Reading Notes #3

Reading Notes #3 Comm 702 9/15/11 Margaret Brady

This week’s readings focused on getting your class into groups for discussions. For the subjects that I teach (Anatomy/Physiology, Biology, Pathology) and for some of my class sizes (over 90), this is difficult. However, when I’ve had smaller classes, say around 25 or so, I have had success in getting the class into groups of about 4 and the “discussion” method I have chosen is to have each team make up “Jeopardy” questions. In this scenario, the groups are each studying their notes and books and discussing ways to form questions from that material. This has them re-reading the material and talking about it amongst themselves. In the above mentioned subjects, there is a lot of new vocabulary for students and a lot of rote memorization as well. In playing Jeopardy, the groups are re-learning these terms and turning the definitions around in order to make questions. Each team then goes up to the board and puts up their 5 categories (they choose their own categories from the chapters that we have covered) and they have their index cards with their “answers” from 100 to 500 points each and a daily double as well (just like on the game show). It is interesting for me to hear each group discussing what they will put down for their “answers” because I hear them saying things like, “No way is that one worth 100, that’s a 400 pointer.” This is telling me that not only are they studying the material but that they are able to discern the more difficult concepts from the simpler ones.

Then we have one student from the audience choose the first category, say “respiration for 100.” The student at the board who has made the “answer” for that category then states that from their index card and then it is open for anyone in the class to raise their hand and then come up with the “question.” They are still in teams so right responses gain points for their teams. This is a tremendous amount of fun and it has really helped the students study their notes amongst each other and discuss and analyze what is in the material in a more in depth fashion than just sitting at home and memorizing anatomical parts or physiological processes.

At Minneapolis Community College, I taught a class for several years called “Biology of Women.” What was really fun about that class was that it was small and the material lent itself nicely to discussion. The course included sections on “body image and society,” “skin and cosmetics,” “anatomy/physiology: menstrual cycle, pregnancy, labor, delivery,” and “birth control, abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth, etc.” and how all of these things affect women today in our society. I had each student keep a journal of what their thoughts were regarding the weekly readings and then we would discuss these topics in class. The personal subject matter lead to interesting discussion groups.