Roots of Learning » auditory learners

Creativity and the Education System

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:19:26 +0000

This is worth the 20 minutes it takes to watch.

US History Lessons in the Age of New Media

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:45:57 +0000

Engaging the student, utilizing knowledge of various senses, taking advantage of free online tools, my son’s fourth grade social studies teacher did all these things when she showed the kids the following in class today:

Musical Rhymes

admin — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:29:32 +0000

Do you happen to have an auditory / musically inclined learner who is learning to read? (I do.) If so, try using books with a lot of rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration in them. Auditory learners are ‘tuned in’ (literally) to sounds and patterns in sound. Plugging into this strength in their learning style can enhance their learning experiences when books are read to them, and when they are beginning to read books on their own. In addition to the auditory learner, tactile learners are going to be attunded to the way words ‘feel’ in their mouths, so using books that ‘play’ with language in this way can also help your tactile learners plug in to reading!

- Heather

Learning Styles Quiz

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:09:52 +0000

I just stumbled upon a learning styles quiz at Edutopia. It is interesting because it classifies intelligence according to the categories naturalistic, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, and verbal-linguistic. I found the results surprising because I have always ‘seen myself’ as a visual learner – and have read that, overwhelmingly, people are visual learners. However, in this particular quiz, I scored very low in that area. Instead, my strongest score came in the area of “intrapersonal,” which describes a person who is “…connected to who you are and how you feel, and you know your own limits and abilities. You often set goals for yourself, self-manage, and reflect on results.” This is an excellent description of me, but is it my intelligence? That may be open to debate. I think that if you want to measure your learning style or that of your child, do so periodically and do so using a variety of evaluation tools. In my opinion, this is not a science, but it can shed light into the way we think and learn, and on what learning activities would be most beneficial for us. I am now going to give the quiz to my eldest child – I’ll report back later! I’d love to hear others’ insights!

- Heather

Alleviating “The Fear” that sometimes accompanies writing…

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:07:48 +0000

The worst case of this “fear” that I’ve ever witnessed: a fourth grader who would actually pull his hair out when given a writing prompt. The child was an otherwise strong student – and particularly verbal – so I could not imagine that he had nothing to say (everyone has something to say). The ‘format,’ the physical act of writing (which he found uncomfortable), the blank page, was just too stressful for this kid. This was before we all had recording devices on our phones, ipods, laptops, etc. But we did have cassette recorders. As a pre-writing strategy, I used a cassette recorder so that he could record all sorts of ideas and thoughts, play them back, re-record, etc. until he came upon “THE” idea that merited his writing. This took so much of the ‘edge’ off of the writing task for this one student that he became one of the better writers in my class, all without going bald. If you have an auditory learner, try this method. I’d love to hear from others who have tried it!
– Heather