PLE #5

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?

     First off, it is important for me to know as a teacher how my students' retrieve and process memories and information. My students will be most likely to retrieve information when they have multiple connections to it. Therefore, I will make sure that my instruction allows for my students to make multiple connections to the concepts we are learning. This can be done through emotional connections like excitement, anger, and sadness. By making an emotional connection to my instruction, it will be easier for my students to retrieve information. In addition, we have learned that wait time during instruction is important. By waiting three-four seconds after I ask my class a question, I am allowing my students enough time to process the question and retrieve information from their memory. Furthermore, by providing wait time I am making it more likely that students who typically don't speak up will (females and minority students). I also know that it is important for me to make learning meaningful because students are more likely to remember information when it is relevant to them and their prior knowledge. To do this, I will make sure what I'm teaching makes sense and I will ask my students to explain their reasoning for their answers and relate it to their lives or tell how it is relevant to their lives. This will cause them to retrieve prior knowledge and make multiple connections to what they are explaining. I will also make sure that my instruction is distinctive and fun. We have learned that we are more likely to remember things that are unique, new, or bizarre. Therefore, I will make my instruction hands-on and engaging so that it sticks out in the minds of my students. I will also use mnemonic devices to make learning concepts fun through the use of songs, rhymes, verbal cues, etc. I know that this trick is effective because I still to this day remember the different mnemonic devices I learned throughout elementary school. Most importantly, I know that practice makes perfect and that students put skills to their long-term memory by practicing them. For instance, during science experiments I will walk my students through the experiment by explaining it while they practice doing it rather than me standing in front of the class and just showing it to them. There are many more ways I will adapt my instruction based on what we have learned about the memory processes, but these are just a few.

     Below is an article on 10 ways to enhance students' memory so that they might develop a more efficient and effective memory. It provides excellent information on ways to adapt your instructional decisions and it also provides information you can tell your students to increase their memory. For instance, you can remind your students that information is better remembered when they review materials before they go to sleep at night.
http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/memory_strategies_May06.php