Preview and Review Gives Students a Leg Up on New Standards

Schools in Napa Valley Unified School District (NVUSD) have found a fun, fast-paced way to help elementary students better grasp standards they need to master in math and language arts. Called Board Math and Board Language, this systematic process of preview and review gives students a leg up on new standards while reinforcing those already learned. For Board Language, a dedicated classroom white board is divided into four to five categories, such as synonyms and antonyms, figurative speech, and sentence structure, depending on the grade. Every day, the teacher writes two to three new and previously-covered standards for each category on the white board. Then for 15-20 minutes the students read and respond chorally to the day’s standards, answer rapid-fire questions individually, and review the answers aloud as a group. And they have fun doing it.

Some teachers were at first reluctant to adopt this new preview and review strategy, thinking it would take too much time away from regular direct instruction. But most have been won over by results. Their experience with Board Language or Board Math confirms brain research—children need to be exposed to a concept at least 4-6 times before they retain it. Teachers have found that direct instruction goes much more quickly because students have already been exposed to the topics in Board Language, often picking up the concepts even before the curriculum covers them. And, by reviewing the topics in Board Language multiple times, students have numerous opportunities to catch on before they land in remediation. In fact, the percentage of 2nd graders who were proficient in language arts increased from 38%-46% and the percentage of 4th grade proficiency rose from 44%-53% after the introduction of Board Language and other strategies.

The Board Language strategy was developed last year by a group of NVUSD teachers who were inspired by the Board Math strategy that Robin Hall at the Region 4 Regional System of District and School Support Office introduced to the district. The teachers experienced such powerful results with Board Math that they figured out how to apply the strategy to Language Arts. Now, these same teachers are the trainers for the Board Language strategy throughout the district.

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