The notion that we should review students’ learning during lessons, particularly at the beginning of lessons in order to activate prior knowledge, is widely accepted as a foundational principle of teaching.

Cognitive science has shown that the relationship between working memory and long-term memory profoundly influences the process of learning. Strategies that help students to connect new content with what they already know strengthen learning by establishing links between ideas and developing understanding. It is important to check for this understanding (and, of course, to check for misunderstanding) by reviewing learning throughout lessons.

There are a variety of methods that can be used to review learning during lessons, including formative assessment approaches, such as the use of show-me boards, writable desks, think-pair-share protocols and quizzing routines. Where these approaches are used diagnostically, for example, to determine the extent and depth of understanding across a class, they are invaluable tools that enable us to respond to students' learning in the moment and reteach material, if appropriate. It is essential, however, that we develop a broad repertoire of questioning techniques for this purpose so that classroom talk is not reduced to recitation and the recall of information. Asking questions that call on all students to elaborate on their thinking and explain their ideas is the cornerstone of effective pedagogical practice. Of course, technique alone is no substitute for a carefully planned curriculum that cultivates students' thinking from the ground up. Arguably, it is the interplay between these curricular and pedagogical approaches that is the key to genuinely adaptive teaching.                

REVIEWING LEARNING REGULARLY THROUGHOUT LESSONS:

• Is an essential part of what it means to teach responsively.

• Enables gaps in knowledge to be identified and addressed by teachers. 

• Surfaces misconceptions in students' thinking and facilitates exploration of these with students. 

• Encourages an inclusive classroom culture by reinforcing expectations around student participation during lessons.   

• Engages students in consideration of learning goals and helps them to know where they are in their learning.

• Focuses student attention on the process and purpose of learning.

• Highlights variations in students' responses during classroom instruction that allow teachers to make 'microadaptive' adjustments to their teaching (Corno, 2008). 

• Generates evidence of students' learning to inform feedback that impacts on future performance (Wiliam, 2010).