Remembering Acronyms
In my line of work, Information Technology, there are many acronyms that students need to remember and interpret. It can be overwhelming for the student when they see 7 or more pages of acronyms for their area of study. I decided that to help them remember the acronyms, I have the students play a game by picking a category and a point value in that particular category and they need to spell out the acronym to get the points. It has proven very effective and fun in the process.
i my feild i have the same thing i also play games with them like that to help them remember them
Donald,
What are some of the games that you use in your classes?
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
this is a very good way to make them memorize the acronyms,I usually use them and i use flash cards to help them memorize the acronyms they need.
Richard,
I use the same methods with acronyms and my students have fun coming up with the acronyms and then developing visual cues (posters, etc.) for remembering them. A fun time for all but a very effective learning method. Sounds like your students like this method as well.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
we make up acronyms, example sst means special service tools, I call them mst, because it is magic if you can do the job without them. the students laugh but they then remember what sst represents
Carroll,
Students do like making up acronyms and then using them in their learning. It is a fun but reinforcing way to acquire the needed content.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Finding something that the students will think is fun and associate it to that acronym. For instance in a class about weather our instructor wrote on the board NRSL concerning wind in certain weather patterns. It stood for wind from the North flowed to the Right and conversely from the South it flowed to the Left. The professor encouraged us to come up with our own words to help us remember and a classmate shouted out Natalie Ralphed Some Liver. To this day, nearly twenty years later I still remember NRSL.
Miyuki,
Now I am going to remember the acronym NRSL due to your story. I love coming up with these because it is through them that I have been able to remember as many formulas as I do. Thanks for sharing this great story with us.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I also find rhyme and rythm to be very useful-sometimes the clue is in the tone and tempo.
In my course of medical terminology- there are also a lot of acronyms- I use a jeopardy board with acronyms as one of the categories to help the students learn. They love it because it is a visual, an auditory , and a reward attached to the game.
Jean,
Thanks for sharing this idea with us. My students love to play Jeopardy when we are reviewing for a quiz. They get very competitive very quickly. We have fun and they learn a lot in a short span of time.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
