Teacher Discussion Forums

I am going to have a class on memory for junior 3 students in China. The subject is abstract and difficult to involve the studetents even in their native language. What can I do to excite them and illustrate this psychology topic better? Does anyone have the related stories or games?

I suppose the "driest" meaning of memory is to do with memory feats, memorization etc. You could mention mnemonics, the "keyword" technique etc to your students, but you might bore them (I bet they have had enough of memorizing endless vocabulary lists!)...see the "association" activity in 2) below for something a bit more fun.

1) Ever played something like "The Shopping Game"? A: I went to the supermarket and got some apples. B: I went to the supermarket and got some apples and a bottle of wine. C: ... (but I think this is a bit boring). Chinese whispers isn't exclusively to do with memory (the whispering and laughing helps garble the message more than anything else!), but it could shed some light on the limits of auditory memory.

For visual memory: what's the name of the game where you show a table full of items, and then remove something and the students try to remember and guess what is missing. Is it called "Kim's game"? (To prevent cheating by peeking students in class, you could take mpegs of a some stuff at home, if you have a digital camera, and give students "before" and "after" pictures). You could also get them to remember the differences between "Spot the difference" pictures after they've spotted the differences and you've collected the pictures back in.

2) One game I like to introduce this idea of associations is "The Colour/Memory Game". Divide the class into two halves, and ask one half (A) to think of a colour. The other half (B) then has to think of something associated with that colour. Play then passes back to the A half, who have a choice of thinking of something new associated with the colour, or of something associated with the word that the B half came up with. You would be boarding this stuff much like a "mindmap".

The basic game is just coming up with words, but if memories associated with any words occur to anyone, they should feel free to begin telling others about that memory (usually in the form of an anecdote or a bit of trivia, or a question). Things can get pretty crazy with this game!

Some examples: A - white; B - snow; A - ice; B - You know, quite a few people in Hokkaido get killed by blocks of ice falling off their roofs. I had a narrow escape once myself...

A - orange; B - carrot; A - rabbit; B - Hey, have you ever seen a movie called Shogun Assassin? There were these lady ninja in it with throwing knives hidden in their carrots... (I told you this game could get crazy! ).

The associations that people come up with can be quite revealing about their interests if not their outlook on life! This game also goes by the name of "Psychologist's couch". It can be a good way to hit upon an unexpected yet interesting topic for discussions.

3) There's a Japanese movie (that I haven't seen, and can't remember the title of) where people who have died and gone into the afterlife are interviewed by a counsellor about their happiest memory. The memory is made into a movie that will accompany them into eternity (they kind of go on living (in?) it forever I guess). You could easily ask students about best/worst memories.

One question that is often really hard to answer is: Have you ever forgotten (to do) anything (that was important, or had e.g. bad or embarrassing results for you, or somebody else)? It seems we remember our successes, but are more liable to forget or gloss over our failings!

Thank you, Fluffyhamster, for your suggestions.

But I wonder if students will be too quiet or noisy in color/memory game. It is common in a class that when the students are thinking of some related topics, they are shy to express. So the game will have difficulty to be put in practice.

Another wonder is that what a Chinese Wisper is?

I think that Japanese movie was called "Afterlife" in English. Fantastic. Would be a great intro to any activity like this. I think that we play a kind of game like Chinese Whispers but call it Gossip. You put 8 or so people in a row and give them a word. The first person whispers it once to the next. They can't repeat it so the next person must listen closely. Of course, they don't and people laugh and so on, so that the when the last person says the word it is all garbled. It does demonstrate what happens when we pass on Gossip. There are those card games of Memory as well - you spread out 16 or more cards face down. The cards are matched in some way so they have a partner. You turn up two cards and hope that they match. Each person takes a turn and eventually you remember where cards are and are able to match them up. The person with the most pairs wins.
It does seem that this is an excellent opportunity for people to share their experience with memorizing things and what works for them. There is no one right way and people come up with some amazing techniques.

Thanks for describing Chinese Whispers/Gossip, Sally. I'd just like to add that things might go "better" (i.e. get more garbled and funny!) if the students have to relay a short phrase or sentence rather than a single word. This is something that will definitely require some thinking and preparation/note-making - it is actually really hard to think up appropriate yet fun sentences off the top of your head during play, so don't improvise them!

Sally's idea for Memory is what I was going to suggest. To add a bit more English learning to it, I make them say the name of each card they flip and they can only take the cards if they can say the name of whatever is on the pair.

Another interesting thing is then to ask them what their first memory is!