101. The Transformative Power of AI

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Folks, let’s face it. Our classrooms are going to look a little different this year. AI, specifically ChatGPT, is going to change the way we design learning experiences and assess student mastery. I’ll be honest, when I first explored the ChatGPT platform I was terrified. As I have dug deeper into the technology and its capabilities, I realized that while it does pose significant challenges — it also presents us with some pretty amazing opportunities. In this series, we will explore what AI is capable of, its implications in the classroom, and how it can benefit both teachers and students. Let’s start by examining where we have been, where we are currently, and looking forward to where we are going. Whether this is a trip you wanted to go on or not, the AI train has left the station and it is time for all of us to jump on board. From Card Catalogs to Artificial Intelligence I belong to the micro-generation called Xennial. Xennials are considered to be a “bridge” between Generation X a...
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#49. Review Strategies that Work in 2021: Dual Coding using "Draw That"!

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This is the 2nd in a series of posts about how to design effective review opportunities for online, face-to-face and hybrid students.  In this post, I will share how I adapted an old-school, in-person vocabulary review for AP Psychology to to make it accessible for my remote learners. The AP Psychology Exam is content-driven and the students need to have mastered the proper terms and definitions in order to apply it to human thinking and behavior. This learning activity helps students master and apply the terms that they need to know about social psychology.

This assignment requires the students to combine words and visuals. This process is called Dual Coding. According to the Learning Scientists, 

 The idea is to provide two different representations of the information, both visual and verbal, to help students understand the information better. Adding visuals to a verbal description can make the presented ideas more concrete, and provides two ways of understanding the presented ideas."  (Dual Coding & Learning Styles) 

Research indicates that when we combine visual and verbal representation it is easier for the students to understand the material. In this learning activity, the students will be creating illustrations of different vocabulary terms and will explain their illustrations to the class at the end of the period.

https://images.app.goo.gl/acczLT7wCeu4nzccA
https://images.app.goo.gl/acczLT7wCeu4nzccA
Old School
Let's start by looking at what this assignment looked like in the days before social-distancing and contact-tracing became the norm. To begin, I gave each student this handout and highlighted a different term on their sheet denoting the term that they were responsible for drawing. I gave them the following directions:
  • You will have 15 minutes to draw a visual representation of your concept. It should be conceptual in nature. There should be no words in your drawing other than to label items as necessary.
  • Your peers will attempt to match the term to the correct picture.
  • Be sure to identify your picture by number but do not include your vocabulary word on your picture!!
After the students completed their drawings they hung them around the classroom. Next, the students circulated and matched the drawing to the term and recorded their answers on the handout. At the end of the period we briefly went over each picture and identified what term was being represented. This provided a great opportunity for the students to discriminate between the terms because they had to justify their choices.

New School
I modified this assignment for my students this year due to social distancing requirements. You could certainly keep this assignment as is if you have enough physical space for the students to spread out. Or you could use one of my favorite tech tools, GimKit. GimKit is an online, quizzing platform designed by students for students. The teacher creates vocab kits which can be used to create assignments or live games for the students to play. My students love playing the Infinity Mode and Trust No One Mode. I love that I can upload my files directly from Quizlet!

GimKit just launched a new game that would be PERFECT for this assignment called "Draw That." In this mode, the students don't answer questions. Instead, one student draws the term while the rest of the class tries to guess what it is. It's very similar to the game Pictionary. Here is a brief tutorial on how to use this feature.



Retrieval Practice
One of the main reasons that I write this blog is that it encourages me to reflect on my own instruction and anticipate any questions that you may have. As I was designing this lesson, I thought "what if they don't know the term? Because if they don't know it then they can't draw it!" I decided that I needed to introduce this lesson with a little retrieval practice. I am a huge fan of the Brain-Buddy-Book strategy. Here are three steps to this strategy:
  1. The students are provided a document with every "Draw That" term listed. They are given 10 minutes to write down EVERYTHING that they remember about the terms. They MAY NOT use notes or any other resources.
  2. The students are partnered up. They are given 5 minutes to complete their review sheet with a partner. They should add, correct and delete as necessary. They MAY NOT use notes or any other resources.
  3. The students have 5 more minutes to complete the review sheet. They may USE NOTES/RESOURCES to fill in any missing information.
I created a simple table for the students to complete so they have the information that they need when they need it. They begin their illustrations AFTER completing the retrieval practice. According to Retreivalpractice.org, retrieval practice is a learning strategy in which bringing information to mind enhances and boosts learning. Deliberately recalling information forces us to pull our knowledge “out” and examine what we know." (https://www.retrievalpractice.org/why-it-works) There are a number of benefits to using retrieval practice in every classroom. It increases long-term retention of information and helps students to identify gaps in their knowledge. Source: http://pdf.retrievalpractice.org/RetrievalPracticeGuide.pdf

Tech Tools & Modifications
I use the paid ($4.99/month) version of GimKit but there is also a free version. The free version is limited to 5 participants playing each game at a time. This could work depending on your class size and if you want the students to work individually or in groups. Another option would be to create a Google Slide Deck or Jamboard and provide the students with EDIT privileges. Assign each student a slide number and they can create their own drawings to share with the class. This would look very similar to the "Old School" lesson but they would draw on slides instead of paper.

I hope you find that this learning strategy will help your students. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

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