Saturday, May 01, 2010

Rote Memorization

I was reading this post the other day, and flashed back to my 7th and 8th grade German class where we had to memorize dialogs and play both parts with the teacher for a grade. Now, I'm not saying I'm old, but this was in the late 70's. The thing is, I still remember parts of the conversations in some of these cheesy dialogs.

That got me thinking that maybe I could make up a cheese-ball conversation for my algebra 1 students to memorize and have to perform for me. In this way maybe when they're solving a quadratic equation in the future that's not all prettied up and ready for them, they'll break into a cold sweat and remember this dialog and solve it properly.

Here's what I have (and the version I'll hand out):

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3 comments:

  1. Ricochet7:36 PM

    Puella amat nauta. Nauta non amat puella. Agricola amat puella. Puella non amat agricola.

    And that was longer ago than the 1970s.

    I love your idea. I also teach the quadratic song.

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  2. sam shah9:59 PM

    I did this last year when having kids "figure out" how to integrate themselves.

    http://www.box.net/shared/ueutz5tcxk

    I had two people read the dialogue histrionically. It was fun.

    I should do more of this.

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  3. untilnextstop10:26 AM

    I teach the song, and then make the kids go to their other teachers / other staffers on campus to recite the song from memory! You print the lyrics on a sheet of paper, with some instructions, and the teacher signs it off after they sing. It was super fun for the kids! Some teachers made them dance in front of class. :) I like your idea of the cheesy dialogue; I'll try that next time!

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