I've been in a number of classrooms lately when the displayed objective has been something to the general effect of "SWBAT (teachers will know that stupid combination of letters) review content in order to be successful on tomorrow's test." The teacher then proceeds to hand out a packet of worksheets, play a game, or have the students skim their textbook to determine what topics they are shaky on.
What is the purpose of taking a whole class period to review? Is there a good way to do it? Most math teachers seem to feel that this is a valuable use of time. What I've determined from observing and listening to the students is that this becomes the time to confirm that they might not do well on tomorrow's test. Does it motivate them to go home and study for the test? Not, if the students I spoke to are being honest. One young man didn't have a single problem correct on his worksheet. When I tried to help him, he said, "I know how to do this stuff." I guess because I was a visitor in the classroom, he didn't quite trust my opinion that he needed some help. In another class, the teacher had the class broken into 2 teams to play a game that used problems from the chapter. As I watched I realized that only the team member who was 'on' was doing the problem. Her teammates were encouraging her but the teacher said they couldn't help her. Everyone was supposed to be doing all the problems and confirming their answers. the 'good' kids were doing that. When all was said and done, not every student on either team had a chance to solve a problem. Plus, what does the teacher really know about what the students understand? The teacher might know that a student knows or doesn't know how to solve one specific example. There has to be a better way!
My opinion...if you're going to spend a whole class period to review the day before a test, find and use a rich task that utilizes all the skills of the unit. Allow the students to work in collaborative teams to work on an engaging task together. Make sure the problem requires the students to use the content from the chapter in connection with prior learning. If the teacher circulates while the students work, he may have a chance to find out where the students are being successful and where they are still struggling. Individual intervention can be done or the teacher can pull the class together briefly to clarify something with which everyone is struggling.
I just think that if one class period is used for every test review...hmmmmmm, about 10 to 12 units times 2 (1 for review, 1 for test), the teacher and students have used 20 to 24 days. Add in a possible day after the test for error analysis and all the days lost for mandatory standardized testing AND there goes more than a month of valuable instruction. No wonder there is never enough time.
I think that teachers need to learn to be more efficient at continually building review into their lessons. If mathematics is truly a 'building block' curriculum, then each day should have very natural connections to the day before and the day after. We need to look at the big picture, the story of the entire course, and find ways to tell that story without chopping it up. Maybe there's never enough time because we are blaming all the wrong reasons? Again, hmmmmmmmmmmm.....
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