Additional enhancement routines
  • Concept Comparison Routine: helps the practitioner to pause and consolidate the lea rners' understanding of two or more critical concepts by analyzing the important characteristics of each, sorting them into similar and different categories, and then synthesizing their conclusions about the concepts.
  • Concept Mastery Routine: used as an interactive tool to review a previously introduced critical concept, using a graphic organizer. Through the interactive process, the learners are encouraged to identify characteristics of the concept, sorting examples and non-examples and synthesizing their understanding of it.16

Enhance recall and meeting outcomes

"Their particular use is in developing better ways to take in (encode) information so that it will be much easier to remember (retrieve)."17

Recall Enhancement Routine

This routine is employed by practitioners to cue learners to lists and small groups of facts that need to be memorized. Practitioners instruct through demonstrating, modeling and providing scaffolds on how to transform the information into formats by using a variety of mnemonic devices (keywords, first letters, visual imagery, and rhymes). Mnemonic strategies help enhance memory by providing an effective way to encode the information so that it is easier to retrieve. One of the key tasks in developing mnemonic strategies is to find a way to relate new information to the information students already have locked in their long-term memories.

Pictures can also provide a memory advantage. Use pictures on a chalkboard or on an overhead projector. Bring in photographs or other illustrations. The enhancement routine provides an approach to help learners understand how to remember, as well as what to remember.18