THE "RIGHT" LEARNING STYLE + INTELLIGENCES = FUN!

After we meet a new student, our first task is to administer a Learning Styles Inventory. Many of our students don't know how they learn best, so it's enlightening for them and us to see if they are visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners – or a combination of any of those three styles. Having an understanding of each student's learning style helps us avoid a "one-size-fits-all" approach to tutoring, so we can customize how we teach the student how to best learn the material. As we get to know our students, we also learn about their "intelligences," which are different intellectual abilities that we all possess. This differs from learning styles, which are the ways an individual approaches different tasks; our intelligences are different ways of processing information.

There are eight different intelligences: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, musical, naturalistic, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Although we usually don't administer an intelligences inventory, we and our students generally get a sense of their intelligences fairly quickly. Our goal is not to label a student, but rather to obtain as much information as we can to understand who our students are as human beings and how we can help them learn.

An example: Many years ago, an out-of-state friend shared that her granddaughter was struggling with learning her multiplication tables. When I questioned her about the girl's learning style and intelligences, she had no clue. I sent her electronic versions of the Learning Style Inventory and the Multiple Intelligences Inventory. In a fairly short period of time, they had identified her learning style and intelligences and, with a few suggestions from us, the girl learned all of her multiplication tables rather by dancing to and singing all of the tables. There were no flash cards - no fights - no complaints! She had fun memorizing the tables in a way that suited her learning style and intelligences!

WHAT DID YOU SAY?

Homework usually relates to work done in class.  It's not uncommon, however, for students to sit down with their homework and draw a complete blank on what they've done and heard in class.  Inevitably, parents say, "You were just in class today!  How could you forget what you did?"  

Although many things can account for this, for now we're going to focus on just one:  the  student doesn't know how s/he learns and, therefore, isn't able to utilize the best tools for his or her learning style.

When a student has no clue as to  how s/he learns, a good first step is taking a Learning Style Inventory.  The three learning styles are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.  Some of us learn in one way, in particular; some of us are a mixture of all three. Determining how we learn is essential to finding the proper tools to facilitate learning!  We will address these soon in follow-up blogs.  Stay tuned!

IS YOUR BRAIN HUNGRY?

When necessary and appropriate, we try to educate our students about foods that help us learn.  Some foods - like blueberries, broccoli, oranges, and pumpkin seeds - have antioxidants that help protect our brains from damage.  Tea (green tea, in particular) and coffee fall into this category, as well.  Other foods - like eggs and nuts - contain nutrients that support brain development and memory, which are critical for learning.  We have to admit that our favorite brain-healthy food is dark chocolate!  It has caffeine, antioxidants, and flavonoids that enhance memory and also boost our mood.  Best of all, it's yummy!