Indiana Social Studies P.4.2

Social StudiesGrades 9–12Cognition

The Standard

Describe the processes of memory, including encoding, storage, and retrieval.

2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students trace what happens when they learn a name and remember it the next day. They use encoding, storage, and retrieval to explain each part.
What Mastery Looks Like: Given a short story, students label each memory process and explain their choices. They can tell the difference between keeping information and calling it to mind.
Common Misconceptions: Students may call the moment they remember an answer storage, when it is retrieval. They may also think repetition is the only way to encode information, or that stored information is always easy to recall.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: You hear a new locker code, remember it overnight, and enter it the next morning. Label where encoding, storage, and retrieval happen.

Lesson moves

Give pairs 10 picture cards to sort, hide the cards for two minutes, then have students list the pictures and label each memory step.
Ask: Why might you recognize a classmate's name on a list but struggle to say it without the list?
Play a card sort using short memory stories, such as hearing a name, remembering it overnight, and saying it later.
Have students use their class schedule to explain when they learned it, kept it in memory, and recalled their next classroom.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to P.4.2, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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