How to teach your students the historical dates that frame history.
If you haven’t read the post on peg lists, do that now. You will need it to execute this memory strategy.
Outside of the realm of education, remembering numbers is useful in all kinds of contexts. Whether it is birthdays or credit card numbers, the ability to memorize numbers quickly and easily –with strong retention– is useful, and in this case, FUN.
That being said, this is an educator’s website to help teach students, so we are going to use date memorization as a practical example.
Step One: What is the date?
In this case, we will use 1867.
Step Two: Convert to images.
Let’s use the shape peg list. The year 1867 converts to candle, snowman, lasso, boomerang.
Step Three: Create a story.
The story method can be use in all kinds of memory contexts. If you would like to know a bit more about the story method, check out the story method post.
“My candle is Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast. I imagine him running after Frosty, my designated snowman, who he is trying to melt. Lumiere decides to lasso Frosty and flings it toward him. To Lumiere’s chagrin, the lasso boomerangs around, and he lassos himself instead.“
It is best that you tie in the significance of the date with the image. For example, if the date is associated with a person, then start with that person and continue the story through the end of the date. If you want to add more information, then convert that information into an image, preferably with sticky sensory details, and add it to the story. Check out the post on how to memorize the presidents for an example.
It is important to remember to make sure you put the images in your peg list(s) in order, especially with numbers. Dates are precise, after all, and for that matter, so are credit cards and pin numbers!
Try it out for yourself and let us know how it went! DON’T FORGET to use active recall to refresh the material. For more on that, check out the super important active recall post!
And as always, take the opportunity to be a big part of this movement and help build this website Let us know what you would like your students –or yourself– to memorize.
