As we dive into school year, my
focus has been on the concepts I want my students to learn and how I will
develop their understanding of math concepts further. I have used spiral reviews, or spiral
learning in the past, with quite a bit of success. I am definitely going to explore it a lot
more this year, as it is such a great way for students to learn, succeed and
even develop goal-setting skills. I’d
love to share with you some tips and tricks I have learnt along the way!
Spiral reviews, or spiral learning, are a
great way for students to learn new skills, and then revisit them. Each time they are revisited, or reviewed,
more complex learning experiences are presented. Students become masters in particular skills,
as they return to the same concepts or skills throughout the school year (and
beyond).
So what do spiral reviews provide student?
Practice practice practice!
I don’t necessarily agree with the phrase,
“practice makes perfect” because I don’t think you should place a ceiling on
success. However, practising and
revising students is a proven way that students can more easily understand a
topic or skill. These skills will assist
them in their schooling life (and beyond)!
Independent work and self-assessment
learning experiences
Each time a concept or skill is revisited
in spiral learning, it should be learned at a deeper level. This can be done using individual learning
experiences. Students, when reviewing
the topic, will be able to determine what topics they could be provided even more
challenging learning experiences with.
They can also identify which areas they need more assistance in. Because they are reviewing the concepts again
and again, individual learning experiences will allow students to improve at
their own pace.
Opportunities to succeed
Revising skills and topics can help
students achieve throughout the school year.
Some students may get it straight away which is great! However, for those students who need to
review topics to fully understand them, they have more than one opportunity to
succeed. This will improve students’
self-confidence and encourage them to push themselves further.
I think one of the best things about spiral
reviews is that they can be used in so many subject areas. Wanting students to learn and revise treble
note names in music? Spiral reviews are
awesome for this! Keen for your science
class to understand the life cycles of animals?
You guessed it, spiral reviews could be used. Learning about poetic
devices in Language Arts? Spiral reviews
are as good as gold (simile puns aside, they are a really valuable tool to
assist student learning).
What types of resources do I love when
using this style of learning?
Particularly for independent learning, I love self-checking and
interactive resources. I will teach the
concept to the class, and then students can use interactive resources to test themselves. I can even use resources with different
levels of complexity to differentiate for each of my students.
If you’re looking for different ways to
practice math with your students, this is a perfect activity. This growing bundle has some great targeted
math resources which can help you on your spiral learning journey. This resource looks at integers, negative
numbers and relative numbers.
You can also try the freebie below, which allows students to independently revise whole numbers and decimals.
Comment below if you have had experience
and success using spiral reviews! Happy
September, and happy teaching!
