Resources are good. Templates are great!

We are thrilled by the overwhelming interest in our resources, including our free guides, strategies, and book recommendations.

Let's take it to the next level with templates you can download, adapt, and create for your own classroom! This week, check out Retrieval Grids, a flexible tool for low-stakes retrieval, spacing, interleaving, and feedback.

P.S. Starting next week (October 3), we'll be in your inbox on Wednesdays!

Adapt Retrieval Grids for
not just any classroom, but your classroom

Tons of Retrieval Practice Challenge Grids, or simply "Retrieval Grids," have been floating around Twitter recently (follow us @RetrieveLearn!). Retrieval Grids are simply a table with prompts for retrieval practice – that's it! Like a checkerboard, students jump around and answer questions at their own pace.

Retrieval Grids include spacing: Students are challenged to retrieve the concept or answer to a question. Each box is color coded for the time when students first learned or encoded the concept: concepts from the last lesson are in blue, last week in red, two weeks ago in green, etc. Space it out!

Retrieval Grids include interleaving: Many grids include similar concepts (e.g., names for different historical figures) that require students to discriminate.

Retrieval Grids are perfect opportunities for feedback: After completing a grid, students can check their work individually, think-pair-share, and/or receive elaborative feedback from the teacher.

Retrieval Grids are low- or no-stakes: In some grids, students get a few points for how far back they can retrieve concepts, while in other grids, there are no points at all. Retrieval Grids are a great way to emphasize that retrieval practice is a learning strategy, not an assessment strategy.

Kate Jones, a teacher and writer in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), created a number of Retrieval Challenge Grids and put together an amazing resource with tons of examples and downloadable templates.

We recently participated in a Twitter chat (#TeachUAEChat) hosted by Kate. We were thrilled to swap more strategies for retrieval practice and learn about her upcoming book. Be sure to follow her @87History and download grid templates for your classroom!