Vocabulary Cartoon Mnemonics
Students Remember Definitions with Visual-Spatial Associations
Oct 21, 2007
Origins of Vocabulary Cartoons
Vocabulary Cartoons (1998), Vocabulary Cartoons: SAT Word Power (2007), and Vocabulary Cartoons II: SAT Word Power (2007) from New Monic Books, Inc. are the brain children of Sam and Bryan Burchers, a father-son writing team. The idea was born when, in 1980, Sam used humorous rhyming to help his son to remember the definitions for common SAT words. Nearly twenty years later, the father-son team, along with brother Max Burchers, published their first Vocabulary Cartoons book. The original book, intended for students in grades 3-6, was a national best-seller and paved the way for the two SAT Word Power books.
Mnemonic Devices
Mnemonic devices are associations that are intended to help memory. For instance, to remember the planets (or, more accurately, the eight planets plus Pluto), a student might recite, "My Very Educated Mother Just Saw Us Nibble Pie." (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto).
The Vocabulary Cartoons books make use of multiple mnemonic devices to help students link terms with definitions. For instance, for the word "alienate" (page 29 of SAT Word Power), a word link follows the pronunciation and dictionary definition. The word link is created by dividing the word into "ALIEN ATE." Following the word link a cartoon depicts two obviously disgruntled three-eyed aliens scowling at a gluttonous crewmate who has an ice cream cone in each of his four hands. Underneath the cartoon is the caption, "The chief ALIEN ATE all the ice cream and ALIENATED his crew," followed by three sentences that show the word in several other contexts. The multi-sensory approach encourages students to use various learning modalities to provide meaningful framework for learning.
Review of Vocabulary Cartoons Series
The Vocabulary Cartoon series offers a refreshing departure from the typical rote memorization of terms that occurs in traditional classrooms. Appealing to multiple learning styles, the mnemonic devices in this series have elements that appeal to both visual-spatial and auditory-sequential learners. Not surprisingly, a follow-up study of high school students who learned SAT level words using the series showed that, on average, students retained 90% of the definitions a full three months later.
The series provides the opportunity for enjoyable and meaningful learning. Humor is always a good teacher, and the witty cartoons and rhymes in this series contextualize the vocabulary terms for long term memory in a way that traditional memorization methods cannot.
In addition to the three Vocabulary Cartoon books, teachers can purchase reproducible blackline masters and overhead transparencies for classroom use.
