Updated, Aug 2020
After two months of summer my students have had every chance to forget almost everything we did in year one. Even when I sit down to my desk to plan the second year I struggle to think what we’ve already covered. For this reason I like to spend the entire first lesson on reviewing what we did in year one before we start anything new for the second year.
This could also work as a year-end or even unit-end review activity.
Review Activity #1
There’s nothing like a pop-quiz to get the blood flowing to the brain. This is why the very first thing I do on the first day back in Year 2 is start with this Year One Review Quiz. These are basic questions that students should be able to answer. I’m not too disappointed if they can’t, though (except for defining psychology). We have another year to reinforce it all.
You can see example exam answers in this pack.
If you have a small class, you can mark each student’s work (while they read ahead in the textbook). They can then partner up and work together to fill in their blanks. Alternatively, skip the teacher-marking phase and have students go straight to working together to try to answer all questions. After this, we then go over the answers.
Review Activity #2
A very simple exercise is to get students to work independently is to write down all the topics they studied from the previous year. In a matching column, they write down what they can remember of the supporting studies.
You can download a sample worksheet HERE!!
Simple, yet effective.
This is a good chance to use the solo-pair-four paradigm. This is when students first work independently. I like to give them ten minutes, by which time they’ll run out of ideas but it’s important that they keep stretching their brain. They then partner up and collaborate, building on what they have already. After the partnership has exhausted all they can remember, they are free to find another pair and make a group of four.
Note: I don’t tell students that they’re about to be partnered up when they’re working independently, or else they might not work as hard and will rely on copying their partner instead.
This could also be a good chance to use a padlet.
Review Activity #3
After this first activity, I will give students all the major topics and studies that we covered in year one in a scrambled format. They can then cross out those that they have already, and match the topics to research from those they have left out.
After this task we have an open Q&A where students ask recap questions about studies or topics they can’t remember.
Download a sample scramble worksheet HERE!.
This is built-in differentiation as it’s remedial for those that need it, and takes no time for those that don’t!
As I like to keep things in one place for students, I will putting this in their first workbook for the second year. I will also put an “answer page” in the same workbook, so even if students don’t get it all complete, they can still have detailed notes from year one.
As with all the resources and materials I post, feedback is welcome and please feel free to adapt to suit your own needs and contexts.
Travis Dixon is an IB Psychology teacher, author, workshop leader, examiner and IA moderator.