911 Vocabulary

Although Fridays are typically "vocabulary test day," I took some time today to present a powerpoint of photos from the 911 attacks of the Twin Towers. The first few pictures were greeted mostly with silence and awe. The third screen showed the actual impact of the 2nd plane, at which time a student remarked "this is incomprehensible." Immediately the class recognized that this was a word from their upcoming vocabulary test. For the screens following, students took turns finding ways to describe the images using today's vocabulary words (and a few from past lists, as well.) As a result, the students realized the importance of this date, while studying for a seemingly unrelated test. I had more perfect scores in this class, on this test, than I've ever had.