The Learning Cycle in Grade 11 IB Psychology

Following a recent EAL professional development session, the Psychology department designed a lesson to introduce the assessment skills of writing a Short Answer Question (SAQ) to our Grade 11 students that was in line with the Learning Cycle.

1. Setting the context

Looking through the command terms – students were asked to write their own exam questions that they thought might come up. This was a really useful task in identifying their preconceptions about both the course and the wordings of the question, whilst also tracking their understanding of the command terms in which we had already introduced in a previous lesson.

Within this task – a mini learning cycle was apparent, as we then modelled potential questions using the wording that mirrors that of the IB exams. Students were then asked to rate their own questions as whether they would be appropriate. This led to a joint discussion of the reasons why questions may or may not be appropriate based on the command term, specificity and skills they would need to demonstrate.

2. Modelling and Deconstructing

We then introduced a model structure that could be used when writing SAQ responses; the SAQ sandwich model.

The next task involved sharing three example responses to questions on the Models of Memory as an attempt to model what a SAQ response involves in terms of length, structure. Students were asked to identify three take-aways of what they noticed from reading these responses. Students said they noticed the three part structure as well as useful sentences that could help them phrase their ideas.

3. Joint Construction

The next step was to work in pairs to plan out an answer to “Describe the Multi-Store Model of Memory with reference to one study” following a class discussion of the key points of what should be included. Students were able to apply their knowledge of the model to the SAQ sandwich model.

4. Independent Construction

The students have been set “Describe the Working Memory Model of Memory with reference to one study” for homework to complete individually.

Reflections on applying the Learning Cycle to this lesson:

Whilst this was similar to the lesson that we originally had planned, the intentional steps taken to address the language used within questions, and thoroughly planning where the best time to model the skills we wanted was helpful to see the students build these skills step by step. The learning cycle has helped to articulate to the students why each step is important whilst giving them enough time to process the information and skills needed for their own independent work. Once students have submitted their work, I will come back to this to see areas which could be further focused on for this lesson on introducing the skills of writing a short-answer question.