Free Spiral Review Resource Guide for Educators

Here’s a quick, easy-to-share collection of free spiral review resources, including research, books, videos, blogs, and classroom strategies for teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders.

What is spiral review?

Spiral review is a simple way to bring previously taught skills back into instruction over time. It gives students regular chances to revisit, remember, and use what they have learned instead of relying on one-time practice or last-minute test preparation.

Spiral review is closely connected to:

• Retrieval practice: Giving students a chance to recall information from memory
• Spaced practice: Bringing important learning back at helpful intervals
• Interleaving: Mixing skills or problem types to help students think flexibly

Resource List:

Spiral Review Quick Start Guide

Our Spiral Review Quick Start Guide is a helpful place to begin. Use it to choose priority skills and add spiral review to routines you already have in place.

Quick tip: Try starting with 5–15 minutes during a warm-up, center, exit ticket, homework assignment, or small-group lesson. Mix current learning with one or two previously taught skills.

Research and Learning Science

Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D.

Dr. Agarwal is a cognitive scientist, educator, and author who shares practical ways to bring learning science into the classroom.

• Explore Pooja K. Agarwal’s research and publications
• Learn more about Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D.

Featured cognitive scientists

Take a look at this list of researchers who study retrieval practice and share learning science with educators.

Explore cognitive scientists at RetrievalPractice.org

Research topics to explore

These studies are helpful starting points for learning more about the ideas behind spiral review:

• Roediger and Karpicke (2006): Retrieval practice and long-term learning
• Cepeda and colleagues (2006): Spaced practice and retention
• Rohrer and Taylor (2007): Interleaved math practice
• Karpicke and Roediger (2007, 2008): Repeated retrieval
• Rohrer and colleagues (2014): Interleaving different math problem types

Books for Educators

• Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning — By Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D., and Patrice M. Bain, Ed.S. Practical ideas for using retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and feedback-driven metacognition.
• Smart Teaching Stronger Learning: Practical Tips From 10 Cognitive Scientists — Edited by Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. Short, approachable chapters on retrieval, spacing, interleaving, metacognition, and more.
• Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning — By Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel. An accessible look at self-testing, spacing, interleaving, and lasting learning.
• Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning — By James M. Lang. Simple, research-based changes educators can add to lessons and classroom routines.

Videos About Spiral Review

• Teach Less, Remember More: Spiral Curriculum Explained — See how revisiting ideas with increasing complexity can support retention and mastery.
• Is Spiral Review Just for Math? Why Every ELA Teacher Needs It — Explore easy ways to use spiral review in reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension.
• Spiraling the Curriculum to Get Sticky Learning — Kristin Phillips shares examples of recursive teaching and learning that lasts.
• How to Spiral Learning in Social Studies (So Kids Don’t Forget!) | Spiral Review Strategies — A helpful video with simple ways to use spiral review in Social Studies and keep important concepts fresh.

Spiral Review Blogs and Teaching Resources

• Weekly Digest #107: Spiral Review — The Learning Scientists — A helpful roundup of spiral review and spaced practice ideas for the classroom.
• Spiral Review and Assessment Strategies — Differentiated Teaching — Practical guidance for connecting review with formative assessment, differentiation, and progress monitoring.
• The Teacher-Approved Spiral Approach: 7 Easy Spiral Learning Strategies — Easy-to-use ideas for spiraling vocabulary, reading, science, social studies, and math.
• How to Make Spiral Review Work for You and Your Students — Helpful classroom strategies for organization, differentiation, and spiral review across subject areas.

Watch the Webinar Recording

Stop Reteaching: Close Learning Gaps with Spiral Review

If you’d like to see these ideas in action, watch the spiral review webinar recording on edWeb.

The recording walks through how spacing, interleaving, and retrieval practice work together. It also shares examples for warm-ups, exit tickets, WIN time, homework, small-group instruction, and daily classroom routines.

A Simple Way to Begin

Here’s one easy way to get started:

1. Choose one subject and two or three priority skills.
2. Add a short review activity to a routine you already use.
3. Mix recent content with previously taught skills.
4. Take a quick look at student responses and note which skills need another opportunity.
5. Keep the routine going and adjust it as needed.

We hope this guide makes it easier to find helpful spiral review resources and get started!