Having a good memory will prove to be advantageous in various walks of life. Some people are lucky enough to be born with a photographic memory, whereas others will need to work on it. There are various tasks you can get children to do at school in order to improve their memory. And, as you know, children always learn better when they are having fun. So, in this post, we will provide some great suggestions in regards to fun tasks that will improve students’ memories. Keep on reading to find out more…
One of the best and most enjoyable ways to improve your students’ memories is to encourage various physical tasks. According to D Ellis, people actually remember 90 per cent of what they do. However, they only remember 20 per cent of what they hear and 75 per cent of what they see. This comes from her book entitled ‘Becoming a Master Student’. Therefore, it is a good idea to get your children to stand up and partake in activities that involve using their voice, legs, arms, eyes, and ears. Make studying an experience that uses all senses and is physical. By getting their body involved, it makes the task less boring and they will put more energy into the study process. You will also find that visualisation works effectively as well.
Another way to help children enhance their memory is to use mind maps. Mind mapping tends to be much more enjoyable than simply taking notes in a textbook. Children tend to use this approach from when they are young all the way through to high schools, including elite schools, like Leicester High Girls School. Allow your students to be creative with their mind maps – draw pictures, add colour, and such like. This will definitely make the task at hand more appealing and it can also help to make the mind map more effective. This is a successful tool for improving memory as the student will see the connections first hand. You see with your very own eyes how the pieces of information fit together and this helps the details to be a lot easier to remember. This is a technique they will likely continue to use throughout their life when studying for exams and such like.
Last but not least, you should also consider introducing various mnemonics. A mnemonic is basically a memory-improving tool. It makes information a lot easier to remember. A good example of this is the alphabet system. This is commonly used to remember lists. Students will associate the thing they wish to remember with a particular letter of the alphabet. Aside from this, you have the number/rhyme technique, the number/shape system, the roman room system, and the journey technique. You will find that some of the techniques work for some children; others may find them too difficult to grasp and vice versa. Everyone is different. Nonetheless, it provides something new and exciting to learn, and you can be sure that your students will at least find one mnemonic that suits their style of memorising.
Hopefully, you now have some good ideas regarding fun ways you can help your students to improve their memory! Give them a go and see how your students respond!
Nb. Collaborative post.
These are really helpful tips. During college, most of my classmates just take photos of what’s written on the board or on the powerpoint but I always prefer writing it because it helps me retain the writings on my mind. Also, when reviewing for an exam, I always make my reviewer hand-written and it really helps me a lot in my exams.