Do your students look at you in disbelief when you remind them that the upcoming test on chapter 11 will include vocabulary and concepts from previous chapters?  I’m somehow always amazed that students think learning should be totally compartmentalized…”learned” it, showed you, forgot it….now let’s move on.  Upon closer inspection perhaps we should ask ourselves if we are doing anything to dispel this attitude.

Take vocabulary, for example.  The method of assigning a new list of words on Monday and testing those words on Friday could certainly fuel the attitude of “her today, gone tomorrow”.  In this type of setting the number and quality of exposures to the new terms and concepts is shallow.  Students simply don’t have time to bank the words into long-term memory. 

So how can we help our students “keep up” with new words?  If you’ve ever walked down the hallway of a middle school at the end of the day and seen vocabulary flash cards strewn about, you have to wonder about that strategy.  In reality flash cards can be a very useful strategy because they are easily sorted and manipulated.  Sometimes they’re just sort of hard to keep together.  If flash cards are your choice, then have your students use a shower curtain ring to keep them in one place.

My middle school students were most often successful with keeping vocabulary in a notebook.  Since my students kept interactive notebooks in my class, it was very easy to either mark vocabulary within the text of the notebook or set up a separate section for new vocabulary.  This kept all the words handy and allowed students to easily refer back to words previously studied. 

If we expect students to master and use new vocabulary, we must find ways to help them keep within easy access.  These are just a couple ideas; what works for your students?

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