The Power of Mnemonic Devices

A few years ago I was taking my kids to a local sports center for swim lessons. Admittedly, I don’t have the best sense of direction (the GPS, in my opinion, is one of the best inventions EVER). To get to this place, I needed to make a turn off of a busy (5-lane) main road onto another road. The turn happened at one of three gas stations clustered near one another along that road, but I needed to be ready and signal to get into the left turning lane so I wouldn’t miss the turn. Initially, I kept forgetting at which gas station that turn happened.

Mnemonic device to the rescue!

The gas station that I needed to turn at was a Shell station. A ha! Shells are by the water (ok, the beach – but still, the water). The pool is the water where the kids swim. This was my mnemonic device. Of course when I finally told my husband, he couldn’t stop laughing. Who cares? As I tell my students, if it works for you, THAT’S what matters.

Mnemonic devices are a fantastic way to remember important information, whether for everyday life (getting your kids to swim!) or for academic purposes. They are powerful tools — or tricks — that help you to recall or remind yourself of information with greater facility. They are especially beneficial for students with learning disabilities or working memory and other executive functioning challenges, but can and SHOULD be used to support every student’s learning. They encourage deeper engagement with the learning material and improved long-term memory of the content. And let’s face it, mnemonic devices can also be quite fun.

The top five way to incorporate mnemonic devices into daily life include:

  1. Rhymes

  2. Visualizations

  3. Acronyms

  4. Associations

  5. Short stories

If you love new mnemonic devices as much as I do as a way to help your students (or even yourself!) remember certain literacy-related content, hop on over to my Instagram page where I will be periodically sharing ideas in my stories.

What are some of your best mnemonic devices?

The Power of Pictures in Picture Books

After sending out my last newsletter discussing the flaws of the 3 cueing system and how to implement change, I received a number  of emails asking about the role of pictures. Aren’t they important? How are they important? How can they bring meaning to the text?

Pictures should never be used to guess a word. That’s what explicit phonics instruction is for. But pictures have the ability to support reading in other powerful ways. In this post, I’m going to discuss three ways pictures are a powerful part of the reading experience.

  1. Pictures enhance comprehension. Once a word is decoded, the picture can elevate the meaning of the word. In my last newsletter I wrote about a student who couldn’t figure out the word “ferry” in a leveled reader because a) he didn’t have the phonics knowledge to do so, and b) had never been exposed to that word before, so looking at the picture didn’t even help him. Once he was given the tools to efficiently decode the word, he was able to use the picture of the ferry in the text to gain a better idea of this word’s meaning. In addition to supporting vocabulary comprehension, pictures can support other areas of comprehension, such as visualizing the story’s flow and plot structure, better understanding a character’s emotional states and reactions, and referencing inferences and predictions.

  2. Pictures add to the storyline. In some stories, pictures provide clues and information that aren’t in the text. They may show another perspective that isn’t narrated. They act as hidden features that add to the storyline.

  3. Pictures tap into readers’ imaginations. Detailed illustrations allow readers’ minds to roam — to wonder and wander, and to wish. They invite readers to exercise their imaginations. They encourage readers to ask questions that they might not have had without the visual images, and explore places they never could have imagined before.

  4. Pictures evoke emotional connections, responses, and reactions. Have you ever been pulled in by the illustrations of a book, or experienced an emotional reaction or response because of its pictures? Pictures can add a certain mood to the story.

Readers should be encouraged to interpret the pictures alongside the text - to examine, observe, notice, and question — to use the pictures as a tool to deepen their understanding and experience of the story and its characters. Next time you are introducing a reader to a picture book, make sure to save extra time for exploring the role of the pictures. Here are a few topics to discuss when reflecting on the role of pictures in books.

  • Patterns or common themes incorporated by the illustrator

  • New information that is represented in the pictures that is not conveyed in the writing

  • How the reading of the book might have been different without the pictures - would you have missed out on important information offered only through the visual component?

  • The ways in which the pictures help bring deeper understanding of the elements of the story: characters, setting, plot, etc…

  • Emotional responses or moods drawn out by the pictures

What are some of your favorite picture books, and how do their illustrations enhance the story?

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Word Building Game

Games are a vital part of learning and can support learning in a myriad of ways. This image below is my screen from a recent Zoom session with one of my rising middle school students. We were ending a session playing the asked-for-over-again word building game.

WHAT IS IT?

This is a word building game I play frequently with my students. They love that they’re playing a game, and I love that they are building their vocabulary, spelling, and organization skills.

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HOW DO YOU PLAY?

It’s pretty simple. Choose a word and create 4 columns: one column each for 2-letter, 3-letter, 4-letter, and 5+ letter words. When playing virtually, I create a chart like this on my screen, and my students either a) creates a similar chart on paper or b) creates a document on their devices that they can screen share with me. Once the word is revealed and the grid is created, it’s go time. I allot approximately three minutes for students to build as many words as possible using the letters in the given word. Letters cannot be used more than once, but they can be used in any order.

You’ll notice that I have a FOCUS ON section. I do not use this with every student, but I will if my goal is to target particular spelling patterns, or if I have a student who has particular difficulty with task initiation and / or finding words, particular more complex ones.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE A WORD?

When choosing a word, I typically choose one that is seasonal, relevant to a current events issue, or related to a student’s interest. The word in this example above is from a recent session after Hurricane Isais wrecked havoc through our area and knocked out power, resulting in weeklong (and longer) power outages for many. My family is thankful that when we bought our house, there was already a generator installed. Unfortunately, the generator broke down after day 4 of working as back up. Hence, generator seemed like an appropriate word for many reasons that week: it was relevant, it targeted vocabulary and parts of speech (i.e. What are other forms of the word?: generate, generation, generated, etc…), and it honed particular spelling skills I wanted to focus on with this specific student.

This game can be differentiated for many different learning levels and needs. For extension work, ask students to pick a word to use in a well-written and descriptive sentence.

Happy Playing!

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Coordinating Conjunctions Craft Activity

Conjunction junction, what’s your function? were the famous Schoolhouse Rock words. (And it’s still impossible to talk about conjunctions without hearing them.) There are three categories of conjunctions: coordinating, subordinating, and correlative. They are all specific words that connect phrases, words, and clauses. This post focuses exclusively on coordinating conjunctions. 

There are seven coordinating conjunctions that can be easily remembered using the acronym FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. A good visual is what always helps me most, so I designed this coordinating conjunction fan to demonstrate the usage of these conjunctions for all those other visual learners out there. Also, kids LOVE putting these together.  To make this handheld fan, follow these simple steps:

What You’ll Need

  • Standard size (8.5in x 11in) sheet of paper

  • Marker

  • Ruler

  • Tape

How To

  1. Use a rule (or you can eyeball it!) to make roughly 1.5in marks

  2. Make six horizontal folds. This will then allow for seven spaces, one for each conjunction. There is enough space to also include the purpose for and / or an example of each coordinating conjunction. 

  3. Write each conjunction and purpose (see below for details) in each space.

  4. On the bottom where the conjunction FOR is written, you can flip up the to the opposite side and write COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS.

  5. Tape the bottom folds together to create a fan.

  • For a set-by-step video, you can hop on over to my Instagram page and watch it the reels section.

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For

Purpose: To give a reason.

Example: I brought my umbrella with me when I left the house, for it was supposed to rain.

 

And

Purpose: To join words, phrases, or sentences that show a similar idea.

Example: Sam finished his homework, and then he ate his dinner.

 

Nor

Purpose: To introduce or present a further negative idea or statement.

Example: Jen does not like to travel in airplanes, nor does she like to travel on trains.

 

But 

Purpose: To show contrasting or opposite ideas. 

Example: They wanted to bake muffins, but they didn’t have all of the ingredients. 

 

Or

Purpose: To show a choice or different options.

Example: We can go to the beach this morning, or we can go this afternoon.

 

Yet

Purpose: To join two ideas that are opposite. Similar to the use of the word but.

Example: Pete studied every day for the test, yet he still did not do as well as he had hoped. 

 

So

Purpose: To show the result or effect of something (not to be confused with so as an adverb, meaning to a great extent)

Example: Three feet of snow fell last night, so we were not able to leave the house today. 

 

I hope these examples and demonstration help your learners master coordinating conjunctions a bit more easily!

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