Skill Builder No. 11: Memory Tricks

Skills Guide Content

Goal: Locking facts and figures into memory and easier recall

4 different techniques for improving fact recall:

• rhythm of beats
• mnemonics
• quizzing
• flashcards

The student is challenged to identify when they are familiar with a concept vs when they can recall a concept. Learn and understand these skills and then ask your student to tell you which ones are working for them and which ones are brand new (and less easy) to use. Practice them for yourself so you understand how your brain has to switch modes between each of these techniques.

Activity from Planner

1. Spelling a complicated word — con-sci-en-tious? Find a rhythm of beats: 3, 3, 3, 4.
2. Create mnemonics: “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” (PEMDAS) for the order of operations in mathematics.
3. Create your own games and quizzes.
4. Make fun flashcards. (more on how to do this later)
5. Add facts to Post-it notes and chunk them into as many different groups as you can.

Extended Activity

Learn how to hack your brain with these short-term memory tricks!

Know the difference between recalling and recognizing material. Recalling means knowing and understanding a fact. Recall takes more work and more repetitions, flashcards, and studying. Recognizing material means you have seen it before and remember things about it but do not know and understand the material. Recognizing means being familiar; recalling means being sure. Consider these options to help move from recognizing to recalling:

1. Are you spelling a complicated word like conscientious? Break it into smaller bits: con-sci-ent-ious. Find a rhythm of beats: 3, 3, 3, 4.
2. Create mnemonics: “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” (PEMDAS) for the order of operations in mathematics (parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction).
3. Create your own quizzes to quiz yourself and your classmates.
4. Make fun flashcards (more on how to do this later)
5. Add facts to Post-it notes and make a game of chunking the facts into different groups. How many groups can you make? Can you create enough groups so that each fact has two groups to be a part of? (review information chunking from a few months ago)

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