Structure for Authentic Reading in My Biology Class.

Slowly but surely, my Biology class has transitioned from a typical high school class focused on the double helix and mitosis to one that uses those structures and processes to investigate human disease. Medical case-study diagnoses became entry points into inquiry cycles. For example, our unit on cellular respiration began with students diagnosing a hypothetical patient with Type II diabetes.

Given this approach, it is natural that our typical class text book does not serve my/our needs anymore. Although images and vocabulary related to such things as Cellular Respiration and DNA are nicely represented in the text, my current pedagogy catalyzed more questions about the current state of diagnosis, research and disease pathology. To this end, I found myself curating journal articles for students to read rather than assigning reading fro the text. Although the literacy skills of 9th graders makes this process challenging, feedback from them has indicated that they enjoy the challenge and actual scenarios so long as the reading is not "too long". I love 9th graders!

Next year I plan to pre-curate the articles in one private spreadsheet. Students will make a copy, share it with me, and use one place for the article link, a reading summary, and feedback. The accountability and simplicity of that structure should decrease extraneous cognitive load while creating a single, visible resource inside the class workspace.