According to , memory is the first level of comprehension, right before understanding. How can students understand what they can’t remember? The truth is that they can’t, which makes it a struggle to move onto more complex skills, like applying knowledge and analyzing. This results in teachers constantly repeating the same lessons and teaching below grade level, while students get frustrated, especially if they see their grades suffering.

Rote memorization has become taboo as an instruction technique. But research shows that memorization and repetition increase focus, improve time management and even build confidence. Memorization is also an unavoidable part of learning what’s needed to enter several professions, such as jobs in the healthcare or medical fields. Making time to reincorporate this strategy in classrooms can be worthwhile.

So, what can teachers and parents do to enhance student memory so they can reach the next levels of comprehension and achieve their highest levels of intellectual potential?

1. Have students write a paragraph and memorize it. They can recite it in groups, with parents or with the teacher. This will improve information retainment, summarization, communication and confidence.
2. Students can create mnemonic devices to help them remember important dates, formulas, definitions or skills. Doing this will also allow them to use Bloom’s highest level of knowledge, which is to create. This way students can choose their own way to memorize with familiar words to act as mnemonic devices that they can relate to.
3. Music is another way to strengthen memory. Think about how we all learned the alphabet as a song. We learned nursery rhymes through song. Students can create a beat, put some rhymes on paper having to do with what they are learning and memorize it.
4. Turn memorization into a competition. Students can compete to have the songs they create posted in the school hallway, read over the school’s intercom or published in the school paper. Or have all your students memorize something and challenge them to see who can recite it most accurately or with the most spirit.

Bringing memorization skills back to the classroom is not a step back in education, but a realization that this skill has always been necessary. If it worked for the days of old, it can work today. Remember (no pun intended) the quote, “If it’s not broke, then don’t fix it.”

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Ensuring students are truly engaged is a critical first step to initial understanding and long-term retention. One potential problem is that engagement can be confused with fun or exciting games. The objectives cannot be disguised within an enjoyable activity or fast-paced game. This approach can be helpful, but it’s critical for the learning objectives to be clearly and explicitly stated while ensuring students are continuously aware of what they’re working toward. If a fun activity is only memorable because it’s “fun”, the clear learning objectives will be lost.

Maintaining a quick pace helps contribute to engagement. The challenge with pacing is ensuring it’s appropriately challenging for all students despite the academic variability given in any group of students. One key to this is preparation. Time can be wasted during transitions or with tasks like handing out papers because some students can lose focus or get distracted. Obviously some transitions are necessary, but it’s important to maximize instructional time and keep things moving quickly so students don’t feel like they have time for anything other than the academic task at hand.

In addition to maintaining clarity on the instructional focus, students should also feel like they have identified things to accomplish in a limited period of time. Students shouldn’t feel like they are left on their own to figure things out, however. Lessons should be structured with a gradual release of responsibility.

For example, Fisher and Frey suggest an that includes focused instruction followed by guided instruction, collaborative learning and independent learning. Initial instruction should be clear, direct and explicit. Teachers should then shift into guided instruction, where they use questioning and prompting to scaffold the shift from teacher-directed to student-driven learning. Collaborative learning provides teachers with the opportunity to observe and provide redirection as necessary to ensure students’ understanding is accurate. Providing immediate and specific feedback is essential to ensuring students stay on track and avoid misconceptions. Once a teacher is convinced students have an accurate understanding, they can shift into independent practice that provides students with an opportunity for reinforcement and repetition to establish true mastery.

Teachers should also revisit these topics continuously throughout the course while integrating new learning with previous material to ensure that mastery is not lost. Not only is ascertaining students’ prior knowledge important to determining how to direct and guide instruction, but connecting new learning to students’ prior experiences and understanding helps them form neural connections that strengthen new learning and .

In order to strengthen the learning experience in a way that lasts, it’s important to incorporate instructional strategies and approaches that solidify the learning process and long-term retention of content to create a robust education.

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