And now for something barely relevant . . .

   Soooo . . .  as a part of my ongoing mission to bring English to the Korean masses 4 feet and under, I had this idea inspired by possibly the best teacher of all time Mr. Hill of Sylvania Southview High School- yes, that is a 'shout out'. Anyhow, Mr Hill, who taught American History, would offer his students and uber hard question in which to answer every semester, if they got it right he would give them an A for the class- the whole class: no final exam, no papers, no homework- just an A. The brilliant part of this idea is that the question was almost IMPOSSIBLE to answer and locating reasonable sources to answer such an impervious question required signifigant leg work. The alluring offer of a 'free A' would send dozens of juniors seniors to the library for hours scathing through stacks of history books in the search for their golden ticket. So, whilst you were looking for your 'eureka', unsuspecting students were taking in huge amounts of knowledge about the very topic they were trying so hard to avoid. It was accidental, perfect learning- a technique I have come to believe results in 100% success. Those students (which it was rare) which located the correct answer (I think only one student was awarded the 'free A' while I was attending Southview) found themselves to be a borderline American History expert by the end of the term. Like I said before, brilliant. 

    So I have implemented a similar task in my classroom. I ask a question and if answered correctly, students receive free homework passes. This has created quite a rage. You hear students whispering through the halls and as they wait for the buses asking each other about 'the question'. I am causing an 'English stir'! I am happy to see them get so excited about speaking this language they are forced to learn down the throat style. Above is a written response to one of my questions: "What color socks was Abraham Lincoln wearing when he was shot?" This was a question actually taken from my High School class- yikes 13 years ago!! I especially enjoy the illustration of Lincoln being assassinated.  (Please click on the picture above for a larger and much more enjoyable version- do it its worth it!)