Last Friday, everyone wanted to know "when we were going to have our geography test." Before we had it, I wanted to make sure they understood why I had asked them to memorize countries in the first place. As I mentioned last week, it is important to be able to picture the countries we read and hear about, even if the exact borders are a bit hazy. By checking to see what they remembered, I wanted them to assess if they had a successful way of memorizing factual information.
Before we sat down to take our quiz, we talked about how we prepared. Some students used the Internet, some filled in blank maps, some looked at globes, some had parents or siblings quiz them. Some students, I know, filled in the map on Monday and didn't look at it again. I let them know that my main reason for having them try to remember the countries was to help them determine which study methods worked best for them.
Honestly, I was very impressed. Students seemed very confident and some even added in capitals they had memorized for fun. I colored a master map and then asked students to name the country I had just colored. Some students complained I was "giving too many hints" when I said things like, "We are in a war in this country" or "This country has a Communist government." They wanted to challenge of no context (of course, I wanted to reiterate the reasons I had chosen these countries in the first place.)
This week we're focussing on South America, in large part so students can understand more of the news reports about the Chilean earthquake. We're also doing a quick overview of plate tectonics and expanding our study of energy to include the forces of the earth.
The Rookery 
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