You are teaching a grade 11 social studies class. Your students are intent on memorizing rather than understanding the material. They prepare for tests by memorizing the exact wording in their textbook. When you pose questions to encourage them to reflect critically about the issues and ideas raised in their readings, or you bring in additional materials to help illustrate and elaborate topics to help deepen their learning, they ask: “Do we have to know this?” or “Will this be on the test?” What might you do to get them to shift their perspective from memorizing to understanding, and stimulate interest in the curriculum beyond their test scores?
