Speed Learning

By Mary Ann Slavcheff

Now that we know pegging and chaining, are there others ways to speed up learning? There are. 

Mnemonics

Thirty Days Has September, April, June and November.

Fall back; spring ahead.

Red sunset at dawning, sailors warning; red sunset at night, sailors delight.

Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally.

I before E except after C.

There are a few others that night be less well known.

What happened to Henry VIII’s wives?

Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorces, Beheaded, Survived.

What is the order of the planets from the sun? 

My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas.

Songs

People in my generation know what year the battle of New Orleans was fought.  We 

simply remember the first line of a Johnny Horton hit song. “In 1814, we took a little trip along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.”

Many years later Tom Lehrer sang about the “Elements.” Hundreds of kids memorized the lyrics and the elements. Gosh that was fun. And while singing along with Lehner or with their friends, they didn’t even have to use chaining or pegging.

I have an album that includes campaign songs from each president and another album that includes songs from some of the presidential losers.

There are songs about adverbs, adjectives, nouns and even pronouns.

YouTube

You can find most if not all of the songs listed above free on youTube.  I learned American Sign Language on YouTube. I am sure one can take guitar lessons and much more from this site.

I Tunes U.

Say you are taking a class in mathematics, chemistry or political science, and you are having difficulty with the instructor or the textbook. Maybe you have not started the class yet, but you want a preview.  Maybe you already took the class and want to know more. Check out iTunes U.  The lectures are free.  It is a college education without the expense.

Television

I remember hearing students discuss the television series, “The Tudors.” in the elevator at Wayne County Community College. They were surprised that the future Queen Elizabeth I was the daughter of Ann Boleyn, who had seemed to be more of a pretty mistress in the series than a real queen.  While they may have been enjoying the soap opera aspects of the story, they were also learning history.

Growing up in the 1950’s, television westerns started my interest in American history.  Recently there have been movies made about both John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. When films turn to history, the story ideas are unlimited.

But there are also police procedurals and crime scene investigation (to learn science on a dozen levels). One television program was about a mathematician.  Justice Sonia Sotomayor  in her autobiography writes about watching “Perry Mason” on television when she was growing up. It made her wonder not only about the jobs that lawyers do, but also about what the judge was doing.  The rest as they say is history.  She sits on the Supreme Court now.