Strategies for Teaching
Memory Boot Camp, (MBC), is about to begin. As the class goes through basic training, we will be dressed in camouflage. At each class onset, we will sing as we march our newly created chant to get us motivated. Hopefully, I will be able to invite someone from the military or from the district's military high school to help me with this. After roll call and marching at each class' onset, my students will take a rote memory drill test as the first exercise. Results will be graphed daily. The second part of the lesson will be daily instruction on the brain. The third part will be one of the other strategies described below to promote memory.
Rote Memory Drills (See activity #1 for detailed descriptions.)
First Drill-The first rote memory test will be a list of four words, then five words, then six, and so on until a student misses a word. Once a word is missed, that student is eliminated. The winner of this drill will be our Drill Captain.
Second Drill - In this rote memory drill, students will construct memory wheels. These will be drills of ten words that students will try to remember in one minute time. Exchanging wheels, this drill will be done twice during each class for two weeks. The captain will run the drill.
Third Drill- Students will remember a list of ten numbers. This drill is will be done for two weeks before and after the chunking strategy is taught.
Loci Technique
This strategy uses spatial visualization to facilitate memory. An example is going on an imaginary journey to the grocery store, and going down the aisles, to remember what is on a grocery list. For our study, after the simulation on how neurons work, students will be asked to pretend they are a neuron on a journey. They will be asked to close their eyes and imagine they are traveling through the senses. First, they will encounter the dendrite, and travel to the cell body. Here they will bump against the cell membrane in an effort to enter the cell body. They will punch in the air to represent the exchange of charges. Then punching all the way, they will travel to the synapse. At the synapse, they will leap across into another neuron's space (another student's space). This method will be shared during the second week, when neurons are explained.
Beginning, Middle, End (BEM)
Students will take their wheel data from drill #2 and record it on the data chart. They will shade in the number of each item they missed. For example, if a student missed 4, 5, and 6, they would shade in those numbers. Usually students remember what is at the beginning, first, the end, second, and what is in the middle, last. It will be interesting to compile the data and see if the results are consistent.
Chunking
As students age, their rote memory improves. A three year old child may only be able to complete one chuck: for example, pick up your toy. A five year old child usually can perform two chunks: like pick up your toy and put it in the box. A seven year old child remembers three chunks: pick up your toy, put it in the box, and close the lid. By the time the child is fifteen, they should be able to remember seven chunks, like a phone number. One way to increase memory is to group information into bigger chunks. Students will be given ten numbers, let's say for example 4856983073. With chunking students will group them: 485 698 3073. Now they need to remember only three chunks, not ten. During the fourth week, this strategy will be shared. It will be interesting to compare the results before and after this strategy is presented.
Acronyms
This strategy takes the first letter in a series to be remembered and makes a new word: for example, the program I teach is called SPACE. This is an acronym standing for Special Programs for Academic and Creative Excellence. Students will be asked to create an acronym for the exterior and interior parts of the brain.
Mnemonics
This technique makes a rhyme to remember an important fact. An example is:
Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in 14 hundred 92. Students will make up a rhyme for explicit and implicit memory.
Another technique is reduction mnemonics:
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally
(Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction)
Action Picture
With this technique students create a visual image, or action picture using information they want to remember. Students will try this technique with words in memory drill #1.
Mind Mapping
In this technique graphic organizers may be used to review and enhance memory.
This strategy will be used for the types and stages of memory.
Cramming
In this familiar technique, repetition is used to facilitate working memory. Material is reviewed over and over to get information into short term memory.
Link and Peg
Students link information to something already known or easy to recall. An example would be to link something familiar to remember someone's name. When I met Vivie, I thought: she is vivacious. This association helped me to remember her name.
Think, Pair, Share
Students think about a question, or what is to be remembered. Next, they compare their answers with a classmate's, and then share the results with the class. This technique is helpful when reviewing concepts or muti-step questions. We will practice this strategy when the students predict how memory will change in the future.
Kids Survey
When asked what techniques worked for students, these strategies were suggested by students. 2 5 Some of the examples of student suggested techniques are:
- write it down
- put it on a calendar
- keep a notepad beside the bed
- read aloud
- mnemonics
- acronyms
- Loci
At the end of our study, each student will compile their own list in their portfolio.
Elaboration Rehearsal Strategy
This strategy concerns the timing of reviewing information. Information should be reviewed ten minutes after learning it, again twenty four hours later, and then again seven days later to retain in long-term memory. Some strategies to review information in order to send it to long-term memory are: 26
- paraphrasing
- note taking
- predicting
- questioning
- summarizing
Implication for teachers/students
In a forty minute lesson, after the first twenty minutes, students have a period down time. This down time lasts for about eight minutes. During this time student's ability to retain decreases. After the down time, then retention increases. Teachers should present first, during students' prime time, new information. They should not review or do administrative tasks. The beginning of class is optimal learning time. Closure or review should be at the end of a lesson; this allows for repetition, rehearsal, reinforcement, helping it become a long-term memory. Practice should occur during the middle or during down time. In a block schedule with longer classes, the down time increases. For an eighty minute block the first twenty minutes are prime time, then from about 22-57 minutes, down time occurs. The remaining 58- 80 minutes is second segment of prime time, called prime time 2. During prime time 2, while an effective time to learn is not as optimal as the first prime time. To decrease down time and increase memory, learning should be segmented with breaks: instead of one 90 minute lesson, have three thirty minute ones. The working memory can only take in a fixed amount at a time. 27
Multi-tasking
The brain cannot multitask efficiently if one of the tasks is conceptual. According to MRI testing, the brain "bottlenecks" the processing of tasks. 28 When multi-processing, the brain is actually switching from one task to another, making it an ineffective way to get things done. It simply does not work. 29 Try this activity. After removing the face cards flash twenty playing cards one at a time, for a brief period. Have students add the black ones and subtract the red ones mentally, then write the answer down. Time the activity. Next recite twenty letters. Ask students to mentally count the number of vowels, and record the results. Have students add the answer together for both exercises. For the third exercise have students find the answer for the playing cards, but interjecting different alphabets. It should take longer to complete and the results should be less accurate. 30
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