If your answer to that question is yes, what do you think that they meant by that? Are they talking about being a visual learner? or are they talking about being a visual thinker? or are they just saying it because it seemed like the cool thing to say?
Well there are some kids who indeed learn visually. There are six types of visuals when it comes to visual literacy. Those six types are as follows: pictures, drawings, charts, graphs, posters, and cartoons.
There are also some kids that are auditory learners. Some kids will learn a lot by sitting and listening to a teacher lecture but feel lost when it comes to a hands on or a visual activity. However, I think it is necessary to help improve listening skills in all children. There are six techniques that can be used to do so. They are as follows:
"1. Guide Listening- to guide their listening, give students some objectives or questions beforehand.
2. Give directions- give students directions on audiotape or as a podcast that you have prepared in advance.
3. Ask students to listen for main ideas, details, or inferences- keeping the age level of your students in mind, you can present an oral passage.
4. Use context in listening- younger students can learn to distinguish meanings in an auditory context by listening to sentences with words missing and then supplying the appropriate words.5. Analyze the structure of a presentation- ask students to outline an oral presentation.
6. Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information- after listening to an oral presentation of information, ask students to identify the main idea, and then rate all other presented ideas." (Smaldino, Lowther, Russell; 212-213)
As a student I can look around any of my classes and see some students engaged when a professor is simply lecturing (as long as it isnt 8AM!) and I can see some students that are only engaged when the professor adds some visual element to their lecture. As a future teacher I see the need to teach to all types of learners; find a way to integrate various elements of learning into my lesson plans. I want all children to feel like I am as invested in their learning as I want them to be.
References:
http://foter.com/search/instant/?q=listening&page=2
Smaldino, Sharon E., Deborah L. Lowther, and James D. Russell. Instructional Technology and Media for Learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
Melynda,
ReplyDeleteI love that you wrote out all the steps for guiding our students in listening effectively! I honestly wish that some of our professors used some of these steps during their lectures in class. I personally know I would benefit from it and retain more of the information. I will have to remember to implement these in my future classroom.
Melynda,
ReplyDeleteI appreciated all the different opportunities you mentioned to include auditory learners. I agree that we could all probably grow in that area. Some of the activities you mentioned sounded like they would be difficult for me to accomplish! (specifically outlining an oral presentation). I think it is so important to have growth, though, not just in learning new information but in learning new learning strategies.
I like how nicely the visuals you added to this blog went along with what you said. When I add visuals to my blog I typically just add the first picture I can find that might fit, but it looks like you put a lot of effort into your pictures, and considering the topic you are talking about, I suppose that is only fitting. Good work, and keep it up!
ReplyDeleteSince I am more of a visual learner myself, it is hard for me to imagine that anyone would not benefit from the addition of visuals--but I have actually had students who felt it was distracting. Is it possible that this is because they are added for effect and not for instruction? Tiffany's comment made me think about this as possible. Thoughts?
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