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As teachers working in the trenches, we don’t often have the opportunity to step back and evaluate our performance, come up with new strategies to help students, or receive honest feedback on our work in the classroom. Sometimes the only feedback we get is based on standardized test scores or exam grades.

Imagine if you were armed with effective strategies for inclusion, memorization, and engaging students before your first day in the classroom.  These education majors from Carroll University had the opportunity to attend one of my seminars as part of their preparation for going into the classroom. Melissa and Whitney learned a wide range of strategies for teaching in a short period of time – even admitting they may use some of the memorization tips at the college level!

By exposing tomorrow’s teachers to strategies for success before they enter the classroom, we’re improving the quality of teaching in our schools and the chance for our students to thrive.

No matter what subject you teach, using singing and music to help students remember material can be one of the most powerful tools in your teaching toolkit. Math teachers use “Pop! Goes the Weasel” to help students remember the quadratic formula. English teachers use “Mary Had a Little Lamb” to teach the various forms of ‘to be.’ And in Social Studies…well, let’s look at an example. I was recently talking about memorization with my kung fu teacher, who’s a few years younger than me, and he had a great story about using music as a memory strategy. When he was in high school, he had a tough assignment – to memorize the Constitution. He studied it every night, but just couldn’t seem to get it into his head.

One day, he was talking about this assignment at lunch, when a girl jumped in and asked him if he’d tried using the song. It turned out that she’d seen Schoolhouse Rock on a Saturday morning cartoon, and the show had a song for the Constitution. Soon word got out to all the students in the class about the song from Schoolhouse Rock – and all of the students passed the assignment. The teacher was flabbergasted – he’d never seen a class where every student was able to memorize the Constitution. The funniest thing to me was when my kung fu teacher started singing the song on the spot; 20 years later, he still remembered it. Talk about learning!

As teachers, we absolutely must use every tool we have available to us, and music is one of the most powerful strategies we can utilize. You don’t have to be a Broadway star to help your students use music and singing in the classroom. Whether you teach them a song for the multiplication tables or have them make up lyrics for karaoke that are relevant to your unit, by attaching something new to something the kids already know, they’ll learn.

Jan teaches GED courses for adults at a local community college. In her first class after attending the seminar, she was planning on starting a new unit on Social Studies. “One of the things I’m hoping to start right away is to have the students work together to create some of their own mnemonic techniques,” she told me. Laughing, she commented that “I think [the students] are going to enjoy that more than always listening to me!”

Most of the time, when we consider techniques and strategies for the classroom, we think in terms of elementary, middle, and high school. But these strategies can be used anywhere learning takes place, including at the college level – and even in the corporate world, where “students” go through workplace training and continuing education.

1. In social studies, history, or Government, hold a Party Convention to teach the principles of the democratic process. One teacher in Nebraska organizes a party convention with affiliation to any major party, and then breaks his class up into as many two or three student state delegations as possible. After appointing one student as “the candidate,” students research their state and attend the convention as delegates of their state.

2. Another social studies or history example is to reenact major events, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill, or the Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. As the teacher, you might dress up and set the stage before acting such things out yourself, or you might engage the class more deeply by including them in the process.

3. Math and science concepts lend themselves well to music. Put your students into groups and have them create a song or rap to help remember the concept being discussed. I’ve talked repeatedly about the value of music in remembering information and this strategy bears inclusion again here. Bringing students into the process and allowing them to use music they love motivates them to participate and remember. There are a variety of resources available on my website, but a new resource I discovered recently is http://mrduey.com. Another teacher tuning their love of music to the subjects they teach.

4. Teachers have been using animals like fish, reptiles, and amphibians in the classroom for years to teach students about life-cycle, habitat, and responsibility. The problem with this idea is that, over time, the process becomes more chore than treat for students. Another approach, and something that many communities offer, might be to have service animals brought in during specific days or times. These animals are specially trained for a variety of tasks and service organizations are always on the lookout for ways to help train these animals by offering them opportunities to interact with others. This is an especially good activity for involving students with special needs and can be adapted to a variety of subject areas.

5. Having a cook-off or using food examples is an excellent way for students to apply concepts like fractions, U.S to metric conversions, geometry. Teach fractions using a pizza or cake. Show how a sandwich is a square until you cut it in half and it becomes two triangles.

6. One life skills activity that reaches students can be applied to a variety of teaching moments. Give students an ‘entertainment budget’ and have them use their ‘money’ to purchase a new gaming system with games and extras. Make the budget small enough to be challenging. Many students have no concept of the skills involved in managing money, but they will apply critical thinking to the mathematics with this sort of challenge activity.

7. Hold a mock trial with lawyers, a judge, etc. to examine the judicial process, act out current or historical events, or to deter students from making poor life decision. Many high school criminal justice courses use this activity, sometimes including field trips to actual courtrooms, but the idea can be applied to a number of other courses and ideas as well.

Practice Mnemonics as a Group

I’ve had more success with ‘group’ mnemonics than individual student mnemonics. If the entire group or class has the same memory trick, then we can practice the mnemonic as a class and practice it often. When students create individual memory tricks, we have to count on the student to memorize the mnemonic on their own.

So, when as a class, we need a mnemonic to reinforce facts or a concept, I have the students work in small group ‘teams’ to come up with a silly rhyme, chant, acrostic, etc. I give them 3-5 minutes to come up with one. When the time is up, each group shares their mnemonic and then the class votes on the best one. The class vote determines which mnemonic we use to reinforce learning. “Publish” the mnemonic and copyright it and put the students’ names on it. They love that incentive and it’s an effective feel good activity.

Mnemonics: Tips from the Trenches

Here are some mnemonics from teachers that have attended my sessions and been kind enough to share their ideas:

• How to remember ‘solute & solvent’ in a solution: A thief broke into a building and filled a bag with loot. Then the police came. The thief hid the loot in a vent, so he wouldn’t get caught. The solute goes into the solvent. Lute – loot, Vent – vent, The soLoot goes into the solVent. – Amanda Patenaude, Keene Central School, Keene Valley, NY

• Use OREO to teach persuasive writing; O-opinion, R-reasons, E-examples, O-opinion restated. I also bring in Oreo cookies – kids never forget. – Beth Price, Rapid Run Middle School

• Beth also has her students come up with mnemonics to help them remember the 27 amendments to the constitution. For example; with the 1st amendment, remember PAPERS spelled PAPRS. The 1st amendment is about the freedoms of Press, Assembly, Petition, Religion, and Speech. Also, PAPER is used for all 4 freedoms. Another example could be the 2 letters in DC (As in the District of Columbia). Washington DC gets 3 electoral votes because of the 23rd amendment. These mnemonics are then made into flashcards for review.

• To recall the 13 colonies use 3 different sentences. 1. No More Red Crayons. (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut). 2. Nice People Need Dessert. (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware). 3. My Very Nice Son George. (Maryland, Virginia, No. Carolina, So. Carolina, Georgia). Kids can also draw a picture for each sentence to help them remember. -Margie Moore, Spencer School, Brighton, MI

• An easy way to remember the continents. North America married South America. They had 4 kids; Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica and they all moved to Europe. – Daniel Carpenter, Beaver Area High School.

Free Online Mnemonic Resources

Online resources for mnemonics can also be incredibly helpful in finding those tricks to helping students pass their tests.

A poem about small group work sung to the tune of Singing in the Rain.

Written by Susan Heath, Kellie Wolfe, Linda Smith, and Judy Burkett

We are the groupies and we’ll help you with your lengthy hour if you’ll pay attention to our flower power.

Today I am going to see in which groupie you will be. I’ve had a chance to look at last year’s EOG. (North Carolina’s End Of Grade test.)

There is a test we will use to see the various aspects of your personality.

I’ve observed you in the classroom and various other places so you may not be with your friends today but brand new smiling faces.

Your academic abilities may not be the same, combine your strengths and weaknesses you’re sure to win the game.

The interest you have is sure to grow as you share with each other the knowledge you know.

You may not be quite ready for the task that is at hand but after class instruction now you’ve got it man.

In a small group there is no time to sleep recorder, reporter or the time you will keep.

Some of you learn better by listening to what I say. Others learn by touching or in a visual kind of way.

Self-assessment is a valuable tool so leave your exit card with me and you’ll definitely be cool.

Today, I worked with two groups of teachers at Rochelle Middle School who are interested in learning more strategies to differentiate instruction and meet their students needs. We discussed behavior management strategies for working with groups and Four Corners activites, and quietly cueing kids to get on task or to receive Kudos for doing the right thing! We also discussed four powerful teaching tips, adaptation strategies for students reading below grade level, and …mnemonic devices as well as several other best practice ideas. Thanks Rochelle M.S. teachers, Mr. Nick Harvey, principal, and Pat Tunstall for a great day and the honor of working in Lenoir County!