Having Fun

I had a blast yesterday with my Brit Lit class. The day before I was handing out a review guide for our upcoming test. One student happened to just haphazardly ask, "Is this a quiz?"

I said, "No. But thanks for the idea. Tomorrow we'll have a pop quiz."

Groan ensued from the 36 kids.

"And Sam," I said, stopping and looking at the student who asked if the review sheet was a quiz," tomorrow you can put a plus two on the top of your sheet for such a good suggestion."

He smirked and the others sitting next to him began to bash him with their tablets and hit him.

So when I was making up the pop quiz, I decided I wanted to have a little fun with them. Since we've been studying the middle age, I thought I'd make the quiz pretty simple and just keep it to terms.

So when I was making up the quiz, I decided to list way more terms in the answer column than could possibly be on the test. Just to make it more difficult. Then I decided to have several of the answers be used more than once and several more not used at all.

One of the terms was "yeomen" - the term referring to the small farmers who were recruited to fight in the 100 Years War and who, with their longbows, helped make knights obsolete (the arrows from their longbows could readily pass over castle walls and pierce armor). And just to have a little fun with them I also put in this term, "Yo Adrian." The definition coinciding with this one was "This is the phrase most often uttered by Rocky Balboa." I just wanted to see how many would get it.

Then another term was the "Black Plague" and just to have fun with them I put in a dummy term called "The Barbaric Plague." I wanted to see how many would closely read the term and how many would just assume it to be "The Bubonic Plague" and put that one down instead.

Well, when the next day rolled around the quiz was quite an experience. Right away several didn't bother to read the directions (I knew this would happen). So they hurried through the test trying to match each term with a definition. You should have seen their faces when they finished the quiz and realized there were ten terms left! Ha. "Hey, not all the definitions are used!" one kid exclaimed.

"No crap you idiot. Read the directions," another responded.

Several others who had done the same thing let out a collective groan.

I smirked.

Then someone said, "Hey you spelled Bubonic wrong. It says Barbaric."

"I know. It's not supposed to be Bubonic."

"Then what killed 1/3 of England's population?"

"It's on there, but it's not the Barbaric Plague."

"Well, what's the Barbaric Plague," she asked.

"Well, since you're asking me, I'd say country music and tractor pulls."

That one got the class rolling.

"Who were the Yo Adrians?" someone else asked.

"What?"

"Yeah. We never studied any Rocky Balboa? Was he the viking that tried to claim the crown of England along with Harold and William?"

That one even got me rolling.

All in all it was a wonderful class session.