Teachers: The handful of audio files on this page are merely examples of the possibilities that you can utilize for this important exercise. All right then, I tried to throw some more lengthy words in that first sentence so that students wouldn’t read it! The point is that they shouldn’t have any pre-knowledge of the lists. (This is about working memory, not longer-term or implicit memory.) I have included a couple of pages of examples way at the bottom of the 'boosting brain skills' introductory page. However, you can make up your own lists. More notes on this below.
Letter Lists- Beginning Level:
Letter List (Scrambled Alphabet)- Start with circling any 3 letters in any direction. (Circling keeps track of which ones have been done for each student.) Have student repeat the letters as given, then in reverse order. If 3 is too many go to 2. If mastered, instead of going to 4 random letters, do 4 letter words. They’ll be easier to remember, and they’ll get some spelling practice.
Object Lists- Same idea, start with the list of 3, but some students will have to go back to 2. Then move on to lists of 4, then add your own. You can also ask questions like, “What was the second thing I said?”