teaching strategies to support the visual spatial learner sarah giunchedi illinois association for...
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Teaching Strategies to Support the Visual Spatial Learner
Sarah GiunchediIllinois Association for Gifted Children
ConferenceFebruary 6, 2012
Two Perspectives
Imaginative
“Big picture”
3-d mastery
Sees relationships
Recognizes patterns
Out of the box thinker
Radar scanning
Emotional intensity
Gamesmanship
Unorganized
Unfocused
Poor spellers
Poor with math facts and memorization
Fidgety
Daydreamers
No sense of time
Unusual, different
Two Hemispheres of the Brain
Left Brain
Step-by-step
Sequential learning
Auditory teaching
Words and numbers
Right Brain
Think in pictures
Thoughts move like movies playing in their heads
1 in 3 students have a strong preference for the visual-spatial, right brained learning style (Silverman, 2002).
Our World Today Is Changing
Information AgeLogical, linear capabilitiesBased on words and numbersMedieval clerk skills-reading, writing, counting, memorizing, learning foreign languages
Conceptual AgeInventive, empathic, big-picture capabilitiesBased on images
Graphic designers increased ten-fold in ten years. More Americans work in entertainment, design and the arts than work as lawyers, auditors or accountants (Pink)
Identifying These Students
Good at puzzles, mazes
Likes to build with LEGOs, K’Nex, blocks
Often loses track of time
Knows things but can’t tell why
Remembers how to get to a place visited only once
Can feel what others are feeling
Remembers what is seen and forgets what is heard
Identifying These Students
Unusual problem solverWild imaginationLove of arts: theater, dance, artSeem unorganizedLoves playing on the computerHas trouble spelling words correctlyLikes taking things apart to see how they work
Learning CharacteristicsStrengths:Loves complexityLoves difficult puzzlesFascinated by computersGreat at geometry, physicsKeen visual memoryCreative, imaginativeSystems thinkerAbstract reasoningExcels in math analysisHigh reading comprehensionExcellent sense of humor
Learning CharacteristicsWeaknesses:Struggles with easy materialHates drill and repetitionIllegible handwritingPoor at phonics, spellingPoor auditory memoryInattentive in classDisorganized, forgets detailsDifficulty memorizing factsPoor at calculationLow word recognitionPerforms poorly on timed tests
How Do They Learn?
Visualization
Hands-On
Whole Picture
Use Technology
Increase the Difficulty
Aha!
Visualization
Show everything
Using color is best
Encourage the child to visualize lists, patterns, words
Ask the child to create pictures of the topic
Encourage child to draw or construct
Use Venn Diagrams, graphic organizers
Allow wait time for visualization of ideas
Hands-On
Manipulatives:Attribute blocks, fraction bars, patterns blocks, LEGOs, strategy games, base ten blocks, geoboards, tangrams, pentominoes, puzzles,
Hands-on Learning
Encourage Building Models
Whole Picture
Often perceived as “slow processors”
See relationships between parts and whole
Don’t understand if learning is presented in small chunks or isolated facts
Have difficulty attending to details
Explain major concepts
Provide real-life scenarios
Use interdisciplinary teaching, so students can see the connections
Technology
Encourage the use of computers
Encourage and teach keyboarding at an early age
Encourage use of Inspiration for organizing thoughts
Increase the Difficulty
Excel at concepts, computation is more difficult
Detest routine, repetitive tasks
Does not learn by rote memorization
Do not force student to succeed at easier material before moving on to more difficult work
Emphasize mastery of higher level concepts over perfection of simpler ones
Aha! Learning
Typically can not explain the steps of their thinking
Understand all or nothing
Once an “aha!” moment occurs, learning is pretty permanent
Allow for discovery learning-tell the child the goal of the instruction and let them figure out the way to get there
Strategies for Teaching Math
Avoid drill, repetition and timed testsDo five hardest problems firstTeach to find patterns and work backwardsTeach within the context of the entire number systemDo not focus on memorization of rules, formulas, steps and facts: focus on higher level skills
Strategies for Teaching Math
Be understanding that showing their work is difficult
Give opportunities to solve problems in their own way
Let them use their own strategies-don’t judge
Hands-on-Equations program
Use Grid for Multiplication Factsx 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
3 3 6 15
4 4 8 20
5 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
6 6 12 30
7 7 14 35
8 8 16 40
9 9 18 45
10 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Tricks to Remember Difficult Facts:
You have to be 16 to drive a 4 by 4:4 x 4 = 165,6,7,8: 7 x 8 = 561,2,3,4: 3 x 4 = 12Finger method for 9’sRhymes-bounce/jump to rhythm:5 x 5 =25, 6 x 4 = 24, 6 x 6 = 36, 6 x 8 =48Music-Schoolhouse Rock (song for memorizing three’s facts)
Strategies for Teaching Reading
Many are late readersChild may never be a good oral readerFocus on sight words, not phonicsPoor visual memory-never actually look at words long enough to store them in memoryConnect a word to a picture instead of a sound
Strategies for Teaching Reading
Junior Great Books program is great!Program called “Mind’s Eye” out of Escondido, CA focuses on training students to produce mental images as they read“Picture at Punctuation” (Ron Davis) encourages students to stop at punctuation and tell the picture you haveTextbook Scavenger Hunts are great!Study word analysis (Greek and Latin roots)
Strategies for Teaching Reading
Good speed readers-encourage to use index finger and jump over words they can not make a picture for
Get content first, then read for details
Study captions, pictures
Skimming
Strategies for Teaching Reading
Love to read books with strong visual images: fantasy, books with underlying themeLove to read graphic novels, magazines, nonfiction or heavily illustrated materialContinue to read aloud to them-running fingers under words as you go
Strategies for Teaching Language Arts
Writing:
Visualize entire sentence before writing it
Tape record work and then transcribe
Use webbing to come up with ideas
Grade content and mechanics separately
Spelling:
Kids need to see the word shape so draw word on graph paper
Write each word on a card in color
Rhymes such as “I before E” can be helpful
Strategies for Teaching Organization
Color code calendars, assignments, books, supplies, key words
Use an hourglass to help see time passage
Watches
Teach to take a picture of assignments they are given
Teach to create priority lists and schedules
Teach to highlight important concepts or directions
For Lectures:
Pause to let words register
Encourage note taking in visual format (webbing, graphic organizers)
Emphasize concepts, not details
Distribute handouts
Things to Use:
ColorMnemonicsHumorMeaningful materialVenn DiagramsRhythmMusicEmotionFantasyManipulatives3-d imagesExaggerationUse as many senses as possible
When Interacting with these Students
Teach child to take cues from classmates
Moment of silence
Reduce unpredictable noise
Use wait time
Let child completely finish answering
Discipline in private
Be non-judgmental
Focus on students’ strengths
Why Nurture Spatial Skills?
Schools (and testing) emphasize verbal over spatial skills
In the last 25 years, college students have increased 50% but number of graduates in STEM fields has remained flat (NYT, 2011).
40% of those planning engineering and science switch to other degrees, twice the attrition rate of other majors (NYT, 2011).
Why Nurture Spatial Skills?
51% of Engineering Doctorates and 43% of Mathematics Doctorates earned by non-citizens (Mann)Individuals gifted in spatial ability are undereducated and underemployed (Gohm, 1998)Increasingly technological world needs ability to comprehend complex relationships and problem solvers with unique strategies (Shea, Lubinski, Benbow, 2001)
Many Famous Inventors Noted as Having Trouble in School
Einstein-grades so poor, a teacher asked him to quit school when he was 15
Edison-”dull student” so disruptive one teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything and thrown out of school at 12
Newton-did poorly in school, teachers throught he couldn’t learn
daVinci-wrote his notes backwards (mirror image), spelling errors
Darwin-had to have his dad pull strings to get him into college
Believe in these children…
You could be teaching a future Edison or Einstein and our world desperately needs these kinds of
thinkers!
Effective Materials for Visual Spatial Learners:
Attribute blocksFraction barsPattern blocksGeoblocksSoma cubesLegos™MindbendersGearsStrategy GamesDestination Imagination
Base ten blocksGeoboardsTangramsPentominoesPuzzlesConstrux™Logic ProblemsString Art3-d geometric shapesSetKanoodle
Cited:Eberle, Bob. Scamper. Waco: Prufrock, 2008. Print.Freed, Jeffrey F. Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World. New York: “Simon”, 1998. Print.Gardner, Howard. Five Minds for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business School, 2006. Print.- - -. Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic, 1993. Print.Golon, Alexandra Shires. Visual-Spatial Learners. Waco: Prufrock, 2008. Print.Mann, Rebecca L. “Eye to Eye: Connecting with Gifted Visual-Spatial Learners (Teaching Strategies).” Gifted Child Today Magazine. N.p., Fall 2001. Web. 27 Jan. 2012.- - -. “Gifed Students with Spatial Strengths and Sequential Weaknesses: An Overlooked and Underidentified Population.” Roeper Review Winter 2005: 91-96. Print.Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the World. New York: Berkley, 2005. Print.Silverman, Linda Kreger, Ph.D., ed. Visualspatial.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2012.Visual-learners.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2012.Wallace, Kathryn. “America’s Brain Drain Crisis.” Americabraindrain.blogspot.com/ . N.p., 8 Dec. 2005. Web. 27 Jan. 2012.West, T.G. In the Mind’s Eye: Visual Thinkers, Gifted People with Learning Difficulties. Computer Images, and the Ironies of Creativity. Buffalo: Prometheus, 1991. Print.