review Strategy: Student Presentation of Lecture Objectives Prior to the review session, ask students to sign up for one of the lecture objectives to present on. Encourage students to challenge themselves and select a topic that is particularly difficult for them. Students who are shy, might decide to partner with a peer for extra support. The presenters would summarize the top two or three points relevant to that objective on the board using some visual (e.g. chart, table, diagram, etc) and verbally to their classmates. The day of the review session, divide the board into 3-5 sections, and have students come to the board to write their key points and speak for a couple of minutes about the objective. Have several rounds of group presentations. If possible, structure each round of presentations so that they address related ideas or are chronological in the order of how the lectures were originally presented. At the end of each group of presentations, provide clarifying comments and make sure students’ questions are answered. As students are writing on the board, have those who are not presenting share study strategies. Idea adapted from: http://gsi.berkeley.edu/jacksons-2011/
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May 2017
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