Sigh. The things I do for my students. Sometimes i'm amazed at the crap i have to think up, just to get them to learn or remember things. Give you an example. I'm teaching a sec 4NT class. They are academically slow learners, not entirely cos they are not smart or anything. I think a lot of them are actually quite smart. Just that either their attention span is too short, or they are hands-on learners. Which doesn't exactly work very well in a subject like ENGLISH. Sigh. Anyways...I was trying to get them to remember 9 words. 9 Modals to be precise. Why? Because they tend to forget that a verb that comes after those words has to be in its root form. Without any '-ing', '-ed' or '-s'.

These are the 9 modals: May, Might, Shall, Should, Can, Could, Will, Would, Must. It's almost an impossiblity giving them a list of 9 words to memorise, so i had to think of a way to make it easier. Hence, i organised them like this:

May, Might
Will, Would
MUST
Shall, Should
Can, Could

Then I highlighted the first letters of each line (except for the 'MUST')like this...

May, Might
Will, Would
MUST
Shall, Should
Can, Could

and i tried VERY HARD to come up with a corny phrase that was linked to the thing, and that they would remember... (Bear in mind that it has to be the sort of crappy thing would stick in their minds. Bear in mind also that i'm not very creative by nature. It was rather an ordeal you know.) so i came up with this phrase...

Man & Woman MUST Sign Contract

and by that, i meant MARRIAGE of course...

And you know what? It worked! =) They REMEMBER! =) =)