by Susan A. Howard
Many tend to categorize students into learning style categories. A child who demonstrates spatial intelligence with blocks and Legos is a “kinesthetic” learner, while another who needs diagrams, pictures and demonstrations is said to be “visual”. Others, who process information best when hearing it explained, are “auditory” learners. By identifying our student's learning style and catering to it we expect to facilitate learning. But leaning too heavily on learning style may in fact inhibit students from processing information as deeply as they would if a concept were presented in a variety of ways.
Then, of course, there is the impact of other educational conditions. How do learning styles intersect with child development, self-directedness and experience? How does an auditory learner benefit from experience when the nature of experience is kinesthetic?
And how does a kinesthetic learner express himself abstractly during the rhetoric phase of development?
Although a student may respond best to information delivered through a particular sense or activity type, the best learning environment for all students utilizes all the senses, is targeted for a the student’s developmental stage, and allows the internalization of concepts through experience. Studies show that a multi-sensory learning methodology expands the brain's capacity for learning and processing information, especially in young children
[i]. A mind encouraged to process concepts holistically grows vigorously, and learns most effectively.
Consequently, home educators should build a curriculum that incorporates a variety of developmentally appropriate, multi-faceted activities. Not only will such a curriculum educate most effectively, but will engage both the student and the educator. So, what would a holistic sensory course of study look like? Let’s set up a week-long fourth grade grammar lesson on prepositions as an example. I’m not suggesting that we would need five days of holistic sensory education to successfully teach a simple concept like prepositions. I am simply using this as an easy example of the different ways we can teach a single concept to the various learning styles.
Step One: Auditory
Monday we might start by listening to the preposition song. There are several. I think the most popular is set to Yankee Doodle. If you don’t know it, or don’t believe me, just look it up on YouTube. When you have a group of students this can be especially fun because it is corny and invariably evokes the giggles. A short “lecture” can follow, defining a preposition. We read the definition of the preposition: “A preposition is a word that helps a verb create a relationship between two nouns.” Then we explain the definition through discussion or lecture: “What do you think we mean by a “relationship”? We establish (using a humorous example that fourth graders can appreciate) that a relationship in this sense is one of time, location, manner, means, quantity, purpose, state or condition. For example, the phrase “The fat teacher sat on a tack” shows a relationship of location between the teacher and the tack. He wasn’t beside the tack or under the tack, but on the tack. The phrase “The fat teacher was shamed by his girlish scream” demonstrates a relationship of “means” or cause and effect. Emphasize the final point that a preposition is always followed by a noun and that the group of words starting from the preposition to the noun or noun phrase and is called the “prepositional phrase”. To finish up this auditory lesson, we may want to recite five to ten sentences and ask our students to pick out the prepositions.
Tuesday: Visual
Tuesday we might move to a visual method of teaching the concept. We can once again utilize our YouTube video or recording of the Preposition Song, this time with “lyric sheets” so the students can sing along to the song. They can use the lyric sheet to memorize the prepositions. Then we could hand out a word hunt puzzle, and see how many prepositions they can find in a block of letters. Games are a great way to lighten up the drier subjects such as grammar while remaining on track with the concept we are teaching. Make sure students know the meanings of all the prepositions on the list. Introducing some of the more mature prepositions like despite, albeit, beneath, and throughout will help young students build more interesting sentence structure. Memorizing prepositions allows us to get more creative with preposition games in the future as a way to keep the lesson fresh throughout the year.
Wednesday: Kinesthetic
Wednesday we might begin by reviewing the definition of a preposition, and the situations in which they are used: time, location, manner, means, quantity, purpose, state or condition. We can follow it up by seeing how many prepositions the student, or one of the students in the case of a class, can recite from memory. Then we might offer a visual/kinesthetic hand out or a game – preposition bingo, or a preposition crossword puzzle. You could also use magnetic poetry words to build sentences, or play a physical version of “Ad libs” by pulling words randomly out of boxes that separate words by parts of speech.
Thursday: Memorization
Fourth graders have a great capacity for memorization as a matter of brain development. Take advantage of that on Thursday and set up two students, or parent and child, and test each other on how many prepositions they know. See if either can remember the entire list.
Friday: Self-directed, Creative Experience
On Friday you may offer a variety of assignment choices that allow students to enjoy a little creative autonomy. They can create their own preposition crossword puzzle, write a poem about prepositions, or create a graphic design incorporating prepositions as a visual and symbolic element of the composition. They could even invent a preposition board game. For this assignment, creative immersion is key. You could even end the week videotaping your own performance of The Preposition Song, changing the musical style. (Think a preposition rap hasn’t been done? Think again!)
Developmental Suitability
In all our creative curriculum building, we should remember how our student's physiological development contributes to their ability to process types of information and benefit from particular activities so that we are not asking the child to perform in a manner that does not promote their learning at their particular age. The classic educational concept of the Trivium is based primarily on developmental suitability and has fortunately been revived by the homeschooling movement. It breaks education down to three stages of development: the grammar stage, the logic stage and the rhetoric stage. These terms are not course subjects in this context, but rather mental processes. In the grammar stage (roughly up to age 11) a child’s brain is best suited for rote memory learning. They love to memorize and recite. Spelling bees, multiplication tables, historical timelines, and poetry recitation comprise an elementary education precisely because this is the developmental stage most suited for rote memory. In our example above we mention the memorization of prepositions. This activity is perfectly suitable for the fourth grade level. Not so for the eighth grade.
As the child nears puberty, though, their brain changes. Rote memory becomes tedious and dull. The student enters the logic stage where they thirst for the why as opposed to the what. At this stage they want to know why Napoleon was driven to travel thousands of miles to conquer Moscow more than exactly how many miles Moscow is from Paris. They are consumed with if-then scenarios. This is the age that science and math, correctly taught, can become truly fascinating. It is NOT the time to memorize the periodic table!
By the time the child enters high school he is starting to express himself. As he matures he wants to have an impact on the world around him. If he has received a solid classical education he is full of knowledge, skilled in critical thinking, and is now ready to assert his own response to it all. This is when we teach him how to express himself, how to ask questions and where to find the answers, how to analyze and come to solid conclusions. This is the time that rebelliousness rears it’s ugly head – but only if the child perceives some limitation on his ability to express himself. Because most teens in America do not have the skills to express themselves in ideas they resort to expressing themselves in other ways – more visual ways and often less acceptable ways. This is the time when children can be at their most hopeful and idealistic, or their most destructive and despairing. The difference lies in the perspective of the world they have developed based on their experiences and the education they have received to this point.
Self-Directedness
Among homeschooling families, A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Van DeMille has been very popular. In many ways it echoes the philosophy of Maria Montessori who supported a child’s natural curiosity and love of learning. And while we must remember that children, being children, need adults to direct and guide them, we must also remember that they are people, not programs. Montessori education offers students self-direction within a limited number of choices which fosters independence and responsibility. By working with our students’ strengths and interests we enable them to take some ownership over their own education that will result in a more successful outcome in the long run.
Getting Started
So, what is the first step in developing a multi-sensory education? Not all published curriculum employs a holistic strategy of learning. You may have to augment your curriculum of choice, or develop your own curriculum (which can be a really great experience!) If you are new to homeschooling, I recommend you engage in some preliminary reading. There are a multitude of homeschooling how-to books, seminars, and conventions, so much so that the pursuit of your own education could distract from your child’s! But don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed. When I first began homeschooling I read a book that basically told me that if I was not ready to cut everything out of my life and focus 25 hours, 8 days a week to my children’s education, I should just give up right there! The audacity of that statement made me rebellious enough to toss the book in the trash and ignore her advice outright. I am glad I did, but I have ever since worried myself sick over the job I was doing. We all feel inadequate to the task, partially because we care so much about giving our children the best education possible. But some study will give you a solid footing on which to start developing your curriculum. (I have listed some helpful resources at the end of this article.) Your biggest ally, though, in creating or augmenting curriculum is your own creativity and sense of fun. Learning is exciting. Our world is a place of wonder. Discovering it with your children and enjoying the process is extremely important for you and them.
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RESOURCES:
All of these can be found online or at your local library. However, I recommend that you purchase them as you read them. There are many other books that will give you more practical advise about process – how to set up your schedule, how to find resources, how to manage large families, etc. These titles, however, will tell you most what to teach, why and in what way. They will help you develop a commitment to homeschooling, and will serve as reference through your years of educating.
- Dorothy Sayers, “The Lost Tools of Learning”, audio lecture or article
- Susan Wise Bauer, The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had & The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home
- E.D. Hirsch, Books to Build On: A Grade-by-Grade Resource Guide for Parents and Teachers (Core Knowledge Series)
- Laura Berquist, Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum: A Guide to Catholic Home Education
- Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book
- Oliver Van DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education
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[i] Effects of Music Training on the Child’s Brain and Cognitive Development Gottfried Schlaug, Andrea Norton, Katie Overy, & Ellen Winner, 2005
I am going to give you some very important homeschooling advice: Don’t take anyone’s homeschooling advice. I know that sounds like a logical conundrum, but let me explain. In a world where everything has been studied, analyzed, broken down and defined, we begin to think that we know more than we do. We start to talk about our emotions in terms of chemical reactions, define reality as perception and categorize behavior in terms of disorders. Parenting becomes process and teaching becomes method. Soon, we will all need advanced degrees to eat, breathe and sleep.