If you have worked or learned about anything educated-related ever, you have already heard about Mr. Gardner and his Multiple Intelligence Theory. I am not one to debate theory, but I do agree that children all have many talents and do learn in different ways. By changing up your approaches each day, the option of boredom for students, and more importantly for you, remains at a minimum. The important piece is to find out from students how they best learn. If the majority of the children are bodily-kinesthetic, journal writing probably shouldn't be done every day as a main source of assessment.
One quick way to inventory learning styles is by completing multiple intelligence inventories. There are many different formats available, some more in-depth than others. In my experience, I prefer to use one that is not too long or involved. Keep it friendly or the children will answer without thought to be finished more quickly. For the early childhood classes, please use pictures, rather than trying to read aloud everything on the page. The goal is to get accurate information, without overloading the students.
I have found various forms online, in professional development books dealing with differentiation or multiple intelligences, and from assessment companies. My advice is to find one that is free, or virtually free. This assessment will not be the end-all be-all document for your class for the entire academic year. It is just another tool to adapt teaching and assessment styles to best meet the needs of students. Do not read into it more than that.
After assessing your students and tallying up their scores, review the results with the class. This is especially helpful when explaining to the class about how all people learn differently. That way later, when curriculum is differentiated, the class will not challenge with, "Why does Timmy get to do fun stuff while I have to...?" Also make sure to remind students about weaker learning styles, that way encouragement to try different approaches he or she might not normally in order to strengthen those styles will be more readily accepted.
When discussion is complete and students have been enlightened (as they always are when you teach), re-collect the assessments to compile the data from them. Make a master list of each child's strengths and weaknesses, as well as a master list of the total number of students in each category. This serves two purposes: the first being to change up your teaching style with your whole group lessons and the second being to allow for grouping of students into small groups or centers when needed based on their preferred MI.
Multiple intelligences are another option to reflect on your teaching and learn even more about your students in order to help all achieve to their greatest potential.
One quick way to inventory learning styles is by completing multiple intelligence inventories. There are many different formats available, some more in-depth than others. In my experience, I prefer to use one that is not too long or involved. Keep it friendly or the children will answer without thought to be finished more quickly. For the early childhood classes, please use pictures, rather than trying to read aloud everything on the page. The goal is to get accurate information, without overloading the students.
I have found various forms online, in professional development books dealing with differentiation or multiple intelligences, and from assessment companies. My advice is to find one that is free, or virtually free. This assessment will not be the end-all be-all document for your class for the entire academic year. It is just another tool to adapt teaching and assessment styles to best meet the needs of students. Do not read into it more than that.
After assessing your students and tallying up their scores, review the results with the class. This is especially helpful when explaining to the class about how all people learn differently. That way later, when curriculum is differentiated, the class will not challenge with, "Why does Timmy get to do fun stuff while I have to...?" Also make sure to remind students about weaker learning styles, that way encouragement to try different approaches he or she might not normally in order to strengthen those styles will be more readily accepted.
When discussion is complete and students have been enlightened (as they always are when you teach), re-collect the assessments to compile the data from them. Make a master list of each child's strengths and weaknesses, as well as a master list of the total number of students in each category. This serves two purposes: the first being to change up your teaching style with your whole group lessons and the second being to allow for grouping of students into small groups or centers when needed based on their preferred MI.
Multiple intelligences are another option to reflect on your teaching and learn even more about your students in order to help all achieve to their greatest potential.
This article is written by guest blogger and K-12 teacher, Charity Preston, M.A. Areas of expertise include curriculum development, technology integration into content areas,and data-driven instruction. Find Charity at The Organized Classroom Blog and on Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment