I believe that the most effective way to get people to learn is to allow them to personalize ideas, concepts and language.  When students are able to personalize ideas then it becomes relevant and important to them and thus, they will remember it.  Personalization means that students take an idea and make it their own.  In the case of German, for example, a student could discuss her family in order to master the German family members.  She would remember such vocabulary because she would be attaching personal significance to the words that describe her family.  This idea could be extended to other disciplines as well, such as, social studies or history.  For example, students could take on the role of a historical figure and write a journal entry in the role of that person.

The incredible benefits of the tool of personalization are manifold.  First of all, personalized activities or tasks are fun and interesting for students.  Secondly, by personalizing the ideas, students are able to play with ideas in a way that is useful or relevant to them because it gives them the opportunity to personally reflect or critically assess an idea instead of just viewing the idea discretely as something that is ‘other’ than themselves.  Moreover, in the discipline of history, personalization allows students to empathize, which is one of Peter Seixas’ 6 critical historiographical functions.  Empathy-building is a key component of history because it allows students to explain why major figures or groups of people decided to act in the ways that they did, but also because it is a valuable skill in and of itself.  Students are able to reflect how others may respond to their actions and thus, the former people will decide on their actions carefully before carrying them out.  This function of empathizing does not just allow for young people to learn to care about others, but it also teaches them to act tactfully and diplomatically with people which is important in many careers from the service industry to international diplomacy.

Newspaper on Red River Rebellion