Multimodal Instructions
Overview
Instructions in multiple formats allow students to activate different cognitive skills to understand and remember the steps they are to take in their literacy work. Instructions can be given using text, visuals, gestures, or audio to facilitate increased student retention in Short-term and Working Memory.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how these teachers provide multimodal instructions by using visuals in addition to verbal communication. By referring to visual aids, such as written text on the whiteboard or gestures, they convey the same information in multiple formats to support memory retention.
Design It into Your Product
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More External Memory Aids Strategies
Easy access to high frequency words promotes sight word recognition as students see the words repeatedly.
Rhyming, alliteration, and other sound devices reinforce language development by activating the mental processes that promote memory.
A mnemonic device is a creative way to support memory for new information using connections to current knowledge, for example by creating visuals, acronyms, or rhymes.
Cards with strategies for managing emotions help students remember how to act when faced with strong feelings.
Providing a story map ahead of time or having students create a map during or after reading helps learners understand and expand their Genre Knowledge.
Timers help students learn how to self-pace and transition.
A word wall helps build Vocabulary for reading fluidity.