My own learning experiences:
In high school I was very good at music. I would practice for hours and know my music very well...eventually I got a full ride music scholarship my 1st year. However, if my music instructor would tell me to play an A flat...I would have to figure out where it was on the lines, I never really learned the names of the notes with out having a sheet of music in front of me. I was never very good at memorizing vocab words, but I could memorize a speech. But then I took Japanese and could memorize how to write out the Chinese characters better than the actual meaning of the words. Math was a disaster for me, but I could tell you details from every book I read. To this day if I can drive somewhere, I will always know how to get there. So, with that said, I guess I am a very visual learner...hence the Chinese characters and the music. I am very tactile as well...I have to write it down to memorize it. I would spend hours writing out my notes and write the Chinese characters...I would even do that with vocabulary words. I am always touching things...if I am looking for furniture I need to touch it. If I am supposed to learn a process I need to do it rather than have someone tell me how to do it.
Less effective learning strategies:
For me lectures and listening to some one talk for an hour or more is not a good way for me to learn. However, if I write notes as the person is talking then I am fine. I cannot listen to books on tape and get the same level of understanding as I would if I read them. I miss the small details when I am listening to someone...I need to see the details in the words. Saying something over and over does not help me memorize...I need to either make lists or write words out several times in order to really know them...even better I need to be put into situations where I have to actually use the information before it will be in my brain forever. For example, I took three years of Japanese and then went to Japan. It was like I was starting over. I knew some words, but it took me months to be able to use them and use them well. I would have done better in an immersion program rather than a regular classroom.
Focus in my own teaching:
I think because I was not a good memorizer and I struggled in school I make a better teacher because I can teach to "those kids." I am quick to tell my students that I had to work at my grades and that school did not come easy to me. I have learned to adjust and where I have made my adjustments then I am good. (to this day I still am a terrible speller...spell check has saved me from really learning how to spell!) For me I use a lot of images. I like to show student what different setting would look like if they were trying to imagine things from a book. I also have students talk things out, like when we are diagraming sentences. I have them describe what the diagram would look like or the process they would use to start the diagramming. I do not give them the diagrams, they have to create them all on their own. When I give directions I give them orally as I am writing key points down. I show kids how to highlight and draw pictures as different ways of taking notes. I then tell them that there is no "right" way to take notes...they have to figure it out for themselves and know how they learn best.
reflect on your own learning experiences and what types of teaching strategies were more effective to your learning style. What strategies were less effective? We can't teach each lesson focusing on every learning style that we have in the classroom. What should be our focus instead?
