Mnemonic: Keyword Method, And Letter Strategies

A mnemonic is using words and phrases to provide reconstruction of unfamiliar information, though symbolic pictures and later functions as reminders for desired behaviors (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). There are many different strategies that can be included in mnemonics teaching, but the most powerful are keyword method, pegboard method, and letter strategies. If one can make a firm enough connection, the better chance there is for a memory to last that much longer. The keyword method is helpful in a variety of applications, such as learning state and capitals or vocabulary (Mastropieri, & Scruggs, 1991). A keyword is considered a word that sounds like a new word and is easily pictured and can be easily interacted together. Teaching the United States state names and capitals is a large …show more content…
These strategies can also be implemented into special education classrooms for children have learning or intellectual disabilities. Mnemonic instruction allows a student to relate new information to visual or verbal cues, that they are already familiar with and linking that information with unfamiliar information. Facilitators can present the information to the students through a verbal lesson as well as showing different pictures that they are to understand in correspondence with states and capitals. In this particular lesson, Florida is associated with a flower. The capital of Florida is Tallahassee, which is associated with a television. A picture of both of these will then be connected to the two unfamiliar words. Florida and Tallahassee are now linked with two, familiar concrete words that sound similar to the original words, which ultimately links all the words together. So, the student will remember a flower on a television (Mastropieri, Sruggs, Bakken, & Brigham, 1992). The second step is guided practice, allowing the student to work through the