Skill Builder No. 5: Information Chunking

Skills Guide Content

Goal: Organizing information in a way that is easier to recall for tests, projects and quizzes

Information chunking is taking big pieces of information and breaking it down into smaller, organized sections.

Chunking information helps lock it into your memory and improves studying because it becomes an active form of learning. Creating chunks of information will create meaning for the student, making it more memorable, and be easier to recall during tests.

Chunking time is another way to use this skill – chunking after school activities, core subjects, and routines can reduce the load on short-term memory.

Activity from Planner

Chunking information helps lock it into your memory and improves studying. It’s pretty simple to do; chunking is just organizing information into groups. You can organize things by class, activity, timeframe, category, etc.

Try info chunking! What needs done?

Today:

This Week:

Next Month:

Extended Activity

Information chunking is exactly what it sounds like: breaking big pieces of information into smaller chunks.

Chunking information helps lock it into your memory and improves studying because it becomes an active form of learning. Creating chunks of information will create meaning for you, make it more memorable, and be easier to recall during tests.

Here is an example of chunking. Say you have a list of items needed for the day. They are items for both class and sports practice. Let’s reorganize it according to your need and break it into smaller bits.

For class:

• backpack
• books
• computer

For practice:

• athletic bag
• clothes
• gear
• shoes
• water bottle

You can apply this in so many ways. Studying for a history test? Break a list of events up into timeframes. Put all of the events in the 1920s in one list and those in the 1930s in another.

Don’t know where to start if you are organizing a school dance? Break items into separate lists for food, entertainment, decorations, etc.

You can use this technique weekly with the items on your to-do list!

1. Take time now to break up anything you need to get done for school into the following chunks:

2. Now move all the needs-to-be-done items from above to your weekly sheet.

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