Jonathan, recognizing which methods are suited to which learner is an important instructor responsibility. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Michele Deck
By participating in these activities, the students are able to build on their knowledge base which should be evident in the activities they hand back in and future activities that they should see themselves gaining more speed and ability to answer without having to look up the answers. So the feedback should be evident to themselves and to the teacher in their increased ability to recall the correct answers. I know personally how excited I became as I was more aware on a daily basis of increasingly more of the medical language that I knew and understood.
After looking at the exercises in this section, I can clearly see value in all of them. I feel in particular that the word search puzzles could be useful in a variety of ways. They would certainly fulfill the stated objective of providing additional practice and practical time utilization for those students who may be waiting for others to finish tests, but they can also reveal issues with dyslexia and differences that can arise when English is a second language for student.
For example, in English the word "pneumonia" is in Spanish spelled "neumonia", or is a different word, "pulmonia" which means the same thing. This is certainly not the first case in which initial consonants of words are silent, yet critical to the spelling of the word.
Getting students used to medical jargon is challenging enough, and may be made more difficult when the student’s linguistic background is not English.
As for dyslexia, Word Searches can certainly be a little more confusing for those with that disorder.
On the upside, they can certainly stimulate enhanced interest and a more fun approach to solving linguistic riddles.
Dr. Jonathan French
Anzhela, using a variety of extra credit activities will enhance student retention of materials.
Michele Deck
I think extra credit is a good idea for this type of activity.We should reward students who are doing extra work, it motivates them to excel.
I liked the crossword puzzles especially for medical insurance terms. Students get to know the most important definitions by looking up the terms to fill in the puzzle. I also like word search as well with a word bank. Sometimes I combine the two to reinforce the definitions.
Michael, I do believe that some learners think that they could win on the actual show of Jeopardy. By using our own content as Jeopardy questions, they are able to learn and review while living this dream. Jeopardy works!
Michele Deck
We have success by placing our students in small groups and doing games like jeopardy but with the questions based off the content material. The students love it!
Students love to compete with one another and "show off" their knowledge. I use several of these activities in my classroom regularly, and am still amazed how engaged the students become. Retention definitely improves.
therese, thank you for sharing this idea. Pharmacology is a challenging topic to teach.
Michele Deck
I use cross word puzzles as an extra review time for preparing for their final exam in pharmacology. I put them in random groups of two so they can work together. Sometimes I make it a race to finish first and offer special prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places. I give everyone a participatory prize too. The students enjoy it and it gives them a good review as indicated by their great grades on their final. It also promotes teamwork.
jessica, you can give a mall cumulative extra credit for completed puzzles turned in for all students.
Michele Deck
I have not thought of using these for fillers between test time. Great idea. Med term is always one of those classes in which someone will get done in 10 minutes and someone else will take 50 minutes. Do you give any type of credit when using the puzzles this way?
I have been using crossword puzzles for several semesters now in my course. I find that this challenges students more. At first, they think it is very elementary, but then change their tune shortly after and state they really like it.
That a good point if students are not challenged then they loose interest.
I like cross word puzzles because it appeals to many people who like challenges and problem solving.
Diego, it is smart to personalize your classes with these types of activities because you see success with them.
Michele Deck
Drawing and audio visual activities are the most effective and fun in my class.
serena, thank you for giving us your lesson methodology. This allows students to build and reinforce knowledge.
Michele Deck
I use flashcards. Students are given word lists each week. The lists are composed of combining forms, prefixes and suffixes. Each is listed in a different color. Then the studnts individually or in small groups put the word parts together to form medical terms.
We start out just learning the work parts so going through the word part reinforces the lecture portion of the class.
Then as we build words the students realize they are learning med terms and get escited about learning.
Serena
