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3/22/2019 7 Comments

Visual Vocabulary: How to Teach for Retention

How to help students store vocabulary in long-term memory: Visual Vocabulary Triggers
Do you have vocabulary words you’d like to stick in your students’ brains?  Whether you teach upper elementary, middle school, or high school, I’m guessing you’re nodding your head, yes!  It encompasses all subjects- we all have key terms that will improve our students’ learning. 
 
It’s always a teacher’s goal to improve retention, in other words, help our students move information into long-term memory.  If students retain key terms, our jobs are so much easier!
 
 
Visual "Memory Triggers"
 

The way that we can blend text and images in a doodle note strategy leads to better comprehension and retention of our lesson material.  This combination of visual and linguistic input is based on Dual Coding Theory and supports student learning.

I call these blends of text and graphics “visual memory triggers” because the student brains process the text and image together in a way that builds connections and helps them to remember the concept later on.
A solid visual trigger is based around an image that either fits the lesson material or fits into an analogy that will help students remember.  They’re a key component of doodle notes.  For example, this school bus is a visual trigger for the commutative property.
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“Commutative” Property – to move back and forth:  Students write one letter per bus window and remember “commuting” to and from school as the connection.
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In the same lesson, I have students write “associative” inside an image of two people or an image of a handshake.  This one helps them remember that associates are like partners and that math property is all about switching “partners” in an equation.  We accompany these graphics with examples that will help connect the abstract analogy with a concrete principle.  The hand’s action of lettering and sketching leads to a brain pathway that helps store each memory as a blend of visual and linguistic input.  This has been proven to be the most effective way for the brain to ensure that information gets into long-term memory.

Here are more samples of what visual "memory triggers" look like.  Students can develop these blends of graphic and linguistic content themselves to help a big concept or key word stick in their brains:
Visual Memory Triggers for Vocabulary Retention
 
How to Help your Students Develop their Own Visual Memory Triggers
 

A way to instantly boost memory and retention is to have your students create their OWN visual memory triggers.  To teach them how to do this, start with specific prompts.
 
You can have them create a visual magazine cover for a key term like the one below for the term “gravity.” Or you can encourage them to design a t-shirt for a term, sketch it, or use it in sentences.  
Visual Vocabulary - Graphic Memory Triggers for Remembering Key Terms
​Or, if the given topic has various layers, have your students show that in scoops on an ice cream cone or layers of a cake.  The opportunities are endless!
 
Show them more examples of visual triggers for inspiration!
 
This pack of Visual Vocabulary Prompts: Doodle Note Review Card Templates makes this process a breeze for you and your students!  The cards already have a variety of creative prompts built in, as well as designated areas to doodle, color, and visualize on paper a given term.
 
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The graphic layout of these study guides allows students to mentally organize the information in their minds, understand the relationships and connections between ideas, and remember the lesson material better!

 
Why this Helps Them Remember
 

There is psychological research done on visual note-taking.   Dual Coding Theory originated with Paivio in the 70s, and explains how visual and linguistic information is processed in two different areas of the brain.
 
In essence, as new input enters the brain, it's stored in short term memory in two distinct categories.  Graphic information, images, and other sensory input are processed in the VISUAL center while auditory input, words, and text are processed in the LINGUISTIC center of the brain.
 
This is a great way for our brains to constantly take in both types of information, and the system works very well as we are on the go.  However, in order to actually convert new information into true learning, we need it to be saved and stored in long term memory.
 
To do this, we need referential connections between the two zones.  We have to CONNECT the information in the visual area with the information in the linguistic area.
 
When we are able to blend the text/auditory input together with the images, we boost the potential for retaining the information!
Visual Note Taking - Doodle Notes & Dual Coding Theory
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​Not only are the individual words and ideas committed to long term memory more effectively, but the associations between them are retained as well.  With this strategy, our students can understand the big ideas and concepts AND remember the vocabulary and small details more consistently. 
 
In addition to the learning benefits of visual note-taking, when students develop their own visual memory triggers, they are essentially able to teach others.  According to the Art of Problem Solving, “The best test of whether or not you really understand a concept is trying to teach it to someone else. Teaching calls for complete understanding of the concept. You can’t just ‘kind of get it’ or know it just well enough to get by on a test; teaching calls for complete understanding of the concept.”
 
Even if you don’t use the visual vocabulary in groups or partners, your students still have to interact with the term from a different perspective.  They have to think about the key term as if they were teaching it; they have to fully understand it in order to build a visual memory trigger.  It's all about coming up with their own brain-friendly memory boosters!

The templates and prompts shown above are part of this set.

For support and more information as you explore the different opportunities that visual note-taking can offer your classroom, download the complete Doodle Note Handbook for free here.
 

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Related Posts on Brain Based Visual Notes:

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7 Comments
Rare learing link
4/9/2019 07:57:24 am

Great article! I agree on nearly every aspect of this information you have written. You have great insight on this topic. I have not read such good quality content in a while. Thank you.

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Sloane Ponder
8/8/2020 07:36:42 am

My son is going into 11th grade. He has given up on school. Furthermore, he thinks he is dumb because he hasn’t made good grades. I have tried to find help for him in the past with things he struggled with but no one was able to really identify his learning style. It has been so painful to watch. Long story short, I have just recently learned he is right brain dominant and a visual spatial learner (or do those go hand in hand?). This information on your sight looks promising but I fear is he is SO impatient and I don’t see him creating a whole sheet of doodling and or he would be embarrassed if the other kids saw him. Any suggestions for me/him?

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Math Giraffe link
8/8/2020 02:23:09 pm

Hi Sloane,
Thanks for reaching out! I am sorry for his frustrations! That can be really tough, and happens pretty frequently when the traditional learning techniques just don't seem to be working. It sounds like he enjoys a bit of creativity, but I definitely understand the low patience level and also the hesitance to do it in class. With visual note-taking, kids do not actually have to do a ton of coloring or embellishing for it to work. Even just the minimum as far as creative input goes a long way, since the built-in features, visual memory triggers, and graphic layout all activate the brain pathways naturally to lead to stronger retention. I'd definitely recommend some visual note-taking. It can be very successful for teen boys in this situation. Check out Sara's stories here for some examples of students who completely turned around a giving up or "failing feeling" situation: https://www.doodlenotes.org/in-the-classroom.html
I hope some of these strategies help your son! :) If he is not motivated to do full sheets, I'd recommend starting with our templates, and have him take his regular notes on here, with a goal in mind of building the visual vocabulary sketches outlined in this post (above). Any time he combines a word with a drawing that somehow represents its meaning, he will retain it more easily. Here are some templates to try:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Math-Giraffe/Category/-Doodle-Note-Stickers-306810
Let me know how else I can help. Thanks, and have a great weekend!
-Brigid
https://www.doodlenotes.org/in-the-classroom.html

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state of writing reviews link
5/28/2021 05:28:31 pm

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slope unblocked link
7/19/2021 10:12:48 pm

Thats amazing bro.

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Heather
1/2/2022 08:08:50 pm

I found this article very helpful.
I am a first year teacher for mild mod SPED 7-8th and vocabulary is really challenging for my students. Some of my students are challenged with orthographic representations - drawing pictures and handwriting but are cognitively able to process the ideas of the vocabulary words. I have been encouraged to have them use digital tools for typing the definitions and sentences. Have you used digital tools for drawing ? Does finding a representation on the internet and cut and paste work the same or do you think they need to draw it?

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Math Giraffe link
1/3/2022 11:42:35 am

Hi Heather,
Thanks! I hope some of the ideas can help you and your students. Digital tools should help them to at least get a visual representation of some kind. Drawing it themselves is ideal, since it optimizes the hand-to-mind connections, but even just combining something that will stick in their brains as an image will at least help. Whatever they can do to get some of these benefits will be beneficial! :) Dragging and dropping images into a structure / graphic organizer shape that makes sense should be a good compromise for your group. Have a wonderful week,
-Brigid

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