How to reach students with different learning styles?
I am recent graduate from USA and I have not yet found a job, but one of things that I seem to have trouble in sometimes is reaching those students who have different learning styles than mine. I am a history major, so my learning styles are mainly visual, with seeing pictures, aural, by listening to the professor talk, and verbal, because I had to type many papers in my undergrad. My question to my fellow classmates what are some things I can do to reach those students who are different from me in my classroom? This doesn't have to be something that has to be strictly used in a history classroom setting. Any ideas would be beneficial for me and would help me come up with ideas on how to use other methods of teaching to keep students with other learning styles interested.
If you are wondering what the learning styles are, just click here. Thank you everybody for your comments. I am eager to see what you all come up with!!
Try activties that include various types of learning at one time. It would be useful to incorporate many learning styles because then you would be teaching more than on type of student at a time. Also, usually if the information is presented in a fun or "cool" way, students of all learning types respond. It just needs to be taught to them in a way they can understand and relate to.
ReplyDeleteI am a history major as well and I know exactly what you are feeling and saying. I think the best thing to do is use different teaching techniques in order to reach the students different than you. It helps to present the information in various ways a great way would be the digital story project we did at the beginning of this class. In that way they can get a visual from pictures and words. I think the other thing helpful is for big projects leave it as broad as possible. Such as I have a country project that my students will do to learn more about the history of a country. I leave it to where they can choose the country, how they want to present the information such as with a paper, power point, poster boards, an acted out play or others. All I give them is that there is certain information that has to be there and there has to be something I can have on hard copy other than that live it broad so they may use there imagination and that they may do it in a way that interests them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kelsey. I think incorporating "fun" with traditional learning methods will increase interests and activity levels. For example, assigning projects that include trifold boards, photos, text of all kinds, games, photostory, wikis, blogs, etcetera. Mixing up assignments will break the repetitive mold often exhibited in every classroom.
ReplyDeleteI agree with cparis about leaving projects kind of open and broad - that way the students can approach the assignment in ways that benefit their individual learning styles more. And as Kesley and mlolley pointed out about incorporating fun, you could easily do this with said project. If the students get to choose what kind of project they do (and you could even let them choose a topic - from a list of course) then they are going to have more fun with it and get more out of it.
ReplyDeleteI would try to find out what is a common connection to their community. What kind of employment, celebrations, nationality, foods etc. and try to build my lessons around this type of previous knowledge. Give them something that they can connect what they already know about and then help them build on it. For example, kids who have families that shrimp for a living already know a lot about boats, fish, mending nets, the price of shrimp and on and on and on. I would think that these types of children would learn best by doing. Connecting to what they already know also creates self-confidence and pride in family and community. It also gets them interested and keeps them interested.
ReplyDeleteIn dealing with most students giving them anything kinesthetic will keep their attention. When I used to have big classes of 42, I would always find assignments where they had to physically use their hands to make something or do something. I know the thought of handing out 42 pairs of scissors makes you squeamish but just make them safety scissors and you won't worry so much! So for example, using magazines to make collages to define a certain concept or time period. I have also had students create cartoon strips that had guidelines relating to a specific topic. In general any assignment that keeps them mentally and physically engaged will cut down on classroom management issues as well as increase the learning process.
ReplyDeleteI think cparis ideas are great. The broader you can leave the projects for them to choose, the better they will turn out. For instance, in my school, each year we had a science fair. Every group of 5-6 students needed to get together, choose a theme from what had been taught that year in school and present it. It was called a science fair, but many students presented history concepts, math, physics.. you could choose mainly any subject. All students had fun with it and learned from their peers' projects. The fair was open to students from all grades to go and see the presentations and the whole school was involved. It was a long time ago for me but i still remember the projects I developed and some of the ones I saw.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your inputs! That was what I was thinking was how to make it fun for the students, because that is usually when they learn the most. I like the idea cparis with making projects open and broad to let their imaginations flow and create great things. Billie I like your idea of knowing what is going on in the community to bring history to life for the students. You all have some great ideas and believe me I am writing them down!!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of students bringing relevant ideas and situations that have happened to them and leave them open for discussion as how it relates to the history lesson being presented. It gives them the relevance and also gives the historical perspective of like issues. I think this way it brings it home for all parties!
ReplyDeleteJlreed that is what I have seen also, is that we have to make everything relevant to these kids nowadays in order to help them learn the material better. I agree with everybody's opinions on how to relate things within their community to the history lesson helps students understand history concepts better. You are right with saying "it brings it home for all parties!"
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is highly important to reach all students, no matter what their learning style is. From personal expereince int he teaching field, I find that it is difficult to reach different learning styles without being creative and using outside resources. I am a middle school mathematics teacher. This is my first year in middle school, I have been at the elementary level, but I have found that I can reach all students by teaching and reteaching using a wide varity of resources. I try to include a graphic organize, silent reading/working time, video or technological resources, notes from the board, and hands-on activities. I believe the best way is to vary your lessons and give your students options.
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