Body Memory

I have already bragged about the Professional Development I attended last year on memory strategies for students. I found this PD so beneficial, I couldn’t help but to leave you with one more strategy!

You learned from my last post that 7 + - 2 pieces of information is the appropriate chunk of content for our memories to retain at a time. Beyond my Chunking Phone Strategy, which applies this theory in a traditional organizer, comes an unconventional strategy that will not only help students to remember information, but will get them up and moving!    

I call it: Body Memory

The theory behind this strategy is that location and association are key factors for your memory. Ever feel like your brain is a deep sea of floating content that you are struggling to grasp at?  Yep. That’s a lack of location and association for your memory at work. 

The concept of this theory is simple: Assign your 7 + - 2 pieces of information to a location on your body.  When you do this, you give the content something to associate with, and you give it a place to “live" so to speak, both physically, and within your memory.

Let me give you an example:

My students were required to memorize the 8 crucial parts of a map. (Perfect 7 + - 2 pieces of information!)

The 8 parts of a map were as follows:

Title

Latitude

Longitude

Key

Compass

Scale

Color

Symbols

My Co-Teaching partner and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to use Body Memory in action. What we did was assign each part of the map to a part on the body. We tried as best as we could to link the map parts to body parts that would make sense. We then practiced saying the map components and pointing to the parts of our body like you would in “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.”

Here were our associations and locations: 

1.     Title

Forehead. Students dragged their finger across their forehead

2.     Latitude

Left Arm. Students used their right hand and wiped down the length of their left arm

3.     Longitude

Right Arm. Students used their left hand and wiped down the length of their right arm

4.     Key

Heart. Students made an "x" over their heart

5.     Compass

Stomach. Students drew a circle on their stomach

6.     Scale

Thighs. Students patted their right and left hands on their thighs

7.     Color

Cheeks. Students patted their cheeks

8.     Symbols

Students pointed to their nose

After a few repetitions of this, the students quickly and easily remembered the parts of a map, much more effectively than if we would’ve simply discussed maps and taken notes. The kids also loved the chance to get up and move around. And I have to admit, it was pretty amusing to watch them take the quiz while silently going through the motions!

And don’t forget that this strategy works for adults too. Particularly I have found this useful for the times you run to the grocery store to buy a handful of items.  Instead of jotting down a quick list on paper or in your phone, give those items a body location and give your memory some exercise!

Chunking

I attended a really fantastic Professional Development last year about how to help students recall and apply information in the classroom. It was filled with practical strategies for teachers to use to both engage and improve the memories of students. 

What I found most interesting about this training, however, was the simple fact that our memory does indeed have a limited capacity. (hhmm...well that explains a lot doesn’t it?!)

And what is that limited capacity? Interestingly enough, our brains can hold, “7  plus or minus 2” chunks of information. This means our memories hold somewhere between 5-9 pieces of information at one time. Not very much is it? Well if you think about the length of  required information adults must memorize, they fit within these parameters; for example, phone numbers are 7 numbers long and social security numbers are 9 numbers long.

Well wouldn’t it be fantastic if our students were only required to know 7 + - 2 chunks of information a day? The thought is actually comical when we think about how much students are actually exposed to on a daily basis. In 1 class period, students have at least 10 vocabulary words to learn, and that’s 1 class out of approximately 6-8 class periods. And we wonder why our students have trouble remembering things?!

While we don’t always have control over the curriculum, we have control over the way we instruct it.

So, it’s time to start Chunking information, and applying the 7 + - 2 rule!

One strategy I particularly loved from this PD was the Phone Graphic Organizer. This simple organizer has 9 total boxes and mimics a keypad:

__________	__________	__________
__________	__________	__________
__________	__________	__________

And my favorite way to use this organizer is to help students learn and remember vocabulary.

The idea behind the organizer is simple:

1.     Decide 9 vocabulary words for students to know (7 + - 2? Check!)

2.     In each box:

a.     Draw a visual that represents the meaning of the word (For example, if I wanted students to remember that our memories can only hold 7 plus or minus 2 bits of information, we would write “7 + - 2” as our visual

b.     Write a key word that helps you remember as well

When completing the organizer be sure to:

1.     Frequently pause and review completed boxes

Each time you add a new word, review the one before, and continue on in this fashion

2.     Work in rows of three

After the first three are completed, pause and review those three together so that each row is further chunked

But is this strategy motivating for students? Of course!

Chunking lengthy information into 9 simple pieces makes the content less intimidating and immediately more manageable. The visual representations of the organizer and words not only will be stimulating and engaging, but it will help students to make meaning and recall content. Have an upcoming quiz or test? Congratulations - you just made an instant study tool for students to use at home. 

I promise this is a tool you won’t forget!