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n your classes and PD, what is the focus?

20 to 30 percent of learners remember through hearing, 40 percent retain information visually, and the rest either have higher memory retention after writing something down or through real-life activities.

There are three learning styles – visual, auditory, and kinesthetic and tactile.

Visual Learners Visual learners like having information presented to them in an eye-catching way, have strong visualization skills, and to see the “big picture.” Enjoy a fun activity with visual learners encouraging their language and reading skills. Tie the activity into the child’s homework by using vocabulary or spelling words for an upcoming test. Help the child create a list of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and pronouns to use for the activity. If they have a list of vocabulary or spelling words they need to memorize for school, they can be added to the list. Kids can select a color for each type of word and then write them onto flashcards using the coordinating color for each word group (green for nouns). Have the child place the cards in stacks according to color/type. Discuss with the child that they will be creating a visual language story using the words by placing them into sentences and a finished story. This encourages visual learners to see the big picture and understand the final outcome of the activity. Once the child has begun forming sentences, he can arrange them to form a story, working until all the words have been used. Tap into his auditory and kinesthetic/tactile learning, and his active processors, by having him read the story out loud while acting it out.

Name of Activity: Balancing Act! Purpose of Activity: To demonstrate body management skills specific to balance with and without the use of apparatus. Prerequisites: Prior lessons on body management skills. Suggested Grade Level: K-2 Materials Needed: Variety of cones, Pencil for each student, Balancing Act Checklist for each student, 3-4 peacock feathers (or 3-4 plastic bats), 3-4 15’ heavy marine ropes, 6-8 individual mats, 15 polyspots, balance beam, 3-4 pool noodles, 3-4 beanbags. (Peacock feathers can be found in craft stores, marine ropes can be found in hardware stores)

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century.  Drive says for 21st Century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery & purpose." (

Dan's main point in Drive, according to his twitter summary: "Carrots & Sticks are so last

Visual learners learn best through their eyes.

If you find yourself doing a search for videos and podcasts then you should focus on tuning your skills in the auditory direction

Visual learners learn best through their eyes. In a traditional classroom they prefer to sit where they can best see what is going on in order to have an advantage when reading a teacher’s body language, studying charts and graphs, watching video, following visual presentations such as PowerPoint, observing demonstrations, and so on.  When learning online visual learners benefit from the ability to replay simulations or videos, trace an outline on the screen, note color coding, interpret pictures, and interact with a wide variety of interactive visual media.

The truth of education is that most of traditional schooling methods are based on auditory-sequential instruction. This is unfortunate for visual-spatial students, who can begin to feel "dumb" in a regular classroom. In actuality, visual-spatial children are often highly gifted, but their classroom work may not adequately reflect their intelligence. Or, commonly, V-S kids will have incredibly high grades in subjects that appeal to their visual learning style, but might struggle to keep even passing grades in subjects such as phonics and math computation, where visual skills are seldom accessed. They also suffer exceedingly under the drill and review method of teaching. While continued practice and repetition is highly beneficial for auditory-sequential learners, visual-spatial students find it to be completely unnecessary. Once a V-S learner has mastered a concept, the learning is permanent, and does not need to be reviewed. Any type of review that highlights a visual-spatial learner's mistakes can be especially damaging to their self-esteem.

Although much of the traditional school environment is designed with the auditory-sequential learner in mind, there are things that teachers or parents can do to make learning more accessible for visual-spatial learners. The most obvious of these is the copious use of visual aids in learning. Any auditory instruction needs to be accompanied by something that the student can see with their eyes, or manipulate with their hands. Visual-spatial learners also usually grasp reading more easily if they are taught using the sight, or whole-word method, rather than with phonics. Pre-tests are another good idea for V-S learners, so that you do not waste time teaching them what they already have mastered. When possible, instead of writing out their work, allow them to represent their learning in visual and creative ways. Creativity is key for a visual-spatial learner.

The computer is an indispensible tool for a visual-spatial learner.