This monthly article will feature a different learning skill each month and instead of talking theory will ONLY give ideas for targeting/strengthening that learning skill for ages 2 to 102! Remember that you can find ALL the learning skills in a free interactive tool.

Memorizing: intentionally committing information to memory

The Levels of Learner Knowledge includes Level 1 Knowledge: INFORMATION

At this level,

• The learner can talk about a concept, process, tool, or context in words and can provide definitions or descriptions.
• The learner has some sense of what information is relevant and not relevant.
• Limited comprehension makes it difficult for the learner to carry on an extensive dialog.

Key words are: who, what, where, when, which, find, choose, define, list, label, show, spell, match name, tell, recall, select, organize, outline
Typical questions include: What is…? Where is…? When did…? What facts or ideas show…? Who were the main…?    Which one…? Can you recall…? Can you select…? Can you list the three …? Who was…?

Unfortunately, educators tend to downplay the importance of Level 1 knowledge. It is not the goal, but without mastering definitions, rules, and formulae, students won’t get much further. When you hit new information that must be memorized, trying to understand how it is organized or related to what you already know can be the best first step.

Pre-school-aged children are almost constantly memorizing information! Learning who people are, names, relationships, where things are located, what things are used for (their purpose) are going on even as language or languages are being learned. All of these involve memorization! Learning what sound combinations convey thirst is an amazing bit of memorization and that’s a small example. So there isn’t much of a need for supplementing the amount of memorization already going on with young children. But it can be made less frustrating for the child if parents and siblings keep a sense of humor and play about it. Mistakes in language should never be punished or teased.

Memorization tends to be frowned upon within the Liberal Arts as being ‘the way we used to do things’. Back in the day, students were required to memorize Latin verb conjugations and noun declensions and were punished for making mistakes. But again, having rules memorized, such as how to correctly punctuate sentences or how to cite sources, can make it less painful and time-consuming to write high-quality research papers. In history, having certain signposts memorized, especially dates, helps students to understand history as a flow of related events rather than disparate and contextless happenings; the same is true in philosophy, sociology, literature and such, because thinkers and writers and movements were influenced by the world in which they lived, who they knew, and what they read. It can be very helpful to offer students the Levels of Learner Knowledge and specifically help them to appreciate what information is at Level 1 in a given course. (You’ll find yourself surprised at how far some students manage to get without ever truly memorizing foundational information!) Students may well argue that Level 1 knowledge can be found online. And this is absolutely true. But having to look it up each time it’s needed is a waste of time better spent engaging in Level 3 or 4 knowledge and learning. Because students in the Arts don’t tend to do a lot of memorizing, sharing memorization techniques can help. (See the IDEA section below.)

Students in STEM courses tend to be comfortable with memorization – so much so that the challenge is often to push them past using formulae and rules. Nevertheless, it may not be readily apparent to students what information is at Level 1 in a given course or context and clarifying that for them will help them focus appropriate time on memorizing that content. Students in STEM courses and disciplines also end up needing to memorize more and more frequently than students in the Arts. As such, sharing techniques for memorization with them can be very helpful. (See the IDEA section below.)

We tend to do less and less memorizing, the older we get. Yet it is very good for the brain to continue to push and exercising memory is one way to do that. There are endless games that can be played to increase memory; the problem isn’t lack of opportunities for memorizing, but lack of will and, for many of us, useful techniques. It is well-worth spending some time looking up “memory palaces” to learn how individuals have managed to memorize almost unbelievable amounts of information (here’s an example of how to do it: https://artofmemory.com/blog/how-to-build-a-memory-palace/). Making mnemonics is a helpful technique that can be used with nearly any information (ROY G. BIV or PEDMAS, anyone?). Another fun technique is making a story out of specific information. Why not try this the next time you or the family goes shopping? Involve any children in creating a story out of the list. If it’s “bread, milk, cookies, apples, and paper towels”, for instance, a story might be like this:

Mr. Bread was hungry for his daily snack of milk and cookies. Unfortunately, space aliens that looked like apples (the ‘stem’ was really their single antenna, according to experts) had covertly stolen all the cookies in the town, leaving such a terrible mess in each kitchen that people had to use entire roles of paper towels to clean up. 

It’s silly but that’s part of the point – silliness is memorable and helps with memorization!  Other strategies include making information rhyme and/or learning it as a song (here’s the countries of the world in a rhyming song with a familiar melody:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pOFKmk7ytU)