Recently I watched a video of an artist performing Kintsugi, a Japanese art form that dates back to the 1700s. In the video, the artist intentionally broke a bowl with a hammer, and then methodically repaired the wreckage with a golden lacquer along the fault lines. Fault…isn’t that a funny word? I can say with 100% certainty that it was my fault I dropped my less than a month old iPhone this morning. I was rushing and trying to do too much at once when I dropped the phone, right on the pavement.
Although I won’t perform my own repairs with golden lacquer, I was able to witness a repair in myself; a repair I often find in my students as well.
Still rushing, I called the store where I purchased my phone and inquired about the process for getting it repaired. The person on the line informed me, “all you need to do is go onto /əʃɝɑn/.com (don’t worry, if you don’t know IPA, all will be reveled soon) and complete a claim.
“Okay, /əʃɝɑn/.com” I responded, “Can you spell that for me?” I say with a bit of panic in my voice, instantly knowing that this is a company with an invented spelling that I am going to need to commit to memory in the next 3 seconds while driving and heading towards that lizard brain state that happens so often when I am triggered by an expectation I have historically failed to meet.
“Sure!” she responds, “a.s.u.r.i.o.n.”
Suddenly, I find my picture and the panic melts away. “Oh!” “A + sure + ion, that’s funny! They took the base <sure>, the same base used in insurance, insured, ensure, and assure and created a new word using meaningful elements. How witty of them! Using <ion>, a noun forming suffix, makes sense because it’s the name of a business. I noticed…they didn’t use the assimilated form of <ad> that I would expect (<as>) but instead just an <a>, which is something I have seen <ad> do before.” A deep breathe ensues. “I can remember this, I have my picture.”
For the rest of my drive home, I relish in my ability to witness this breath taking transformation that has happened in my brain. I can almost feel the fault lines illuminating a new path as I access information about structure and meaning and divert from the path of rote memorization. It was no fault of my own that the only tool I had to access spelling was rote memorization and phonology. Sending me on an endless loop of: “write what you hear.” “I think I heard this.” “Does that look right?” “No, that must be wrong.” “Maybe if I pronounce it this way.” “Which way did I teach myself to pronounce this word so that I can spell it?” “Uhhh, I forget”. “Okay, I’ll just have to call and ask for the spelling again when I get home.”
I even found myself repeating the spelling on a loop, resorting to old behaviors. I had to stop myself and say, “Morgan, you’ve got this. You have your picture. You don’t have to do this anymore.”
Much research has been done on how memory works. In one study, Narrative Stories as Mediators for Serial Learning by Bower and Clark twenty-four people were asked to study twelve lists with ten words each. Half of the people were asked to memorize the words using normal study and rehearsal techniques and were given the same amount of time as the other half who were asked to weave the words into a meaningful story. The group that relied solely on rote memorization were able to immediately recall an average of 13% of the words. The group that was asked to weave the words into stories of their own invention, were able to remember 93% of the words under the same conditions. Can you believe, an 80% difference between those using story and those simply willing themselves to memorize? I can.
Memory works far better when we can attach meaning to what we already know. When we know the story of where words came from and how they’re built we don’t have to panic that we’ll forget. Memory athlete and triple world-record holder, Yanjaa Wintersoul, explained her process for remembering 500 digits in 10 minutes in a recent documentary, The Mind Explained. “It helps in putting very random abstract things in order, when you attach it to what you already know.” Wintersoul explains. “We are more wired to remember that, than to remember a random set of digits. In general we’re like emotional and visual learners, and story tellers.” she says with a smile. “The more you can associate things you want to remember with structures you already have in your mind, the easier it’s going to be to remember” adds Dr. Elizabeth Phelps, a neuroscientist at Harvard University.
And to make matters worse, the documentary adds, memories paired with an emotionally charged experience, like say…the fear of appearing dumb in front of your peers, have exacerbated inaccuracies.
Isn’t it great when an approach that is backed by conventional wisdom and common sense is also reinforced by science? I am not here to place fault on the educators before me who insist that a phonics only approach is the best way to remediate struggling readers and spellers. But I do want to illuminate the beauty of a process that can unfold when we piece together the stories of our shared humanity to see that the fault lines of English orthography are precisely where the story resides.