Tom Anderson
Lesson 7 question 2 mnemonics
My high school senior just walked into the room and noticed
the mnemonics page sitting in front of me. "Hey, I just used that
one yesterday, Roy G. Biv." She goes on to say that she uses them
all the time and starts spouting them off. She apparently finds them
useful. I've had little experience myself using mnemonics.
I do teach- Never Eat Soggy Worms for the cardinal directions, My Very
Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas for the planet order and HOMES
for the great lakes but that is really the extent of my current usage.
As a student I still remember Every Good Boy Does Fine and FACE from my
flute playing days. I did attend a conference entitled, "Using Brain
Compatible Teaching Strategies." The instructor taught us the peg
method discussed in the Cognitive Psychology book. I thought it was
cute and that it worked well, but I never actually used the method as a
teaching tool. As I started to research further I discovered
several web pages devoted to mnemonics. Amanda's
Mnemonic page was just one that had many. She states that if
they contain sexual content they will be easier to remember. Another
page, Mind Tools,
suggests using humor in your mnemonics. Both of these suggestions
are effective. Mnemonics enable us to link previously learned information
with new information. The more outrageous the story, sentence, word
or visual image we create in our minds the more likely we are to remember
the information we're trying to learn or remember. I was surprised by the
many websites that offer mnemonic sayings to help students with medical
and psychological
terms. Mnemonics are great for use right before a test. To me it
is almost like writing the answers on your hand. It is an easy way
to remember something but it doesn't always involve actually learning the
information. One I discovered from the Happy
Child Website that would be useful for my fourth graders is: Jason
Sat Under Ninety Eight Vicious Monster Munching Penguins for the size of
the planets in order from largest to smallest. A way to help them
actually learn this would be to have them draw a colorful picture of Jason
under the penguins, making a visual image as well. But, the use of
a mnemonic to transfer information into long term memory will work only
if it is rehearsed or used many times. We would have to repeatedly
refer back to the mnemonic throughout the year.
References:
Bruning, Cognitive Psychology and Instruction