Declarative knowledge strategies are strategies that can help the learner construct meaning by
linking new learning with existing knowledge, stating instructional purposes and/or previewing
the lessons, organizing and chunking information into recognizable patterns or mnemonic
devices, and elaborating to fill knowledge gaps with the help of inference. There are three
subtypes of declarative knowledge cognition: labels and names (pairing information), facts and
lists (describing relationships), and organized discourse (thread of meaning running throughout).
I chuckled when I saw that most of the examples were music related as I thought about how I’ve
been using most of these declarative strategies for a long time. Teachers use many of these
strategies in instruction all the time. The great lakes spells HOMES, My Very Educated Mother
Just Served Us Nine Pizzas for the planets, or Even George Bush Drives Fast for the music
staff, are just some examples of declarative strategies at work. One thing I feel they may have
left out, though it may go under pegwords, is the recall through song or melody. We would sit
around and come up with all sorts of recall strategies to remember pieces of music and their
historical information for “drop the needle” exams. For example, the first few phrases Mozart’s
Symphony #40, which is played by the string section, can be sung: “It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a
Mozart, Symphony #40 in g minor, written in 1788, this is the molto allegro.”