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MNEMONICS

Sheri A. Wilkins
Program Manager
Desert/Mountain SELPA
Why would we want to use
Mnemonics?
• What does the research say?
Special Class Placement
Perceptual training
Feingold Diet
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size
Psycholinguistic Training

-0.20 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60 1.80
Effect Size
Special Class Placement
Perceptual training
Feingold Diet
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size
Psycholinguistic Training

-0.20 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60 1.80
Effect Size
Special Class Placement
Perceptual training
Feingold Diet Not very effective
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size
Psycholinguistic Training

-0.20 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60 1.80
Effect Size
Special Class Placement
Perceptual training
Feingold Diet Not very effective
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size
Psycholinguistic Training
CAI
Peer Tutoring
Stimulant Drugs

-0.20 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60 1.80
Effect Size
Special Class Placement
Perceptual training
Feingold Diet Not very effective
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size May be effective
Psycholinguistic Training
CAI
Peer Tutoring
Stimulant Drugs

-0.20 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60 1.80
Effect Size
Special Class Placement
Perceptual training
Feingold Diet Not very effective
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size May be effective
Psycholinguistic Training
CAI
Peer Tutoring
Stimulant Drugs
Early Intervention
Formative Evaluation
Direct Instruction
Behavior Modification
Reading Comp. Instruction
Mnemonic Training

-0.20 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60 1.80
Effect Size
Research Proven Strategies
Special Class Placement
Perceptual training
Feingold Diet Not very effective
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size May be effective
Psycholinguistic Training
CAI
Peer Tutoring
Stimulant Drugs
Use 'em!
Early Intervention
Formative Evaluation
Direct Instruction
Behavior Modification
Reading Comp. Instruction
Mnemonic Training

-0.20 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 1.60 1.80
Effect Size

Lloyd, J., Forness, S. & Kavale, K. (1998); Forness, S. & Kavale, K. (1999); Vaughn, S., Gersten, R., & Chard, D. (2000)
Recommendations for Effective
Practices
• Intervene Early
• Monitor student’s progress and provide
positive consequences for improvement
• Teach cognitive-behavioral self-
management
Recommendations for Effective
Practices
• Teach academic and cognitive skills directly
and systematically
• Use behavioral techniques to promote
acquisition of academic and social
behaviors
• Teach mnemonic strategies for
understanding and remembering what one
learns
What are Mnemonics?
• A technique or device for improving or
strengthening memory.
• Validated in over 20 years of research.
What we know about Brain
Research
• How our memory works
– Sensory Memory
– Working Memory
– Long-Term Memory
Memory: What Makes Some Stuff Stick

Re
SIGHT

he
ar
sa
l
SOUND
SENSORY WORKING
MEMORY MEMORY
TASTE
about 18
SMELL seconds
1-2 seconds (unless you
rehearse)
TOUCH

Retrieved Stored in The


The from LTM LTM trash
trash

LONG TERM MEMORY


(no trash can here - recall based on strength of connection)
PROCEDURAL DECLARATIVE
MEMORY MEMORY
(unconscious) (conscious)

SEMANTIC EPISODIC
Procedural Memory (How)
• Does not require conscious thought.
• These processes have been practiced or
repeated until automaticity.
• Examples are: driving a car, writing, typing,
decoding, walking, etc.
• We access these skills by DOING them – it
is very difficult to access them in any other
way.
Declarative Memory (what)
• Involves conscious thought.
• Semantic memory is our general knowledge
(facts, people, places, language, etc.).
• Episodic memory is our life experiences –
the specific events and emotions connected
to them.
Acronyms and Acrostics
• “First Letter” Strategies
• Used when information is relatively familiar
to learners so that all they need is a minimal
prompt.
Acronyms
• Uses the first letters of words in a list to
make a word that the student can use to
reconstruct the list.
• Examples are: HOMES (for the Great
Lakes), STAB (for the names of the four
voices in a quartet), and ROY G. BIV (the
colors of the spectrum).
Acrostics
• A sentence is used to retrieve letters.
• Once again, the content needs to be familiar
to students for this to work.
• Examples are: “Every Good Boy Deserves
Fudge” to remember the notes on the lines
of the treble clef, or “George’s Elderly Old
Grandfather Rode A Pig Home Yesterday”
to spell “geography”
The Keyword Method
• Used for vocabulary instruction
• Used to increase initial learning AND
increase retention of unfamiliar vocabulary
words
• Works by making unfamiliar vocabulary
words more familiar AND integrating them
with the definition
The Keyword Method –
Steps in Teaching
1. Reconstructing
1. Reconstruct the unfamiliar vocabulary word
to a similar-sounding keyword.
2. Relating
1. Combine the keyword and the response in a
sentence, visual image or picture.
2. The keyword needs to be interacting with the
definition.
The Keyword Method –
Steps in Teaching
3. Retrieving
1. Tell students to think of the keyword when
asked the definition.
2. Tell students to think back to the picture.
3. Tell students to retrieve the definition from
the information in the picture.
The Keyword Method –
“I Do”
• Ranidae is a scientific word for typical
members of the frog family.
• What keyword could I use? (Think Aloud)
• How could I relate the keyword to the
definition? (Think Aloud)
The Keyword Method - Example
http://www.vocabularycartoons.com/
And now for a demonstration…
The Pegword Method
• A pegword is a rhyming system for
remembering numbers.
• The simplest use of the pegword method is
for remembering a list of familiar things.
• Examples: Causes of dinosaur extinction,
causes of the civil war, list of exports from
a country, etc.
The Pegword for ONE is BUN
The Pegword for TWO is SHOE
The Pegword for THREE is
TREE
The Pegword for FOUR is
DOOR (or FLOOR)
The Pegword for FIVE is HIVE
The Pegword for SIX is STICKS
The Pegword for SEVEN is
HEAVEN
The Pegword for EIGHT is
GATE
The Pegword for NINE is LINE
(or VINE)
The Pegword for TEN is HEN
Ten Pegwords
1. One - Bun 6. Six - Sticks
2. Two - Shoe 7. Seven - Heaven
3. Three - Tree 8. Eight - Gate
4. Four – Door or Floor 9. Nine - Line or Vine
5. Five - Hive 10. Ten - Hen
The Pegword Method: Example
• In Science: List of minerals and their
hardness levels.
• This example pairs keywords with
pegwords to help students remember the
names of the minerals and their hardness
levels.
Talc: hardness level 1
Crocoite: hardness level 2
Antimony: hardness level 2
Wolframite: hardness level 4
Hornblende: hardness level 5
Garnet: hardness level 6
Quartz: hardness level 7
Topaz: hardness level 8
Corundum: hardness level 9
Diamond: hardness level 10
Reconstructive Elaborations

A picture can express a thousand


words…
Reconstructive Elaborations
• Reconstructive Elaborations are pictures that
make:
– Unfamiliar content more familiar
– Non-meaningful information more meaningful
– Abstract information more concrete.

• They also link chunks of information together so


that they are easier to remember.
Reconstructive Elaborations
Three Types
1. Mimetic (pictures of actual information
[Arnold Schwarzenegger/Peter Camejo])
2. Symbolic (concrete symbols for abstract
information [donkey/elephant])
3. Acoustic (sounds-like something else that
is familiar [Bunker Hill/Bumper Hill])
Reconstructive Elaborations:
Mimetic
• Pictorial representations of the information
to be learned.
• Mimetic reconstructions can be used with
content that is already meaningful and
familiar to students.
• For the picture to be effective the teacher
needs to know what is familiar to the
students.
Reconstructive Elaborations:
Symbolic
• Symbolic reconstructions can be used to
represent abstract pieces of information,
making it more concrete and meaningful for
students.
Reconstructive Elaborations:
Acoustic
• Acoustic reconstructions can be used when
information is totally unfamiliar to students.
• The reconstruction uses keywords that are
acoustically similar to illustrate the idea
(rain – ranid).
The Elaboration Component
• This is the linking component of the model.
• A good elaboration will provide a link
between the pieces of information that need
to be recalled together.
• This provides a direct connection between
the question and the response, facilitating
recall.
Resources:
• http://www.frii.com/~geomanda
/mnemonics.html
• http://www.memory-
key.com/mnemonics/list-
learning.htm
• http://www.psychwww.com/mts
ite/memory.html
Or...
• Teaching Students
Ways to Remember by
Mastropieri and
Scruggs

• Demonic Mnemonics
by Murray Suid and
Jim M’Guinness

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