THE VALUE OF MEMORIZATION?

Over a lifetime, many of us memorize many things, and for many reasons. As I began pondering this phenomenon, I ruminated on some of the many things I either chose to memorize, or was forced to memorize - the alphabet, counting by tens, thousands of songs, Bible verses and books of the Bible, the Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (in Olde English), much poetry, the order of operations (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally), directions on a map (Never Eat Soggy Waffles), “righty tighty-lefty loosey,”  phone numbers and addresses, complete scores to masses, oratorios, and musicals, the periodic table, the 16 ways to say “the” in German...and the list goes on and on. Fortunately in today’s world, there are lovely memory helpers such as Google or Siri, and this once-memorized information is just a touch away. So is there value in memorizing anything these days?

As a Teyve sort of person (Google that under “Fiddler on the Roof”), I naturally began arguing with myself, and was delighted to come across this article while cruising the Internet, Memorization Still Matters: Benefits of quick access to working memory and 25 memorization techniques by Rick Wormeli in the Association for Middle Level Education.

Wormeli begins with this -- “Even for those with consistent access (to the Internet) at home, has our reliance on the Internet to provide the answer we didn't take the time to memorize hindered students nonetheless for not cultivating in them a working memory fortitude with the focus and skills to retain chunks of information purposefully for later application, or simply because they enjoy a topic, and to access both while in situations without Internet access?”

Wormeli goes on to quote a teacher, Ben Orlin, on the topic of memorization and its usefulness in critical thinking,  "It's a mistake to downplay factual knowledge, as if students could learn to reason critically without any information to reason about." As an educator, I often thought about that, especially when employing Bloom’s taxonomy to questioning with my students. If we are going to ask students to apply, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize, they need to have knowledge and understanding at the ready, and some of this knowledge will be the result of memorization. For example, I recently sat in a Board meeting where I was asked to explain a process used to develop and implement strategic planning. I immediately summoned the acronym SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound) from my memory, and proceeded to expound on the components. There was no need to say, “Just a moment, let me GTS that (Google That Stuff)...”  Because I’ve relied on memorization so much in my life, it seems plausible that others will too, and that we need to teach the “fortitude, focus, and skills” to help students retain chunks of information.

In Wormeli’s article, he lists 25 possible strategies to aid memorization, and I’ve chosen to highlight some that I believe are most efficacious.  They are:

• Teach the concept to someone else, or rehearse the memorization in front of others. Besides the obvious benefits of the memorization, the practice(s) will seal the memory.
• Memorize things in phrases or chunks, and often start at the end, rather than in the beginning of a piece. Then as you work your way to the front of a piece, you will eventually, in putting it all together, arrive at learned material. How rewarding!
• After working on memorization, take a break and do something else. In her book, How to Teach So Students Remember (2005, ASCD), Marilee Sprenger reminds us that “when first memorizing, the reciting/practice sessions should be frequent and with short time periods between each one. As we move farther from the original learning, however, we need to space them out.” In my years of learning hundreds of classical works with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Chorus, I have certainly found this strategy to be most effective; this is especially true when rehearsal of the memorized work is visited periodically over time, even decades later.
• Understand the research that supports memory recall -- we remember best when we recall the information in the place that it was learned. Context has a great impact on memory. As an aside, some schools choose to administer standardized testing only in the areas in which students have learned the material; e.g., Forward testing in math is done only in a student’s math classroom.
• Hydrate, eat well, and exercise to aid memory. Our brains depend on a well-nourished body.
• Use mnemonic devices whenever possible. An example of this would be remembering the word HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior) to facilitate memory of the five great lakes.
• Use props, cues, songs dances, visual images, art, acting things out, etc. -- in other words, appeal to varied ways of learning to retain information.
• Consider using a technique called “interleaving” practice. In this kind of practice, we interleave one set of concepts and skills with a different one, and perhaps a different one, eventually returning to each set of concepts and skills. This strengthens cognitive memory.

Though we now have incredibly fast modern technology at our fingertips, the ability to collate ideas, memorized facts, understandings, and powerful memories remain the domain of the human brain. If memorizing useful information will help facilitate creative and critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making, I remain a proponent.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and ideas. Together we learn and grow.

Jacquelyn Drummer
Past President, WATG

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