The Preamble, 7th grade U.S. History

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Permalink Reply by Enrique Black on January 30, 2008 at 9:10pm

A lot different from how I experienced it, and certainly different than how it is introduced today in classrooms! We now watch educational documentaries ( Memorize the school house rock song "The Preamble") and use proper note taking skills, along with cross-word puzzles and fill in the blank worksheets. Just a little history humor!

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Permalink Reply by James Dykstra on January 31, 2008 at 7:31am

Intriguing. As a Canadian I can't even dream that I'd actually attempt to have my students memorize parts of the Canadian constitution. I guess that's a cultural difference.

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Permalink Reply by WmChamberlain on January 31, 2008 at 10:10am

We have our fifth graders memorize the Preamble. The kids use Schoolhouse Rock. They have to recite it as a speech. It is fun to watch them try to not sing it. It has become part of our shared school culture since former students can still remember it and will often join in to sing along if they hear it.

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Permalink Reply by Adam Waxler on January 31, 2008 at 10:43am

That was great and perfect timing...my students are given an opportunity today to recite the Preamble for bonus points on tomorrow's test. I also show the the School House Rock video and let them sing it for extra bonus points. This year though something really cool happened...a number of students asked if they could sing to something other than the school house rock theme...three girls did a "row,row,row your boat" version AND two other girls created a "rap" version...it was awesome!

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Permalink Reply by Enrique Black on February 1, 2008 at 8:46pm

How did you do this? Did you give them the option of doing the a different version?

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