R9

Quote: "If the information is going to move from students’ short-term to long-term memory, it must make sense and have meaning” (Friedrichs, 2001, p.77).

Question: In the one lesson discussed in the reading the teacher allowed time for multiple associations to take place for a variety of retrieval cues opportunities, I wonder how much preparation time is needed to plan activities ahead of time and what other information will the teacher need to collect about the students prior to planning activities to enhance the organization process of associations?

Connection: While reading this article it reminded me of William James Chapter 7 on Memory. According to Friedrichs’ (2001) "a new learning experience must be connected to student’s prior knowledge because the connection will serve as an “emotional hook” to engage students with their learning (p.76). I believe that William James would agree with this strategy to improve memory because he stated, “the secret to a good memory is thus the secret of forming diverse and multiple associations with every fact we care to retain” (James, 2001, p. 61). In the reading we learned of various mental and physical cues to help students recall new information that they have learned from visual, kinesthetic, musical/rhyme, verbal, and written. The goal was to provide multiple cues so that at least one will best fit with the way a student best learn and retain information. The activities should stimulate the minds of students and serve as mental cues when they need to retrieve it for an assessment. James (2001) defined an educated memory as an “organized system of associations and a sufficient number of cues” in order to recall the information enhancing the quality of native retentiveness (p. 60). Throughout the activities the teacher incorporated in the lesson each day it continues to focus on the goal to move the information from short-term to long-term memory.

References

James, W. (2001). Talks to teachers on psychology and to students on some of life’s ideals.

Mineola, NY: Dover.