Yeah, it sounds boring right? Another word, another flashcard, blah, blah, blah… Its not easy to convense students to do vocabulary. But honestly high school biology is all vocabulary. Well maybe not all vocabulary. More like 80%. Yes, I just made that up. I have no hard data here, just intuition. So how can we make this giant task that seems more like a chore into something fun? I have a few ideas, and if you will stick with me I will share them with you.
Start with the meaning behind it!
First students need to know why they should be learning vocabulary. People like reasons to do things, even if those reasons are bogus. You don’t need a bogus reason though. You have a real one. Vocabulary is the majority of the information for biology. Learn the vocab and you know most of the stuff you need to know.
Ok, but there is more to this idea. Having a reason for why they need to know is great, but what if they had the reason behind the word? Like, why do we say erythrocyte and not red blood cell? You want to know the answer too don’t you? It is surpirsingly self-agrandising! In the early days of biology was not as accredited as the other sciences like physics and chemistry, so scientists in the field decided to make complicated words to legitimize their science. It sounds wild, but that is the truth. You might not be able to find anywhere to back this up, but just think about it. Why bother calling RBCs erythrocytes? No one knows what that is! But everyone knows what a red blood cell is. But they call them erythrocytes to sound smart.
I start every year talking about erythrocytes. There are other words you can use, leukocytes (white blood cells), angiosperms (flowering plants), etc, (etc). I am talking about those special words. The words everyone knows what they are, but no one knows the fancy pants version. I use them to make my point: Biology is full of scary looking words for things that are *pretty simple. I tell students not to be afraid. A huge hurdle for most students is the fear of failure. They are locked in a fixed mindset (read Carol Dweck’s book “Mindset” to find out more**). Showing students the hurdle they are facing is NOT mount Everest helps to get them started.
*most of the time.
** Biologicool is not affiliated with Carol Dweck, we just like her work
Oh, we aren’t done!
You saw those asterisk symbols and thought this post was over! No way, we have more to cover. Getting students ready to face vocabulary is only the first step. Now we have to show them effective ways of studying vocab!
Most biology words have Latin or Greek roots. Learning a few root words can help us understand thousands of other words. Let’s go back to erythrocyte for a second. Erythro means red. Cyte means cell. The word is literally a fancy way of saying red cell. Because the cell is red. It sounds silly, but learning how words are coined helps us learn the word. This is why I recommend looking up the word origin (aka etymology) of each vocabulary word. It is like learning the foundation of the word. It can give a story to what otherwise is a static boring and honestly mostly route exercise.
I’ve done it. You’ve done it. We’ve all done it. But it is bad. The worst. Well, next to the worst. The worst is to not study. The second worst is to try to memorize using route techniques. Reading the word, and then the definition. Flash cards, when used poorly. Writing the definition. These are all ok methods, but they are only the starting points. If we must just read and write, I recommend flashcards. I will show you other methods of learning vocabulary, but we will start with the basics: flashcards.
Yep, physical tiny pieces of paper. We are going to copy word for word, by hand. By hand I said! That is very important. “But, Mr. Wilkinson,” I can hear students say, “don’t we have digital flash cards now? Can’t I just use them?” NO! NO, YOU CANNOT! Sorry for shouting, but this is an important point. Using digital flashcards is the same as not doing flashcards at all! “But I really do them!” They say that. Students even believe it. But when students do digital flash cards 99% of the time it means they are copying someone else’s flashcards by clicking control V and then never looking at them. But lets give them the benefit of the doubt, lets say they actually typed up their own words. It still isn’t the best. They will have better gains by writing it out on physical notecards. I cannot tell you why. I am not a neuroscientist. But it is true. Writing it by hand increases retention. I have seen it for myself. I have seen it in students. And I know somewhere out there is a real scientific study showing that writing by hand is superior for retention compared to typing and *gasp* taking no notes at all!
Ok, so we have the flashcards now. What’s next? Are we already done? Was that it? Not quite. Now that you have the flashcards, this is how you should use them:
Wait, you expect me to complete all that in one day? Of course.. Not! Vocabulary should always start at the beginning of every unit. Remember pre-teaching vocabulary. The thing they tell you to do for English Learners? Yeah, those things are good for everyone. Have everyone do them. Flashcards should a constant and integral part of study time. They act as great time fillers too. Need something to do on the bus? Flashcards! Waiting for the bell to ring so you can talk to your friends in the hall? Flashcards! Wifi out again? Flashcards! Yet another reason you should write your notes by hand.
So we taught our kids how to do vocabulary flash cards we done yet? No, there is still more we can do! And the great part is it also helps styme all kinds of discipline issues! It sounds too good to be true, but it is. Yes, I am going to tell you a technique you can use to help students learn and stay out of trouble! It is like the holy grail of teaching! It does require a bit of planning though. But I promise, the effort is worth the reward. Ok, here it is. The secret to vocabulary and reducing discipline issues: the humble warm-up. You know, when kids get to class and they are walking in and talking to all their buddies and they want to start some kind of shenanigans cause they “an’t got nothin better ta do”. You turn to the class and say, “Don’t forget to complete your word of the day.” What word of the day? That word you wrote on the board. It is a different word every day, but it is always in the same spot. And somehow always ties into every lesson. That word you talk about to make sure students who “forgot” to do their vocab at least know a few words that will show up on the exam. That word.
So here is what you do. Each day before the students arrive (if you can, I get it teaching is hard some times), think about what you are going to be talking about that day. Pick a vocabulary word that fits to be the word of the day. Write that word big and bold in the designated board space. Then write the definition, simplified cause not all students know dictionary-fu, and we want them to actually walk away with some kind of understanding today. Then, when appropriate, write the etymology of the word in small print below that. The GT kinds will love you for it. Repeat this every day, being mindful not to repeat words. It is okay sometimes to repeat words, like if it is important and in two different units and you want to call attention to that specific word. But most of the time new words. A new word every day. So you can say, “Don’t forget to complete your word of the day”
But what does that mean? Complete it? The word is already on the board it is done! Yes, but students need it in their notebooks. Every student, every day should write down the word of the day in their notebook. That is the warm up. It works for on-level, honors, and english learners. It works for everyone. It acts as an anchor for the lesson. A redirection tool for when students are a bit too rowdy. It provides students with useful notes, even if they are still learning how to take notes. And it provides a consistent atmosphere that promotes a feeling of safety for your classroom.
Look, I would not be telling you to do this, if I haven’t been doing it. It works. You just have to be consistent. You might be thinking, boy that is a lot of words and how am I supposed to know the definitions for all of them? Well I have a useful tool for you. The essential high school biology dictionary. It has all the words you need to fill a years worth of word of the days in it. And it comes with a bunch of review games. In fact the only way to get the essential high school biology dictionary is to get the bundle of tumble tower reviews. Which tie into the last piece of advice for teaching vocabulary.
Vocabulary games! What are those? Well, you play little word games with your students. I am not talking hang man, while fun I question the educational value of the game. Besides, there are better games. Sometimes words are so similar but really mean very different things. These are the words we as teachers need to draw attention to. And the best thing is, it is pretty easy if you know how. Here is what you do: post a bunch of different examples of the words. Then have students yell out what they think each one is. Ok, that isn’t very clear is it. Let me try with an example. You can check out the NonMendelian Shout Out Activity here for a concrete example. But I will use biotic and abiotic in this post. Remind students that biotic means life, and abiotic means not alive. Then tell students to shoult either biotic or abiotic. Show them a picture of a dog. They should shout “BIOTIC”, but if no one does encourage them. Timid classes may take a bit more prodding. Then show the word biotic to re-enforce their understanding. After that show a picture of a rock. You should hear “ABIOTIC” Then show the word abiotic to re-enforce their understanding.
The shout-out activity is great for words that are similar but need to be distinguished. The shout-out activity should only be played with three words max. Otherwise, students get overwhelmed. Giving a small pool of answers helps increase participation. Every time I have done a shout-out activity students have had a great time. They are perfect filler games if you when through that lesson a bit too quick! Most games take about five minutes. Expect about ten seconds each slide.
But shout-outs aren’t the only review game you can use. Once students are getting familiar with the vocabulary they can start playing the tuble tower review game. Here is the gist of the game: It is like Jenga with a twist! Students choose a block from the tower. Each block has a number on it. A question-giver asks the question that corresponds with the number on the block. If the student gets it right, they keep the block. If they get it wrong they have to put the block on top of the tower. When the tower falls, whoever has the most blocks wins!
Tumble tower reviews are great because students get to show off their learning. Students who know their words tend to win. So it gives another reason for learning vocabulary. I like to use the tuble tower review games as a part of my review day. The tension of the tower being on the edge of falling keeps students attention. But their is more students should do to review vocabulary.
So far we have talked about using flashcards, learning etymology, playing review games like the shout out and tumble tower review games. But the thing we want. The thing all of this stuff has been leading to is about students. We want our students to walk away with their own understanding of each word. To check this students can create a word web. What?! You’ve never heard of a word web before?! No worries I will explain in the next paragraph.
A word web is simple to make. Start with a blank piece of paper and your vocab list. Write a vocabulary word in the middle of the page. Look at the vocab list and think about the word you wrote on the page. When you find a connection to anther word, write that down and draw a line connecting the words. Now think about the new word and try to connect another word from the vocab list. Keep doing this until you have all the vocab words on the page. That’s it! Honestly, this is the least work for the most pay off. All students are doing is writing a few words and drawing lines, but what happens in their heads is amazing. They are taking all of these ideas. The words you have been going over with them. And connecting them. Putting them all together in one spot. It is important that all words are connected to each other. We do not want an island of words. We want to be able to connect every single concepts. So that nothing is alone. If we can do that, it means we have a path to understand every idea. We fortify our understanding of each word by connecting them to other words. It is, in my opinion, the opposite of route memorization. Route memorization is disconnected pieces of information that are forced in the mind. Word webs are connections. Everything touches and gives meaning to the other words on the page. In my experience, students who use word webs retain the information for years. This is because they make their own understanding.
So now you are ready to teach vocabulary. Biologicool can help with the Tumble Tower Review Games and the Essential High School Biology Dictionary. These tools will provide you with the word of the day and a way to review near the end of every unit. And if you want more help, try the Shout Out Activities! Vocab doesn’t have to be drudgery! Let it be fun with the Tumble Tower Review Game Bundle.