APPLICATIONS OF MNEMONIC STRATEGIES WITH STUDENTS WITH MILD MENTAL DISABILITIES

This paper reports the results of two classroom applications of mnemon ic instruction with students with mild mental disabilities (see note). These applications were developed based upon previous research findin gs and implemented by special education teachers in their classrooms o ver extended time periods. In both applications, regularly assigned cu rricula were adapted to include the use of mnemonic strategies. In the first application, the strategies were supplied by the teacher to fac ilitate the learning of social studies content. In the second applicat ion, students first used teacher-made strategies and later assisted th e teacher in generating ''class'' mnemonic strategies for learning sci ence content. Results of both applications suggest that students succe ssfully learned content using the mnemonic strategies and reported enj oying instruction when the strategies were used. Findings are discusse d in relation to future applications by teachers.