Tuesday, July 25, 2017

First Day of School: The Name Game

A college professor of mine used this strategy to learn hundreds of names each year.  Like him, I have used it for years to learn the names of my students quickly at the beginning of each school year! 

One of the things I love about this is that I am teaching my students a learning strategy (memorizing information using repetition) while learning everyone’s names.

The Rules
  • Begin by having student #1 say his/her full name.  
  • Student #2 repeats student #1’s first name, then states his/her full name. 
  • Student #3 repeats the first name of student #1, followed by the first name of student #2, then states his/her full name.  
  • This continues all of the way around the room until everyone knows each other.  

Each student must remember all the names of those who went before them.  Therefore, at the end, I always circle back to the first students so as not to let them "off the hook".  Also, writing down names is not allowed!  

I have my middle school students state their first and last name, but only have them repeat/remember first names.  As needed, I give prompts such as "The first letter of their name is ...", or "It rhymes with  ____."

Kick it up a notch by using both first and last names.  For small classes, have them mix up and try to name everyone again with people in different seats.  😉

You might offer some sort of reward the following day to a randomly selected student who can still name everyone in the class! 

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