Last Lesson
With the technique Last Lesson, at the start of a lesson you ask the open question, ‘What did we learn last lesson?’, rather than ‘What did we do last lesson?’. Students might be asked to:
Think about this silently
Write something down (for example, on show-me boards)
Tell a partner.
Why use this technique?
When students think about lessons, they often focus on what they were doing, rather than what they were learning. Last Lesson is designed to help them focus on the specific knowledge and skills that were learning (or starting to learn), activating relevant schema.
For example, in a history lesson, students might start to think about Mary Queen of Scots (which is who they were learning about in the last lesson), and by by doing so, their ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ schema is activated, meaning ‘primed’ to incorporate new information.
Beyond this, the things students tell us they were learning in the last lesson can be formatively valuable. For example, in a geography lesson, a student might say ‘We were learning about how the greenhouse effect causes global warming’. This is incorrect and a common misconception that can arise when learning about this topic. If students don’t have the opportunity to share details of what they are learning, misconceptions can go unchecked and corrected.
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)?