Can You Teach Memory?
Carolyn Boyles
Jul 28, 2008
'Memory' is a label for a diverse set of cognitive capacities by which humans, and perhaps, other animals retain information and reconstruct past experiences, usually for present purposes. You can learn strategies that improve your ability to remember information if you intentionally use those strategies. What you can do as a teacher, and should do, is to teach students some of these memory strategies. Why not? You use them.
One of the differences between a person with a good memory and a person who is a "fast forgetter" is the use of some type of strategy to hold onto information long enough to move it from working memory to long term memory. As adults, we do quick associations or repeat things in our heads until they stick. We can write them down or use other strategies we have practiced that help us retain information that is a part of our semantic memory.
There are several reasons why some students have more difficulty than others with memory and need scaffolding strategies. When students are passive learners, they are at greater risk for not remembering the information being presented. Wandering attention will also interfere with the associations and connections needed for memory. The fast pace of the curriculum can also interfere with memory when practice and review are not built into instruction. Our brain needs to hear or experience information enough to establish a pattern or connection with prior knowledge. While there are other cognitive influences on memory, this article will focus on the memory strategies that are practical for use with academic information.
Students can benefit from memory strategies and, in fact, can remember complex information if it is connected to something memorable or familiar. There are numerous strategies; however, your students do not need to know how to use them all. It would be beneficial if they had a few tools to select from as they move through the varied and vast information they are expected to know and remember.
Most of the memory strategies described here do not contribute to deep understanding but do aid students in remembering facts, lists, steps in processes and information that can be called on as understanding is developed by other methods and experiences
The keyword method of memory is a popular strategy, because students can use pictures or images of familiar items or ideas and connect them mentally to information to be remembered. Students in one class of at-risk learners were able to retain the Bill of Rights - the first 10 amendments - by creating pictures that connected the number of the amendment with some
information about the amendment in order to remember both. Example: One student drew this poster for the 8th amendment. It shows the number 8 being burned at the stake and declaring that it is "cruel and unusual."
Another example was from two students who created a picture of the word that helped them remember the meaning of the word. Their example was a word picture of the word mosaic. Using different colors of post-it notes, a "mosaic" was created for the word "mosaic".
The Pegword method of memory uses a rhyme associated with numbers for remembering lists of information in a certain order. To remember the original 13 colonies and the order that they became states, Pennsylvania is associated with the number 2, and it rhymes with shoe. Remember the loafers that you could put a coin in and that it was usually a penny. Penny and shoe (2) are linked. Also, if you put 6 sticks of gum in your mouth at the same time, that would be a "mass of chewing" (Massachusetts). Pennsylvania was the 2nd colony to become a state, and Massachusetts was the 6th.
Acronyms and Acrostics are examples of mnemonic memory devices which use the first letter of the names of the items to be remembered to make words or sentences. This is a popular way to help anyone remember things. Most of us learned the 5 great lakes using the HOMES acronym - H - Huron, O - Ontario, M - Michigan, E - Erie, and S - Superior.
Or consider this spelling mnemonic:
A lettER is written on stationERy;
The jAR placed on a shelf remains stationARy.
Source: Unknown
Taking a memory walk is an old strategy that may be used to improve recall of a list of terms or steps. It is sometimes called the "Method of Loci" and was used by ancient storytellers to remember long tales. The things to be remembered are mentally placed along a path to an actual familiar place or a fantasy setting. Students in one classroom were observed using the route from their classroom to the school's cafeteria to remember four kinds of fossils by putting them at the door to the classroom, by the window to the media center, down the steps from the building, etc. The number of places you choose will be based on the number of things you are attempting to remember.
Another type of graphic representation that creates a strong association for concepts or words.
There are more memory strategies described in the Scaffolding Grade Level Learning presentation and book. Strategies can be selected based on the type of information that needs to be remembered, as well as the age and level of the students.
