Lam, Kristy. “How to Engage the 7 Types of Learners in Your Classroom.”
Literacy Planet, 9 Oct. 2017, www.literacyplanet.com/blog/
how-to-engage-the-7-types-of-learners-in-your-classroom/.
In this blog post, Kristy Lam discusses the 7 different types of learning and ways to make sure each learner can stay engaged in classes. The first type is the Auditory or Musical Learner, someone who benefits from hearing things explained to them and may gravitate towards music classes. They are often most engaged in classes where teachers speak while they’re writing on a board, or use engaging and various tones of their voices. The next type is the Visual or Spatial Learner, someone who learns by visual concepts, like drawings or diagrams. They are most engaged in classes where there are relevant images projected on the screens while the teacher is talking. The next is the Verbal Learner, which includes both writing and speaking, so they are most engaged when they are able to take notes and then talk about what they learned with other people. The next is the Logical and Mathematical Learner, someone who gravitates towards numbers. They learn best from statistics, and in younger learners, categorization, and patterns. The next is the Physical or Kinesthetic Learner, someone who benefits from movement, so the best way to keep them interested in the lesson is allowing movement or “getting their hands dirty.” The next is the Social or Interpersonal Learner, someone who is extraverted and a good communicator. They learn best when they can collaborate and work in groups, or even roleplay historical events. The last type of learner is the Solitary or Intrapersonal Learner, someone who is introverted and prefers to learn on their own. Designating quiet areas or quiet times can help engage them more with the rest of the class.
This article is hugely helpful for my project, as it outlines the categories that I will be dealing with in each student. While I wouldn’t call myself a Mathematical Learner, categorization definitely helps me feel confident in the settings I’m in and having a broad framework for students feels really helpful. Something the article didn’t go into in huge detail is that each student could be any combination of these types, so that will be important for me to remember going forward.
Weselby, Cathy. “What is Differentiated Instruction? Examples of How to
Differentiate Instruction in the Classroom.” Resilient Educator, 21 Apr.
2021, resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/
examples-of-differentiated-instruction/.
This blog post by Cathy Weselby discusses the definition, benefits, and detriments, and strategies to use differentiated instruction in classrooms. The article uses work from Carol Ann Tomlinson, a professor at the University of Virginia who has studied differential instruction and teaches about the policy and foundations of it. Her definition is “factoring students’ individual learning styles and levels of readiness first before designing a lesson plan.”
The article outlines the steps in which a teacher can create differentiated learning plans, through content, process, product, and learning environment. Content encourages teachers to understand where each student is coming from and what level they’re approaching the content from, making sure that students with less of an understanding can start at a lower level. The process encourages teachers to take into account the learning styles of each student and allow different formats for each lesson. Product is a continuation of that, making sure that each student can show their understanding in ways that benefit them. Learning environment is the broadest strategy, just allowing your classroom to feel flexible and approachable for each student.
This blog post was really informative and interesting, and made me think about the behind-the-scenes aspect of teaching more than I have in the past. I can absolutely see how differentiated learning has benefitted me as a student and the ways that I’ve started to try to use it in classrooms I’ve been in without necessarily naming it, so it definitely seems like it would be helpful in early childhood classrooms.
We Are Teachers. 12 Mar. 2021, www.weareteachers.com/
50-tips-tricks-and-ideas-for-teaching-1st-grade/.
This list, compiled by We Are Teachers, is essentially just a list of ideas 1st-grade teachers can use in classrooms. We Are Teachers is a resource that “celebrates educators with classroom ideas, “helpline” advice, inspiration and laughs every day.”
This list includes tips about how to set up the classroom, things like “welcome your students with a big, colorful bulletin board” and “set up sensory tables,” as well as ways to create a classroom community, like “assign jobs” and “teach the difference between reporting and tattling.” It also has specific ideas for teaching math and reading at the 1st-grade level, things like “keeping a math journal” and “use paint swatches to teach parts of speech.”
While these strategies are mostly things I won’t have control over, like the way the classroom is set up or the types of activities that we do, this definitely still gives me a good idea of what a typical 1st-grade day is like, in terms of the content that they learn.
Morin, Amanda. “Recognizing Signs of Potential Learning Disabilities in
Preschool.” Edutopia, 18 Feb. 2021, www.edutopia.org/article/
recognizing-signs-potential-learning-disabilities-preschool.
This article by Amanda Morin from the George Lucas Educational Foundation details the ways that teachers can recognize children who have learning differences from a younger age. On average, 54% of public school students who are in special education because of their learning differences are identified after the age of 10, even though students who are identified and worked with earlier have less of a need for specialized education as older students. By recognizing students with differences at a younger age, teachers are setting them up to succeed in traditional classrooms as they get older.
Morin names two different types of learning differences in early childhood learners, language-based and number-based. For students with language-based differences, she encourages teachers to pay attention to “Consistent difficulty naming familiar and everyday objects; Using vague words like thing; Struggling to come up with the right word; Trouble following or remembering multistep directions; Difficulty reciting things in the right order (like the alphabet or nursery rhymes); and mixing up the sounds in multisyllabic words (“mazagine” instead of “magazine” or “cimmanom” instead of “cinnamon”).” For students with number based differences, she suggests to look for “Trouble counting out loud (skipping over numbers or reciting them out of order); Trouble recognizing, creating, or replicating patterns; Trouble connecting number symbols to number words, such as knowing that the numeral 5 goes with the word five; Difficulty generalizing a number to more than one group of objects, such as understanding that six can be six crayons, six books, or six children; and difficulty understanding one-to-one correspondence.”
While I did find this article helpful for practical instances, it did start to make me think more about the biases I have going into working in classrooms. I know that a huge number of students in D75 schools are BIPOC students with behavioral issues who have been labeled as special education because teachers don’t know what else to do with them. Both LREI and Steven Gaynor are private, predominantly white institutions, so there’s more attention paid to each individual student, but I definitely want to be aware of that going into this experience.
“Learning Disorders in Children.” CDC, 22 Feb. 2021, www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/
childdevelopment/learning-disorder.html.
This article was published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, outlining the actual diagnoses of learning differences in children, as well as some of the legal rights that children are entitled to.
I chose this article because I figured it would be valuable for me to come into working with students with learning differences with an actual understanding of technical terminology. After reading this article, I’m left with a lot of questions about equity and language. The biggest thing I’ve been noticing in these readings is that these issues are termed as disorders and disabilities, when I know that the more politically correct phrase is differences, which makes me wonder if this just means that the more scientific fields just haven’t caught up. Additionally, the article discussed that “children with specific learning disabilities are eligible for special education services or accommodations at school under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) and an anti-discrimination law known as Section 504,” which makes me wonder if the resources to get these accommodations are widely available.
Other readings:
https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/traditional-vs-progressive-education
https://www.thoughtco.com/progressive-education-how-children-learn-today-2774713
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/teachereducationx92x1/chapter/progressive-education/