There are any number of test taking and memorization strategies that exist, mainly because of the many different learning styles that exist. Here is a sampling of strategies that I have found to work with many different groups of students in numerous settings. Perhaps one could work for you, your child, or your students…
1. Something that I used to use when I was co-teaching - we'd have students write their own definitions and illustrate vocab words. Then, we'd post them around the room and refer to them often (we'd be sure to point out the picture on the wall representing the term when we were talking about that term). We'd remove these illustrations when the test came. I'd find the students looking at the wall where the term was previously posted in order to recall the meaning of the word – and much of the time, they were able to correctly recall the word.
2. Color coding - that's how I remember things. If you check out the Quick Tip of the Week section of my website, you will find a great handout on visual literacy that I've shared with the high school staff and the district special ed staff all about colors, spacing, etc. Visual literacy is week 9.
3. In our high school, some of the classes study Shakespeare. My tutor uses No Fear Shakespeare to help the students understand and study for tests on what they've read. No Fear Shakespeare is from SparkNotes, it has Shakespeare on one side of the page and then a "regular English translation" on the other.
4. Rewrite class notes each night - this is a great way to study without realizing that you're studying!
6. Another strategy I have used- when I needed the students to remember a difficult concept, I'd give them a small treat that related to it (Hershey bar for fractions). We'd play with our snack while we learned that 1/2 is larger than 1/3, which is larger than 1/4. Then, whenever the students would need to recall which is bigger/smaller or that fractions are equal pieces of a whole in class, they'd think of the Hershey bar (sometimes on their own, sometimes I'd have to tell them to "Think of the Hershey bar").
What kinds of test taking/memorization strategies do you find work well?
| 