Chapter 10: Improving Attention and Memory

Online Lesson Contents			Objectives
Part 1: Objectives Part 2: Summary of Ideas Part 3: Chapter Activities Interactive Pages			Upon completion of this section the learner will: Describe preconditions for improving attention in the classroom. Describe and analyze extreme cases of attention deficits and the effects of stimulant medications. Understand the importance of memory and attention for students with special needs to school success. Describe preconditions and the various strategies for improving memory for students with special needs. Design and implement strategies to enhance meaning and concreteness of instruction. Understand various ways to promote active learning and increase practice through clustering, organization, and elaboration. Describe, create, and apply mnemonic strategies (keyword, pegword, and letter strategies) to improve and enhance memory.

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			Part 2: Summary of Ideas
Attention and memory are two fundamental psychological processes necessary for learning to occur.			Attention and memory are two important psychological processes necessary for success in school. Being able to attend to and remember academic content is often a problem for many students with special needs. However, research has uncovered many successful strategies for enhancing attention and memory. Effective teaching, including using the teacher planning and presentation variables, can help all students pay more attention in class. Simple strategies for increasing attention include asking students directly to try to pay attention better, or moving closer to the student who struggles to attend. Breaking activities into smaller segments, alternating among various types of class activities, allowing opportunities for movement, using reinforcement, and teaching self-recording may also help improve attending. Peer assistance can be used to promote attention of students with a variety of special needs. Meeting the preconditions for improving memory may help many students remember better. Teaching students metacognitive awareness strategies helps promote better memory strategies for all students. Using pictures, enhancing meaningfulness, using activities, providing sufficient practice, and promoting active learning all help promote better memory for students with disabilities. Using mnemonic strategies such as the keyword method, the pegword method, and letter strategies helps promote learning of unfamiliar content.

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			Chapter Activities
Using pictures, enhancing meaningfulness, using activities, providing sufficient practice, and promoting active learning all help promote better memory for students with disabilities.		1.	Read Chapter 10 in the text. Use the Chapter 10 Graphic Organizer to "see" the big ideas in the chapter. Fill in blank sections of the graphic organizer.
		2.	Examine the following World Wide Web link and consider their perspectives based on information from Chapter 10. Exploratorium Memory Exhibit http://www.exploratorium.edu/memory/

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