Memory Selection Day

Every six weeks or so, I assign a memory selection to my classes. Generally, the selections are poems or documents that I know students will see/hear quoted often in their lives. The first one I assign each year is the school's fight song, and they get more difficult from there. The kids hate them! Never mind that they know the lyrics to a zillion songs. They are convinced that they can't memorize anything. I always give at least four weeks from the time it is assigned until it is due. Students can opt to write it or recite it. I don't count off for spelling, punctuation, or format, and I overlook little word glitches. I will even prompt students who are "stuck".

This month's selection was from the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, starting with "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." I'm sorry, but I believe that every red-blooded American student should know those words and the ones that follow. Call me old-fashioned!

Today was Memory Selection Day. Cheating is always rampant. I have to be very alert for that. Over the years, I have had to progress to providing the students paper to write on so they can't substitute a previously completed copy for the one they are to submit. In the beginning, I gave them white computer paper...then had to advance to giving them colored paper because they caught onto the white paper. Once they figured out that they couldn't match the paper color, they became quite creative about where to hide the original in order to copy it. Today, I caught no fewer than six kids in the process! One had the text stashed on the back of the seat in front of him. Another had a copy stashed on the cart with the overhead projector on it, near him. Still another had one in a book bag on the floor at his side. Yet another had one under the somewhat transparent cover of a folder in this view. Still yet another, was holding one in her hand, held close to her stomach...and another had several near the wastebasket (looking like waste paper). What disturbs me about this is that only ONE kid was embarrassed enough about it to lie to me. The rest saw it as a challenging game that they lost. Hahahaha! No big deal, right? I will be calling their parents, but I don't expect that it will matter. I have told them all that I don't want them to become pilots or surgeons. "Uh...I forgot to read the chapter on how to land the plane. I only read the part about getting in the air."

I have considered that I could drop the memory selections, just to reduce my own stress levels, but I really think it is a valuable tool in English. Guess what? Next year, it won't matter!