Supporting the Needs of All Learning Styles
The kindergarten staple Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten , by Joseph Slate and illustrated by Ashely Wolff (1996), recognizes the emphasis teachers put on making their classrooms inviting for all students. As educators, we can relate to Miss Bindergarten as she busily prepares her room for her students by organizing manipulatives, adding the finishing touches in the dramatic play area, and hanging posters, calendars, and measurement charts. Her room is full of activities for students to explore, create, reference, and imagine. Educators, just like Miss Bindergarten, understand the importance of setting the stage for an inviting place to support every learner in the class. So how can we better understand our students learning needs to support the best learning outcomes for all learners?
Learning Style Inventory
To support every student in a class, teachers need to evaluate how each of their students learns best, whether the student is visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. Each learning style requires varied forms of presentations, demonstration, and application to promote the development of social-emotional skills, physical needs, and cognitive skills. Not only does well rounded instruction elevate student engagement, it allows students to choose the way they demonstrate what has been learned which enhances a student’s ability to commit learning to memory (Cudney, 2017). Thankfully, there are many different Learning Style Inventories available to identify the best way to facilitate instruction. The Georgia Board of Education (2014) provides a Learning Style Inventory as well as suggested learning strategies for each style. The inventory is adapted from the Learning to Study Through Critical Thinking by J.A. Beatrice.
Putting an Inventory into Action
A learning style inventory should not be something that given and then filed away. I would even encourage you to give the students an inventory one on one. You would be surprised by how much additional information you get from your students. They enjoy telling you how they like to learn! Taking this extra time makes instruction individualized, but more importantly, personalized! Let’s put this into practice by demonstrating how to meet the needs of a class.
Evaluate
The example below looks at 5 students' use of the Learning Style Inventory
from the Georgia Department of Education (2014).
At face value, the students in this representation tend to prefer a visual style to learning. That does not mean that students cannot benefit from additional learning styles. For example, Student C and Student E's data represents the preference to multiple learning styles, depending on a task.
Raw data along with student comments help teachers understand the variety of presentation styles, manipulatives, or media required to engage all learners. This is also a time to add informal observations and assessments of social-emotional, organizational, and physical developmental skills that may require additional support or enrichment. Areas to consider are: ability to ovoid distraction, stamina, organization (to include physical organization and following multiple step instruction), notetaking, fine motor skills, and/or the support system in place through Individual Education Plans (IEP's ).
Plan Differentiated Instruction
What if I told you teachers can use the same lesson plan to support all learning styles? One lesson plan?! YES! However, the lesson planning will be different. In the video, Differentiating Instruction: How to Plan Your Lessons, Ferlazzo and Hull Syniski (2019) give tips on how to rethink differentiation. During the planning process, teachers will think about the tools, talking points, or systematic redirections that will support student understanding as well as recognizing areas during instruction where there can be flexibility to address student choice or challenges within lessons as they arise (Ferlazzo & Hull Synieski, 2019).
Examples for Differentiating Math Instruction
Class Objective: Express a fraction as an improper fraction and a mixed number.
Facilitating Instruction:
Visual Learner - whiteboard participation to copy teacher visual models
Auditory Learner - recite and explain steps being modeled
Kinesthetic Learner - magnetic fraction pieces to follow along with teacher models
Student tools for participation:
Visual Learner - graphic organizer, colored pencils and crayons to illustrate and/or take notes
Auditory Learner – check list with order of operations or steps to review aloud
Kinesthetic Learner - centimeter cubes, attribute blocks, magnetic shapes, or construction paper to manipulate tasks
* Remember Students C and E? Offer students choice! A visual learner might prefer the magnetic shapes, while the kinesthetic learner may want to use a whiteboard. Flexibility is key!
Differentiating Assessments
Assessment can be creative and fun! When planning assessment, choice is key. Not only will students be engaged, but the assessed product will also be more authentic to the learner, therefore, making the content relevant while enhancing the mastery of the skill (Dabrowski, & Marshall, 2019).
Examples for Differentiating Math Assessments
Class Question: Alison needs to order cakes to serve at a party for 17 people. Each cake serves 6 people. How many cakes will she need to buy to serve everyone at the party. Choose a way to demonstrate understanding:
Visual Learner - Create an illustration modeling the cakes that Alison buys. Record the answer that your illustration represents as an improper fraction and a mixed number.
Auditory - Record yourself pretending to place an order at a bakery for the cakes Alison needs to order. Explain to the baker the amount of guests that you will have, how many cakes you will need and the amount of slices. Be sure to confirm your order by explain the amount of slices you will need as an improper fraction and a mixed number.
Kinesthetic Learner - Using playdough, cubes, or an object of your choice, build a model to represent the amount of cakes that Alison buys. Record the answer that supports your model as both an improper fraction and a mixed number.
Are you a Miss., Mrs., or Mr. Bindergarten?
Implementing differentiation takes time, but the reward is big! As you think of ideas, or need ideas, remember what Miss Bindergarten taught us and offer your students a place to create, explore, and imagine!
References
Cherry, K. (2020). Learning style inventory types and their uses. Very Well Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-learning-style-inventory-2795159
Cudney, E. A. (2017). Listening to the voice of the student in course design. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 40(2), 35-38. https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/scholarly-journals/listening-voice-student-course-design/docview/1924521930/se-2?accountid=7374
Dabrowski, J., & Marshall, T. R. (2019). Choice & Relevancy: Autonomy and personalization in assignments help motivate and engage students. Principal, 98(3), 10–13.
Georgia Department of Education. (2014, May 9). Learning style inventory. https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Special-Education-Services/Documents/IDEAS%202014%20Handouts/LearningStyleInventory.pdf
Ferlazzo, L. & Hull Synieski, H. (2019). Differentiating instruction: How to plan your lessons. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/video-differentiating-instruction-how-to-plan-your-lessons/2019/02
Slate, J. & Wolff, A. (1996). Miss Bindergarten gets ready for kindergarten. New York, NY: Puffin Books.
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