Strategies Knowledge for Independent Learning Memory Work SKIL

Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Memory Work SKIL cards are sets of cards that explain how to use different learning strategies. They are designed to help you learn by improving your Independent Learning skills. This set of cards gives you detailed instructions on how to develop strategies for: Improving your ability to Memorise and Recall Information Just follow the instructions on the cards. Year 12/13

SKIL MA Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY ASSOCIATION Key Skill 1: ü We remember things if we can make associations or connections between them. ü Try to make connections between things and you will remember them better. ü There is no right or wrong way of doing this, just do it. E. g. remembering a list of simple words: sandwich, pen, stamp, dog, phone, guitar, chair Picture eating a sandwich that has a wrapper with an address written on in pen and a stamp in the top right hand corner, a dog pinches the sandwich while on the phone and drops it into the hole of the guitar laid out on a chair. Now you can remember all seven items in an easy image. You can extend this to as many words, ideas or sets of information as you like, try 20, 30 40 or 50. Year 12/13

SKIL ML Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY LOCATION Key Skill 2: ü This involves making connections between words, objects, sets of information, thoughts and a location. ü This skill can be used in a number of memory techniques which you can follow in later cards. Practise: Making a connection between the following words and any location/place that pops into your mind. Orange, Flag, Haribos, Fourteen, Plastic E. g. Holland (they play in orange), Buckingham Palace (always a flag outside), living room (TV has adverts for Haribos), Frankie & Bennies restaurant (friends 14 th birthday party), C 72 (lots of plastic computers) Year 12/13

SKIL MI Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY IMAGINATION Key Skill 3: ü We all have imagination, although some may have more than others. ü When constructing the Association & Location techniques described in the cards MA & ML and when using the cards in this set then use as much imagination as you have and you will find that a) you remember more things and b) your imagination gets better! E. g. Remembering that on the 25 th November you have a history test on medicine in the Crimean war. Picture a nurse in an old uniform stealing a firework from a soldier celebrating his 25 th birthday. The nurse represents medicine, the old uniform represents history, Crimean sounds like crime and the nurse is committing a crime by stealing, there are fire works in November so it is a firework she steals, and the soldiers birthday gives the date. Year 12/13

SKIL M 1 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 1 Verbal mnemonics – acrostics Time: 5 – 20 mins Example: For patterns, sequences or stages 1. List words or steps in order E. g. The formation of an oxbow lake can be described in the following steps Meandering river Eroding outside Depositing inside Narrowing neck of the meander Cut through the neck of the meander by the river Abandoned meander Deposit seals off the ends of the cut off 2. Take the first letter of each word/sentence/term E. g. MEDNCAD 3. Create a sentence where these first letters are the first letters of new words in a sentence E. g. Most Elephants Don’t Nibble Carrots At Dinner Year 12/13

SKIL M 2 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 2 Verbal mnemonics – acronyms Time: 5 – 20 mins Example: For patterns, sequences or stages 1. List the steps in order E. g. Analysing a character in fictional text for English, steps are - Point, Evidence, Explanation 2. Take the first letters of the name of each step E. g. P, E, E 3. Put the letters together to make a new word (acronym) E. g. PEE Year 12/13

SKIL M 3 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 3 Placing Time: 30 mins or more Example: For any type of information 1. Make posters of key information on a pack of neon paper in a variety of colours 2. Stick them up in various places around your room 3. Review them every day (do not change the colours or position of the posters because when you come to recall the information you can visualise where it is and what colour it is) Year 12/13

SKIL M 4 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 4 Picturing numbers Time: 5 to 30 mins Example: For remembering numbers First visualise each number as an object that looks like the number. E. g. 0= 2= 4= 6= 8= 1= 3= 5= 7= 9= 2. Then when you need to remember a number visualise the objects E. g. remembering 3. 14159 then picture a flower petal holding a pencil on the back of a boat with a pencil stuck out the front of the boat on which stands a seahorse holding a balloon. Year 12/13

SKIL M 5 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 5 Rhyming numbers Time: 5 – 30 mins Example: For remembering numbers i. First remember each number as the rhyming object. E. g. Zero = hero 2 = shoe 4 = door 6 = bricks 8 = gate 1 = tonne 3 = tree 5 = dive 7 = heaven 9 = sign ii. Then picture that object to remember the number. E. g. If you need to remember that Christopher Columbus completed 4 voyages to the Americas then you could picture a large sailing vessel sailing through a door towards the stars and stripes and Barbados. Year 12/13

SKIL M 6 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 6 Journey method Time: 5 – 60 min Example: For remembering lists, sequences, passages of texts, instructions, speeches, presentations, A VERY GOOD TECHNIQUE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. First of all choose a very familiar journey e. g. the journey to school, Think about the journey and picture yourself taking the route but remember all the detail & landmarks such as the post box, the petrol station, the sign post, houses, the shop, strange tree etc. Now picture yourself taking the journey again but this time place a piece of information at each of the key locations so that you associate each fact with that particular location. When depositing a piece of information use any technique learnt to help you visualise it: E. g. If you needed to remember the following five pieces of information to include in a psychology essay then you could use the journey method to memorize them in order: The Hippocampus Plays an Important Role In Memory; Most Short-Term Memories Are Quickly Forgotten; Being Tested On Information Actually Helps You Remember It Better; You Can Learn to Improve Your Memory; A Good Night's Sleep May Improve Your Memory. Imagine: On a journey to school, at the post box picture a hippopotamus coming out of the Postmans head. At the zebra crossing picture a reception child (short and goes to school, hence term) chasing a squirrel (from the movie Up where the dogs forget stuff when a squirrel appears). Walking past the shop a huge exam paper with your teachers head on top jumps out and gives you the thumbs up sign. At the traffic lights all the car drivers are counting on their fingers with Einstein sitting in the back. At school it is in the shape of a bed with a brain laying on the pillow. To retain the information then over the following hours, days, weeks keep going over the journey. When you need to recall the information Year picture 12/13 the journey and recall the information at each location.

SKIL M 7 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 7 Visualisation Time: 5 – 15 mins Example: For remembering vocabulary e. g. foreign words, subject key words that are unfamiliar or connecting properties • Picture the word/phrase then construct a picture that shows the meaning of the word/phrase or connects the properties associated with the word/phrase. E. g. Picture a hedgehog then show an eagle swooping down to carry off the hedgehog and you have a mental image to remember that igel (pronounced eagle) is the German for hedgehog. E. g. Dispersion: The splitting of white light into its component colours. Picture a crowd in different colour T-shirts leaving a rock concert through a white door and dispersing in all directions. E. g. Chromium Hydroxide is green. Picture a Harley Davidson motor bike with a chrome exhaust hiding (hyd) behind a green bush. Year 12/13

SKIL M 8 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 8 Zones Time: 5 – 30 mins Example: For remembering members of groups 1. 2. If sets of information can be put into groups then set up a number of locations that represent zones Picture members of the groups in the associated location. E. g. Gender zones – French words are feminine or masculine so visualise two familiar places such as Helsby and Chester and classify one as masculine (Helsby) and one as feminine (Chester). Then all masculine words you can visualise in the location of Helsby and all feminine words in Chester. This could easily be rooms in a house e. g. masculine in the kitchen and feminine in the living room. Year 12/13

SKIL M 9 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 9 Linking Time: 5 -20 mins Example: For remembering key concepts, words, lists, • If you need to memorise a list of things then link them together using as much imagination as you can. E. g. a list of things that must be included in an answer or essay. E. g. , Aerodynamic, Athlete’s foot, blood pressure, calorie, challenge, competitive, , exercise, feedback, fitness, flexibility, heart rate, knowledge of performance, motivation. Picture: Homer Simpson crouched on a bike (aerodynamic), peddling fast (exercise) with his heart comically coming out of his chest each time it pumps (heart rate), breathing heavily (anaerobic) bright red (high blood pressure) eating a doughnut (high calorie) with his belly hanging over his trousers (lack of fitness) trying to touch his toes (flexibility) to scratch them (Athletes foot). He is heading for a huge banner saying ’ 50 mile Race Finish’ (challenge, competitive) while Marg is shouting ‘that’s amazing, 50 miles in 30 minutes’ (knowledge of performance & feedback). Year 12/13

SKIL M 10 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 10 Question and Answer Time: 15 - 60 mins Example: For memorizing the answers to factual questions. 1. 2. Look at the question and pick some key words from the question from which you can visualise an image and location. Place within your imaginary picture an image representing the answer, or insert one of the other techniques learned from previous cards to memorize numbers. E. g. Which film won the best picture Oscar in 1983? Answer: Terms of Endearment Picture a gold Oscar statue in the shape of a snowman which is holding a flower (to show the Oscar film awards in ‘ 83) sitting on top of the back of a deer riding into a school building (‘end of a deer’ to remind me of ‘endearment’, school building to remind me of ‘Terms’) E. g. Which theory is involved in defining the shape of molecules? Answer: Electron pair repulsion theory Picture four moles each called electra. The four moles join to make two pairs of moles. The pairs (Electr/on pair) are making funny shapes with their mouths while trying to push (repuls/ion) the other pair over. Year 12/13

SKIL M 11 Strategies & Knowledge for Independent Learning Sheet: MEMORY WORK 11 The body system Time: 5 – 15 mins Example: For quickly remembering a small number of items • Use parts of the body to mentally stick information to. E. g. Key words to remember for next lesson: adhesive, ball bearing, chisel, elastic, hydraulic, laser, printed circuit board. Picture: glue sticking your lips together, a steel ball hanging off your ear as an earing (ball bearing), your tongue turned into a metal chisel, the waist of your trousers being elastic, your foot pushing down on a truck brake peddle (hydraulic), your eyes shooting out lasers like superman and your fingers tapping on your phone that contains a printed circuit board. Year 12/13