The articles I chose to read are The Keys to Remembering What You Read and Enhancing School Success with Mnemonic Strategies. Both articles were interesting and seemed like great strategies to help students learn better. The first strategy using mnemonic devices I thought was a great idea to try to teach the vocabulary words a couple of weeks ago. A mnemonic device is using objects to help remember vocabulary words such as flower for Florida because they sound similar. It sounded like such a great idea after reading about it but when I tried to implement it in class the entire class was extremely confused including the ones who I thought would benefit. They could not seem to see past the words I was trying to associate with the vocabulary words to help them remember. I have not given up though and am in the process of regrouping and trying again with renewed enthusiasm. I truly do believe that this strategy will help most of the students in my classroom.
The second strategy with reading comprehension in the article The Keys to Remembering What You Read went a little bit smoother when we tried out in the classroom. Since most of the work my class does is in textbooks we could not use highlighters. Instead of using highlighters we used sticky notes like the article described. My students loved taking notes on the sticky notes and placing them on the pages as they read. Most of my students did not even realize they were learning how to take notes until I told them. For science and social studies I decided to take in one step further like the article suggested with sheets made for note-taking. The sheets I gave the students had three columns key words (the section of the chapter we are on), notes (main ideas of the section of the chapter they are reading), and a picture section where they could draw a picture of what they have read. The note taking was a hit for those students who love to draw and have specific notes to go over every night with their parents to reinforce what they have learned in school.
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The difficulty you had with the memory strategies could be related to motivation. Did you select the association words, or did you let students select association words that were personally significant to them? The difference could be startling. Allowing students to incorporate meaningful, personally significant topics and information in classroom activities can be very motivating. Just something to think about. Great job.
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