Adolescent Brain

Overall, the vocabulary lesson plan implemented in my classroom incorporates making the connections adolescence need in order to support healthy brain development. At this age, the prefrontal cortex of the brain is still developing. This is where their decision-making, planning, and social interactions are being developed. Giving students the opportunity to make connections between what they already know and what they are learning supports a healthy brain growth.

This vocabulary lesson also is designed to access memory lanes in teenagers. The repetition of the terms in many different ways moves the terms from short term to long term memory. Students do not just learn the words and definitions, but use them in sentences with peers, during a hands on activity or lab, and an end of class write up.

Students are engaged in this activity during think-pair-shares- during discussion and through the various hands on activities done throughout the class. Being able see a use for what they have just learned almost immediately after learning it helps commit the vocabulary into long term memory, and ending with a quick write that further helps students realize how they connect to it seals the deal!