How do use the science of learning in your classroom? Describe one activity in detail so other educators can use it too!
Both biology and anatomy and physiology are vocabulary rich courses. Without the foundational vocabulary, it is difficult for students to gain true understand of the big concepts. At the beginning of each unit students receive a list of vocabulary words that they will be responsible for knowing by the end of the unit.
I supply students with teacher created Quizlet decks rather than having them create their own. I don’t want students searching for their own definitions and studying a definition that might not fit within our context. Additionally, making flashcards feels like work to students, often, it is time consuming but not cognitively interactive. Most students tend to mindlessly copy down definitions which isn’t useful for learning. At the beginning of the year, I explicitly teach students about retrieval and about the common mistakes students make when using flashcards (like turning a card over before they’ve struggled to remember the term). I encourage students to use the test and learn function in Quizlet because those functions encourage retrieval.
I have also developed a low stakes retrieval vocabulary quiz that I give toward the end of each unit. In AP Biology, this quiz is composed of 30 definitions. Students have 10 minutes to complete the quiz. Initially, students are not provided a word bank, and I instruct students to use a pencil. Every correct vocabulary term the write in pencil is worth 2 points. When students feel like they’ve answered as many questions as they can without a word bank they come up to my desk and trade in their pencil for a colorful pen and I hand them a word bank that contains all the vocabulary in the unit. Students return to their seat, and continue the quiz, now with the word bank. Any words they write in pen are worth 1 point. The maximum possible points a student could receive are 60 (if they did not need the word bank at all). However, when I calculate their grade, I calculate it out of 45 and then ultimately convert it to a 10-point formative assessment grade (minimal in the gradebook). Any student who scores over 45 points receives a 10/10.
