Make them retrieve before you reteach

Re-explaining to a passive audience feels productive and mostly isn't. Attempting retrieval first, even unsuccessfully, strengthens the memory more than restudy: the testing effect holds across a meta-analysis of decades of studies (Rowland, 2014). So when a class asks for a topic again, the first move is a blank page, not a fresh explanation. (This is the retrieve-first-gate pattern from Manning's education-agent-skills library, applied to the whole room.)

In practice

• "Two minutes, books closed: write everything you remember about X, and mark where you got stuck." Then reteach into the gaps they just found.
• Wrong recalls are not a problem. Correcting an error you just committed to is stickier than hearing the right version cold.
• The retrieval attempt also rewrites your reteach: you now know which half of the topic survived and can skip it.