Transcript Teaching Strategies for the Visual Spatial Learner

Teaching Strategies to Support
the Visual Spatial Learner
Sarah Giunchedi
Illinois Association for Gifted Children
Conference
February 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 Age
Logical, linear
capabilities
Based on words and
numbers
Medieval clerk skillsreading, writing,
counting, memorizing,
learning foreign
languages
Conceptual Age
Inventive, empathic,
big-picture capabilities
Based 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 solver
Wild imagination
Love of arts: theater, dance, art
Seem unorganized
Loves playing on the computer
Has trouble spelling words correctly
Likes taking things apart to see how
they work
Learning Characteristics
Strengths:
Loves complexity
Loves difficult puzzles
Fascinated by computers
Great at geometry, physics
Keen visual memory
Creative, imaginative
Systems thinker
Abstract reasoning
Excels in math analysis
High reading comprehension
Excellent sense of humor
Learning Characteristics
Weaknesses:
Struggles with easy material
Hates drill and repetition
Illegible handwriting
Poor at phonics, spelling
Poor auditory memory
Inattentive in class
Disorganized, forgets details
Difficulty memorizing facts
Poor at calculation
Low word recognition
Performs 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 tests
Do five hardest problems first
Teach to find patterns and work
backwards
Teach within the context of the entire
number system
Do 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 strategiesdon’t judge
Hands-on-Equations program
Use Grid for Multiplication Facts
x
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
4
4
8
5
5
10
15
20
15 20 25
30
35
40
45
30 40 50
6 7 8 9 10
6 7 8 9 10
12 14 16 18 20
30 35 40 45 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 = 16
5,6,7,8: 7 x 8 = 56
1,2,3,4: 3 x 4 = 12
Finger method for 9’s
Rhymes-bounce/jump to rhythm:
5 x 5 =25, 6 x 4 = 24, 6 x 6 = 36, 6 x 8 =48
Music-Schoolhouse Rock (song for
memorizing three’s facts)
Strategies for Teaching Reading
Many are late readers
Child may never be a good oral
reader
Focus on sight words, not phonics
Poor visual memory-never actually
look at words long enough to store
them in memory
Connect 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 have
Textbook 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 theme
Love to read graphic novels,
magazines, nonfiction or heavily
illustrated material
Continue to read aloud to themrunning 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:
Color
Mnemonics
Humor
Meaningful material
Venn Diagrams
Rhythm
Music
Emotion
Fantasy
Manipulatives
3-d images
Exaggeration
Use 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 noncitizens (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 blocks
Fraction bars
Pattern blocks
Geoblocks
Soma cubes
Legos™
Mindbenders
Gears
Strategy Games
Destination
Imagination
Base ten blocks
Geoboards
Tangrams
Pentominoes
Puzzles
Construx™
Logic Problems
String Art
3-d geometric shapes
Set
Kanoodle
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.