A common complaint of students is that they cannot
remember what they read when they get to the end of a chapter. Answering those
end-of-the-chapter questions can be areal chore because they do not have good
strategies for holding onto the information as they read or for going back and
finding it later.
Many students think that they just have to reread the chapter from the
beginning over and over to locate the information.
In order to understand and remember what is read or heard, individuals must
be able to visualize or make pictures in their mind,
letting those pictures run like a movie. Three simple steps can be used to help
students visualize, understand the remember information more easily. These are:
- Picture
- Replay, and
- Retell
When your child is reading or listening, have him try to picture what is
being said, to "make a movie" in his head. Then have him "replay the tape." This
is just like rewinding a tape on a VCR and viewing a section of it again. This
replaying helps set the information into memory.
Have the child picture the information again, retelling it to you in detail
as he sees it. Do this first with stories and oral directions. Then try it with
content material such as Social Studies or Science.
When your child has questions to answer, have him rewind his "mental movie"
to the section where the information can be found. Have him think, "Did I see
that at the beginning, toward the middle, or at then end?" If he can't remember,
have him think, "What did I see at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end?
Where does this question seem to fit?"
Once he has located a logical starting point, he can then go back and check
in the book without doing a lot of unnecessary rereading.
|
