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

Effect Size

1.20

1.40

1.60

1.80

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

Effect Size

1.20

1.40

1.60

1.80

Special Class Placement

Perceptual training
Feingold Diet
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size
Psycholinguistic Training

-0.20 0.00

Not very effective

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

Effect Size

1.20

1.40

1.60

1.80

Special Class Placement

Perceptual training
Feingold Diet
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size
Psycholinguistic Training
CAI
Peer Tutoring
Stimulant Drugs

-0.20

Not very effective

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

Effect Size

1.20

1.40

1.60

1.80

Special Class Placement

Perceptual training
Feingold Diet
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size
Psycholinguistic Training
CAI
Peer Tutoring
Stimulant Drugs

-0.20

Not very effective

May be effective

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

Effect Size

1.20

1.40

1.60

1.80

Special Class Placement

Perceptual training
Feingold Diet
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size
Psycholinguistic Training
CAI
Peer Tutoring
Stimulant Drugs
Early Intervention
Formative Evaluation
Direct Instruction
Behavior Modification
Reading Comp. Instruction
Mnemonic Training

Not very effective

May be effective

-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
Modality-based Instruction
Social Skills Training
Psychotropic Drugs
Class Size
Psycholinguistic Training
CAI
Peer Tutoring
Stimulant Drugs
Early Intervention
Formative Evaluation
Direct Instruction
Behavior Modification
Reading Comp. Instruction
Mnemonic Training
-0.20

Not very effective

May be effective

Use 'em!

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

1.60

Effect Size
Lloyd, J., Forness, S. & Kavale, K. (1998); Forness, S. & Kavale, K. (1999); Vaughn, S., Gersten, R., & Chard, D. (2000)

1.80

Recommendations for Effective

Practices
Intervene Early
Monitor students progress and provide
positive consequences for improvement
Teach cognitive-behavioral selfmanagement

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

l
sa
ar
he
Re

SIGHT
SOUND
TASTE
SMELL

SENSORY
MEMORY
1-2 seconds

TOUCH

WORKING
MEMORY
about 18
seconds
(unless you
rehearse)
Retrieved
from LTM

The
trash

Stored in
LTM

LONG TERM MEMORY

(no trash can here - recall based on strength of connection)

PROCEDURAL
DECLARATIVE
MEMORY
MEMORY
(unconscious)

(conscious)
SEMANTIC

EPISODIC

The
trash

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 Georges 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.
2.
3.
4.
5.

One - Bun
Two - Shoe
Three - Tree
Four Door or Floor
Five - Hive

6. Six - Sticks
7. Seven - Heaven
8. Eight - Gate
9. Nine - Line or Vine
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.memorykey.com/mnemonics/listlearning.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 MGuinness