Memorize, Ingest, and Understand

That's the name of the game this week for much of next week's work to come.

The students in Room 503 have a lot on their plates and they are hard at work memorizing poems and monologues, and making sure they are getting all the facts and information they need - not only to do well on their final semester exams, but so that they will do well next semester and, hopefully, the rest of their lives.

It's one thing to memorize by rote for a test, it's entirely another to understand for life.

Yesterday's blog entry gave you a run-down of what the students will be facing next week. In class this week, we are daily re-exploring ideas and themes that we began in the beginning of the semester. Here is an example (this was a hand-out from which students were prompted to journal):

"One for all, and all for one!”
At the beginning of the school year you were given a bag of “reminders,” one of which was a Three Musketeers Bar. It was a little something to remind you that “we don’t do this alone” – this school thing. This Room 503 thing. Take a few moments to think about this phrase (originally a motto between three friends in a novel) and how you have lived up to it in our classroom this semester…or how you haven’t. Have you felt supported by your classmates as well? In what ways…or not.
Take some time and care to please write a paragraph or two in your journal about your experience with this phrase this semester.

Reflection and self-assessment have been a big part of our class work this semester and students will not only be journaling about their experiences this week, but will engage in an oral exam with regards to the ideas and ideals that we have been apiring to over the past four months.

There's a whole lotta thinkin' goin' on!

Cheers,
Ms. Pitman