No More Accordion-Style Teaching - Addressing Different Learning Styles
There are ways to address different learning styles in the classroom that can be motivating for all students.
By Deborah Reynolds
Remember when you first learned how to make little paper people that were attached at the hand by simply folding a sheet of paper, drawing your shape or design, and cutting it out? You would end up with four or five shapes that were exactly the same with just one cut. Back then, teaching was very similar to how you make those accordion people. All of the kids were taught the exact same lesson in the exact same manner with the expectation of all of them reaching the exact same goal. Fortunately, all children are unique with their own individual wants, needs, ideas, and styles. Unfortunately, the old way of teaching them only met the needs of a few of them.
Today, we know that children come into the classroom with a wide range of abilities and styles. They also bring with them diverse experiences, cultures, and needs. Every child has his or her personal preference for learning. Some children are very visual. They enjoy pictures, paintings, collages, and cartoons. There are some students that gain more from linguistic representations. These students enjoy journals, books, newspaper articles, word puzzles, and poetry. Many children prefer cooperative learning while others would rather do independent projects.
In order to reach all of these children, we must design our lesson plans to address these diversities. In order to address these differences, we must understand them. There are several strategies teachers can use to find out what a child’s learning style or preference is. Interest inventories provide a great deal of feedback on what students like to do. Observation is another strategy. Teachers can take anecdotal notes of how students work on a task to determine how to plan for future activities. This would be a great opportunity to give them choice menus to see what activity/style they prefer and then observe them as they complete it. Lastly, simply go right to the source. Ask the child what his or her learning style or preference is and use that information to plan your lessons.
Lesson Plans That Address Different Learning Styles:
Here, There, & Everywhere: Math Grows Up
This is a center-based lesson plan in which students use their senses to explore repeating patterns. There are seven different center ideas in this lesson. Each center touches on at least one learning modality in very creative ways. For example, students create fruit kabobs in repeating patterns that they can later eat. This lesson plan is adaptable for kindergarten through fifth grade. It also contains two extension ideas for those students that are ready to move on to more advanced studies.
‘Desert Fever’: A Student-Centered Approach to Learning About the Middle East
Groups of students learn about the Middle East by creating a board game. This lesson comes with a wealth of background information for the teacher to provide students. The students create a board game on the facts that they have learned. Students who love hands-on learning will benefit from this form of review and application.
Students learn about clouds and weather through four different activities that are differentiated according to the learning modality. The lesson contains four different objectives. Each objective has four different activities. The lesson also has a prepared post test.
Students develop number sense through activities centered around different styles of learning. This lesson includes ideas and activity sheets for five centers. These activities would appeal to the visual, kinesthetic, and logical thinkers. It is geared towards grade one, but it could be modified for any elementary grade level.
Discussion Question:
How do you identify your students' individual learning styles and preferences? How do you design activities to meet their needs?