Mnemonic Devices

1. Mnemonic Devices Writing Across the Curriculum Sarah Bleshenski sbleshenski@scsd2.k12.sc.us Santee Wateree Writing Project Summer 2011

2. Rationale • Words go beyond the English Language Arts classroom. • Students can explore their thinking and express it in different ways. • I assigned a writing assignment, short response, and the students couldn’t understand why they would write in Math.

3. Rationale • Subjects are not separated in “the real world”. • Mnemonic devices allows students to play with words, while finding ways to learn vocabulary. • Works with all subjects, SS, ELA, Math, Science, physical education, chorus, and even band.

4. Research • “improving writing skills improves their capacity to learn” (Urquhart) • These changes are due to lower scores, “almost twenty years of declining SAT, ECT, ACT, and GRE” (Kinneavy). • Organization, and format that are acceptable in one discipline may not be at all acceptable in another(Wells). • Some common WID assignments are reports, literature reviews, project proposals, and lab reports” (Wells).

5. Research • Writing across the curriculum has been practiced and researched since the eighties.

6. Activity #1: Brainstorming • Brainstorm words beginning with the letters provided. • Remember to use all parts of speech!

7. Activity #2: Chain Reaction • Connect words by adding one word at a time, starting with the given word. • Example: baby bottle top rank smell flowers

8. Activity #3: Mnemonic Device • Create a sentence or phrase, using the beginning letters of the items you are trying to remember. • In my class, my students used the units of the metric system to create their mnemonic devices. • Kilo-hecto-deka-base-deci-centi-milli • Student examples

9. Student Examples • K- Kings • H- hate • D- dragons • B- because • D- dragons • C- crush • M- men By Megan (Images have been changed)

10. Student Examples • K- Kangaroos • H- hop • D- diagonally • B- but • D- don’t • C- chase • M- mice (Images rearranged)

11. Back to the Activity • Use the words you brainstormed for reference (You do NOT need to use these words) to create a mnemonic device for the order of operations. • P (parenthesis) • E (exponents) • M (multiplication) • D (division) • A (addition) • S (subtraction)

12. Sharing in Class • What did you create? Other ideas: • Geography- Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior) • Social Studies (Age of exploration) - Countries that sent out explorers (Spain, Portugal, England, France, Netherlands) • Science- The path of the digestive system (mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, intestines, anus)

13. In conclusion, “Writing in mathematics gives me a window into my students’ thoughts that I don’t normally get when they just compute problems. It shows me their roadblocks, and it also give me, as a teacher, a road map.” -Maggie Johnston

14. Bibliography • "The Human Digestive System." infoplease. Pearson Education, 2011. Web. 14 Jun 2011. <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0857763.html>. • Kinneavy, James. "Writing Across the Curriculum." Modern Language Association 1983: 13-20. Web. 14 Jun 2011. • Wells, Jaclyn. "Writing Across the Curriculum: An Introduction." OWL at Purdue 21 April 2010: n. pg. Web. 14 Jun 2011