Explain it Back
With the technique, Explain it Back, a short time after you have explained something to students, you ask them to explain the same thing to a partner, as accurately as possible.
Why use this technique?
Explain it Back helps encourage students to pay attention (particularly if they know it is a technique you are likely to use) and help you check the extent to which something has been understood (particularly if you move around the room, listening to samples of what students are saying). It also helps students to check their own understanding and avoid the pitfall of believing something is understood when, actually, it isn’t understood as well as they believed.
Beyond all of these reasons, the technique utilises the cognitive principle that retrieval strengthens memory.
Example
Having explained a concept to students, you ask them to pair up and decide who is ‘A’ and who is ‘B’. Students who are ‘A’ are asked to take 90 seconds and explain as much as they can back to students who are ‘B’, with ‘B’s told to listen carefully. After 90 seconds, you ask the partners to swap roles. For example, you might say:
“‘B’s, I’d like you to take 90 seconds to give your own explanation back to ‘A’s, with ‘A’s listening carefully’, or
“‘B’s, I’d like you to take 1 minute and finish off the explanation that ‘A’s started, and to correct anything that you don’t think was quite right”.
Notes and tips
As well as being useful a short time after you have given an explanation, Explain it Back can be useful once a more extended period of time has passed (so long as this isn’t so long that students have forgotten everything and can’t recall it). For example, you might start a lesson by saying: ‘Last lesson, we were discussing the reasons Hamlet sought revenge. Let’s start this lesson using ‘Explain it Back’.’
Mix up whether the technique starts with ‘A’s explaining back to ‘B’s, or ‘B’s explaining back to ‘A’s. This can help ensure everyone is paying close attention to your explanations.
Focused reflection
How well do you currently use this technique?
Is it a technique you will focus on developing?
If so, what are the key features you will focus on (things to do, and not do)?