I’m guessing most of us are back in school by now, religious-education-wise. How’s everyone’s year going so far?
Tonight was my first “real” class, since last week’s first class meeting consisted mostly of announcements, ice breakers, herding everyone to the church for the prayer service – that kind of thing. I had hoped to have alllllllll of the kids’ assignments compiled into a folder that I’d hand out to them tonight, but it was not to be. Our class did go pretty well, though, and I thought I’d share something that really worked.
I’m still reading Kevin Vost’s Memorize the Faith, and I strongly recommend it to catechists, regardless of the age of your students. Essentially, Vost describes an ancient system for memorization that centers around visualizing a room full of unusual objects, each of which is symbolic of something you’re trying to memorize.
I’m also using materials from Ascension Press’ T3 Teen Timeline Study Kit, which uses my favoritest technique, COLOR-CODING, to teach salvation history as divided into 12 historical periods. I’d had some success in the past with these materials, but I never felt like the kids really made the connections between the colors and the time periods. So I decided to present them with a room inside a “memory mansion” full of cues to help them remember what the colors actually stood for. Here’s what I came up with, and you’ll want to read Vost’s book to understand how I presented this to them.
1. Turquoise globe on a shelf = The Early World (creation, etc.)
2. Knife with dark red blood = The Patriarchs (blood-red = circumcision)
3. Bright red letter “C” hanging on the wall = Egypt and Exodus, because…Red Sea. HAR HAR
4. Hourglass with sand falling = Desert Wanderings (waiting to enter the Promised Land)
5. Judge with green robes = Conquest and Judges (green = Promised Land)
6. Little boy dancing and singing, with purple crown = Royal Kingdom (boy = David, because the one thing they know about him is the Goliath slaying)
7. Picture of a black castle, with broken frame = Divided Kingdom
8. Basket of baby-blue robin’s eggs, with the little baby robins waiting to come out = Twitter. Just kidding. Want to see if you’re paying attention. Exile, when they’re feeling blue and waiting to come back to their homeland.
9. Poster with a big yellow smiley face = Return from Exile.
10. Big orange candle with orange flame flickering = Maccabean Revolt. I was going to go with “Mac and Cheese, and it’s really revolting,” but they nixed that. Feel free to ad-lib.
11. Beautiful golden crucifix = Messianic Fulfillment.
12. Bride in a white dress = The Church (bride of Christ)
I gave them the tour of the room in their “mental mansion” before presenting any of the material. They probably discerned that I am thought I was kooky. Then, I gave them their bracelets, with 12 color-coded beads. Having laid the groundwork, I gave them a brief overview of what actually happened in each time period, and they were able to tie what I was telling them to the images I’d set up in the memory exercise.
I’m looking forward to going over this with them next week and seeing how much they remember. I also hope to use this technique throughout the semester, and possibly some of the examples from the book itself – particularly the Works of Mercy (corporal and spiritual), the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and 12 Red-Letter Sayings of Jesus Christ.
I’d say that the technique as explained in Vost’s book is clear enough that you could develop your own memory mansions to use with students pretty easily. Some of the word associations are over-the-heads of my students – like associating a Corinthian column with the letters to the Corinthians. I’d have to start with “what is a Corinthian column” to get that one to stick. But it’s great for personal enrichment and an easy, readable resource for teachers who are interested in helping students memorize information.
So – what’s working for you so far?
Catechist Chat will be an ongoing series of posts for teachers in religious education programs. It is based on my personal experience and not on any statistical evidence of the effectiveness of my advice. Suscribe to my feed to follow along, and Caveat lector, which is Latin for “your mileage may vary.”
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