Because
students learn at different rates and will retain some information quicker than
others, it is the teacher's job to help the process. At every age of life, our memory is tested
daily. Some things are remembered
because of the importance level and others are memorized from silly
mnemonics. Although mnemonics may be
silly, the strangest ones often are the most committed to memory. We have learned different techniques to aid
long term and short term memory retrieval.
As teachers, we must realize that each student is going to have
different methods that work specifically for them. While teaching math I will have to focus on
helping students commit many formulas, strategies, etc. to memory. This will be a daunting task, considering
many high school students do not care about math. I believe the way I teach will promote
different types of memory devices that will help my students. Mnemonics are used in all levels of math,
from the simply "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" for order of
operations to SOH-CAH-TOA for trig functions.
Simple classroom discussion can also trigger memory. Thought provoking questions and questions
that are directed towards students' interests can help the memory process. This web page provides a nice table of
strategies and characteristics for multiple age groups. It is very important to remember that our
instructional methods will greatly impact what students remember. I also believe
that allowing students to collaborate and work on assignments together will aid
in the understanding process. Sometimes, peers can explain the information in a
manner that is easier to understand than any teacher. Obviously, we do not want memorization for
every detail and topic in the course, but formulas in math have to be
memorized. The idea is to help the
students relate the given formulas to real applications and understand why each
part of the equation works. Having activities
that ask students to explain the problem and answer will help with the
application process. My grand idea
behind memory is that I don't always have to be thinking 'how can I get
students to memorize this idea?' Rather,
I should be helping students apply the knowledge I have taught them and help
them truly understand the idea.
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| A little shout out to the music ed. folks. |
I like your idea about letting them work in groups to better understand. One mnemonic that stands out to me that I learned was FOIL in math. I focused a lot on mnemonics as well in my posts; they are very helpful and effective!
ReplyDeleteI also hope that the way I teach will promote the growth of student memory devices to aid in their long-term knowledge accumulation. I often think about how I can make archaic literature relevant for students, so I understand how daunting the task is for math teachers also.
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