The case for choral repetition in all subject areas

By Jemma Holden

In MFL, a lot of our time is spent drilling vocabulary - repeating new words and phrases until they stick. This can feel a little mechanical, and it’s not always obvious if students are actually remembering anything. However, I’ve found that choral repetition - asking a whole class to repeat key words in unison - can really help students engage and retain what they’ve learned.

A key benefit of choral repetition is that it encourages a culture of ‘no opt out’. Every student needs to be engaged and listening, every student is expected to attempt an answer, and every student has the chance to learn. It stops us assuming that silence equals understanding and prevents the confident few from taking control. Research shows that actively producing information, rather than just hearing it, strengthens memory and helps students retain knowledge more effectively. It also supports confidence and resilience as students quickly learn that making mistakes out loud is part of learning, and it gives teachers the chance to address whole class misconceptions efficiently.

However, I am definitely aware that achieving 100% participation isn’t always easy, and I’ve had many lessons met with awkward silence and have wondered if a class would ever join in. But I’ve found that with clear routines and consistently high expectations, most students eventually meet you there.

Routines make a real difference. In my Spanish lessons, I use simple cues: “Escucha” (hand to my ear) and “Repite” (pointing to the students). This signals exactly when students should respond and helps keep lessons moving. The consistency also helps students feel safe to try, even if they might get it wrong. Over time, most students begin to speak more confidently

Additionally, I’ve found it helpful to encourage engagement with plenty of praise. I regularly award house points to recognise strong effort and good pronunciation or recall. For younger years, turning it into a competition also works well. For example, splitting the class in half and awarding points to the half with stronger pronunciation, pace or effort. Over time, participation becomes more automatic, even when the vocabulary is new or challenging.

While call and response lends itself particularly well to languages, it’s a technique that can work across all subjects. I did a placement at an Ark Academy school last year, and saw it effectively used across the board, with really positive impact. For example, in English, the teacher asked, “Who killed Macbeth?”, counted down, 3, 2, 1… and the whole class answered together. In science, students chorused definitions of key terms in the same way. The energy in the classroom was noticeable, and every student was actively thinking and participating.

When used consistently, call and response helps to keep students actively involved, gives teachers immediate insight into understanding, and turns repetition into a purposeful part of learning rather than a passive routine. Try this out!

Further resources:

https://tipsforteachers.co.uk/call-and-respond/ 

https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/choral-response/ 

Doug Lemov, ‘Teach Like a Champion’, Chapter 4: Engaging Students in Your Lesson

Success for All: Can Metacognition and Self-Management Improve Student Progress?

By Russell Peagram

The Context

If we want success for all, we cannot rely on students “picking up” good learning habits by chance. The students who already know how to plan, monitor and adjust their learning tend to keep getting better. The students who don’t often work harder, not smarter, and fall behind. Even as adults, as professionals, we hit the wall in our “capacity”<  and to overcome this and reach the level, we sometimes need a coach to move across “the edge”. Our students are no different! 

The evidence & research

That is why explicitly teaching metacognition and self-management matters: it helps more students access challenging curriculum and make sustained progress. The strongest school-facing summary of the evidence comes from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). Their guidance on metacognition and self-regulated learning highlights consistent positive impacts when these strategies are taught and embedded, with the EEF toolkit often summarising this as around +7 to +8 months of progress, on average, when implemented well. This is also promising for equity: the EEF notes the potential for metacognition and self-regulation to support disadvantaged pupils when teaching is explicit and carefully scaffolded.

So what does this look like in practice? Metacognition is not simply “thinking about thinking.” In classrooms, it becomes three teachable behaviours:

1. Planning (What’s the goal? What strategy will I use?)

2. Monitoring (Is this working? What am I missing?)

3. Evaluating (What would I do differently next time?)

This aligns with established research on self-regulated learning, where successful learners use forethought, performance monitoring, and reflection to improve outcomes over time.

Self-management strengthens this further. When students learn to manage attention, time, and effort, they can actually use the strategies we teach. That’s why the most effective classrooms combine cognitive strategies with routines that support focus and follow-through: clear success criteria, structured independent practice, and reflection that leads to a specific next step.

Practical classroom tips you can use this week

• Model the thinking, not just the method. Use “I’m going to…” statements: “I’ll skim the question first, pick the key data, then decide which formula fits.”

• Teach a simple planning routine. Before tasks: Goal → Strategy → Time. (30 seconds, every lesson.)

• Build in monitoring prompts. Mid-task checkpoints: “What have you assumed?” “What evidence supports this?” “What’s your next step?”

• Use retrieval as metacognition. Low-stakes quizzes plus a quick reflection: “Which question surprised you, and what will you do about it?”

• Make reflection actionable. Replace “What went well?” with: “What will you repeat next time?” and “What will you change?”