Children at school are usually bombarded with tons of new information in different subject areas every day. There are English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and the like. Besides that, these students are expected to demonstrate mastery of the acquired knowledge and skills through various forms of assessments and evaluation. That’s why having an efficient and effective memory is crucial to their success. With that being said, here are 7 techniques that a teacher can use to boost a child’s memory.

Encourage Students to Ask Questions

By nature, human beings are known as curious creatures that are continuously looking for new information. We establish our knowledge based on everything we face in our daily life. As a matter of fact, the capability to explore new things and ask questions will usually develop at a very young age. Because of this, as a teacher, you can make use of this fact to help boost your student’s memory.

You may all know that understanding the lesson is the first requirement for the child to remember the material used in the class. So you have to encourage your students to ask questions relevant to the topic currently discussed. Doing so will help them develop a deeper comprehension of every bit of information on the topic and retain them in the student’s long-term memory. Another good thing about it is that it will also boost their problem-solving and critical thinking skills in the long run.

Let Students Create Their Own Examples

Besides encouraging students to ask questions, as mentioned earlier, you can also let your students create their own examples to present the idea or the concept as previously discussed in the lesson. Doing so will encourage these students to make use of their personal experiences to create concrete examples to significantly display their understanding of the lesson. As you can see, this is great practice in the class. Connecting the hands-on experience in a meaningful way to the lesson will help the students retain all of the information in their memory.

Incorporate Songs, Rhymes, and Stories Into the Lesson

Children’s attention span is considerably shorter than adults. That’s why the teacher needs to be more creative in the delivery of the lesson. Hence, incorporating songs, rhymes, and stories is one of the best ways to help improve the student’s memory. There are tons of materials available online and even in the nearest physical library.

Moreover, it varies on a particular lesson to teach but songs, rhymes, and stories are best for the improvement of spelling, reading, writing, vocabulary, and many other literacy skills. On top of that, students can easily remember the lesson with the use of any of these materials that they will surely enjoy in the class.

Make the Learning-Teaching Process Fun and Exciting

Conducting a lesson online requires a particular level of creativity to sustain the students’ attention span and keep their brains stimulated. As a matter of fact, online teaching requires a different set of skills compared to face-to-face teaching which happens in the four corners of a physical classroom. So to deal with these challenges, you have to keep the entire learning and teaching process fun and exciting, which will lead to the improvement of the student’s memory. Please, check the list below to help you pull it off.

• Present your best self online when conducting a lesson.
• Always leverage the power of technology.
• Make use of something that will inspire your students to learn more and stay focused.
• Make a set of goals and help your students stick to them until they achieve them.
• Always keep your class interactive and fun.
• Acknowledge your student’s efforts to make them feel valued and appreciated.

Utilize Effective and Relevant Visual Aids

Many teachers understand the advantage of using visual aids to help students comprehend every bit of information in the lesson. They know the value that these visuals contribute to the success of classroom instruction by encouraging students to associate different pieces of information and comprehend the idea or the whole concept of the lesson.

However,  some teachers may have overlooked this fact and don’t make use of visual aids as carefully as they should. Sometimes, they may allow the content oversimplification and be too lax in keeping track of the progress of how students interpret the visuals presented to them. Hence, many students may face different challenges in making associations and connections between the lesson and the visuals used, which may lead to storing this newly acquired information in short-term memory and being forgotten at any time.

Therefore, as a teacher, always make the most out of the visual aids. Keep in mind that aligning your visuals with your lesson is a deliberate process that you need to carefully think about as you plan how you deliver the lesson in your class in the most effective and engaging manner. Besides that, please be reminded that your visual aids are windows to the purpose and construction of your lesson.

Use Mnemonics

Another way to help students boost their memory is to use mnemonics. This is an instructional strategy that teachers can utilize to make their learners easily remember important information in their lessons. This particular teaching and learning technique builds a connection between the new learning and the student’s existing knowledge with the use of visuals and other relevant materials.

The most common types of mnemonics are rhyming words, keywords, and acronyms. If you are a teacher, you can improve these strategies even more and you can also let your students create their own. Besides that, you can always modify whatever strategy you want to use that will be suitable to your student’s needs as well as the content of the lesson.

Always keep in mind that the objective of using mnemonic strategies is to improve one’s memory to retain important details, like ideas, concepts, and every single piece of information in the lesson. On top of that, to make it more effective and efficient, teachers should model the use of this strategy and allow their students to follow every step of the mnemonic until they can do it themselves independently.

Allow Students to Read Aloud

According to a particular study at the University of Waterloo, people tend to remember something if they read it loud. It means that if you read your book aloud, it will help to get the words you say into your long-term memory. The result of the study shows that the activities of you speaking and hearing yourself create a helpful impact on your memory, making the information you read memorable.

Hence, allowing your students to read the book and other printed materials aloud is another way of helping them enhance their memory. Besides that, doing this activity will also help them improve their comprehension, vocabulary, and other literary skills. So if you’re a teacher and you’re preparing for your next class, don’t forget to incorporate this strategy into your lesson.

Takeaway

Many students have challenges with their memory. Some who experience storage deficits and information retrieval from their long-term memory may have difficulties recalling the information in the lesson they discussed in class or they studied at home. As a result, it will be hard for them to answer questions in any written tests and pass other forms of assessments at school.

The good news is that the list mentioned above will be so much of big help to the students to improve their academic performance. Teachers can make use of any of these strategies to improve the teaching and learning process. In fact, there are more they can explore that will surely help them achieve their objectives set in every lesson. They just need to be creative to make sure that the lesson is delivered effectively and the students are able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they’ve learned. So if you’re one of them, keep in mind that your potential is limitless and the list of your options goes on.

Phil-Chi Class International Corp. (PCCIC) is an international online tutorial center that operates 24/7 and students can freely choose their schedule and time based on their preference and availability. PCCIC always provides their students with quality education for academic success and being on top of whatever they do in the industry they’ve chosen. Besides that, the teachers of PCCIC are equipped with tons of effective methods in delivering the lessons in the class and various strategies they can use to boost their student’s memory