What procedures might Ms. Lin suggest?
Page 7: Memorize It
By the time he reaches this step, Mr. Carter has already helped his students to commit the writing strategy procedures to memory quickly and easily through frequent practice. During the fourth instructional stage—promote memorization—Mr. Carter will make sure that his students have memorized the strategy mnemonics and what they mean. If they have not committed the strategy to memory, he gives them extra practice to help memorize it, to help them know what they are doing and why they are doing it. Mr. Carter knows that by doing so, his students will:
- Learn both the steps of the strategy and what action is performed during each step
- Become fluent in the steps of a strategy so they can use them without having to stop and think about what step comes next
For Your Information
Memorization, in this case, does not mean learning the strategy procedures word for word—students may change the wording as long as the meaning is maintained, allowing them to have ownership of the strategy.
One way Mr. Carter will help his students to learn the writing strategy is through the use of cue cards. Later, he will expect his students to write the strategy in the top right-hand corner of their notebook paper without the cue cards as a reminder. If any of his students seem to be having difficulty memorizing the strategy steps, however, Mr. Carter will allow them to continue to use their cue cards.
Click to view a sample of the cue cards Mr. Carter will provide for his students to help promote memorization.
Click on the movie to watch a teacher instruct her class to use cue cards to rehearse the W-W-W, What = 2, How = 2 steps of a strategy (time: 0.36).
Transcript: Promote Memorization
Teacher: Okay, so you guys are sitting in pairs, and you’re going to work with your partner on memorizing the trick. Sometimes you might want to write a story at home, or if you keep a journal at home, or if you go on an airplane and go far far away and decide to write a story about your trip, you’ll want to use the trick. And you won’t always have the poster to help you out with the trick, so if you memorize it then you can take it with you and use it anywhere and use it all the time, okay? So you can turn to your partner, and you have these little cards, and you can quiz each other to help you memorize the trick.
Activity
Think about students in a particular grade level. Brainstorm a few activities you could use to help these students have fun memorizing the steps of a strategy.
