The use of mnemonics, acronyms and acrostics are
ways I've utilized to help students remember some course content. Students grasp at learning using these formats/triggers. When teaching Medical Terminology, I use more mnemonics and acronyms. In teaching students how to learn the cranial nerves, acrostics works well. Students do recall the information that they learn using these formats/trigers. I've had students to recall this information one or two quarters later in another related curiculum class.
Jacqulin,
I use them a lot and they really help the students to remember technical terms. In addition, my students really like to come up with the mnemonic term that will help them remember the terms or procedure being studied.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I learned a great deal by using mnemonics and I always get my students to use mnemonics when studying. I at times get them to create the nmemonics in class and share them with others. Students tend to remember the nmenomics other students shared.
Catherine,
What a great complement to this learning tool. They are seeing the value of mnemonics as they progress through their training. I know I use them all the time as I incorporate new strategies into my courses.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Mary Ellen,
I use them a lot with my ELL students as well for the reason you stated. They get to make a connection the terms and then application to their use. Mnemonics help them along this learning route.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I totally agree. I use mnenmonics and acronyms whenever possible to group pieces of information together. At the beginning of my classes, some students act a bit insulted that I am suggesting such silly memory tools. However, by the time we have reached the second or third exam, they are asking for more memory tools.
Dr.Meers,
I feel these are excellent tools to use in class since many of our students come from different countries and they are not familiar with our terminology.They seem very appreciative when shown how to incorporate into their studies.
Couldn't agree more, Mary!! I teach in a culinary school and within the first few classes the students get a lot of information. I find it very helpful to introduce the students to using some kind of helping device like an acronym or one they create themselves. Many students find it helpful to create a rap using the information they learned (like the procedure for braising ... no matter what you're braising, it's done the exact same way so some students remember it better by putting it into song lyric form).
Frances,
Great tool. Glad to hear about your success in using them. Thanks for sharing your success with them with us. I know other instructors will start to use them as well.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I use several volumes of Memory Notebooks for nursing instruction. They are invaluable to the students and bring lecture material to fruition many times. The images and mnemonics can completely breakdown lecture material into something basic and simple. Love them!
I find this to be a wonderful tool to remember important information. This is the way I learned and I am surprised this is not encouraged in more classes.
William,
This took me back to my elementary school days. Hadn't heard that for many years. Thanks for bringing it up again. Hope the current crop of students can get these types of mnemonics drilled into their memory banks.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
This is used in Math to remember the order of operations.
Prenthesis, Exponents, Multiply, Divide , Add, Subtract.
This is easy to remember, however when I ask many of my students they have all heard of it but cant remember it.
Mary,
I use them a lot in my classes as well since we are learning a lot of technical terms. The students really like to make up the mnemonics and acronyms we use in learning our terms.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
