Learning Styles Analysis

    I am studying the learning styles of five first grade students that are not performing to standard on reading tests and have been prescreened for dyslexia.  These students are practicing putting their alphabet letters in ABC order, recognize letter sounds, and make words.  Once students make words, we come up with new words that rhyme and look for those patterns.  These students have come a long way since I have started working with them.  Their learning styles are collected in the pie chart below.

 

Interconnection of Learning Styles and Development

            There are two students that have shown to be visual learners.  They are the students that “…like to see and observe the things that they are learning about,” (GCU, 2020). Student A is a special education student with social skills goals.  He struggles to engage correctly in the classroom, often instigates problems with peers and can be verbally aggressive towards his classmates and teacher.  His first grade teacher thinks that once behavior is under control and the outbursts stop, Student A will be successful.  Socially he practices in a small group how to participate in class correctly and works through social skills that upset him.  Student A has really progressed and has worked very well in our small group.  Student C is also visual learner with no conditions.  He is a student that has really progressed so much in this pullout group and has obtained a lot of confidence.  He is very observant about his surroundings, has a hard time staying still, but is very participatory in lessons.

            Student B is a quiet, auditory learner.  She often tunes out her surroundings, but when her attention is grabbed she remains to be engaged.  She does not have any labels at this point in first grade.  Student D is also an auditory learner who has a very difficult time getting started, staying focused and getting her work accomplished.  She can surprise you some days by knowing how to manipulate letters and the next day her actions are very opposite.  Even though she is an auditory learner, she dazes out and gets lost in her thoughts so the instruction is often lost and the teacher has to constantly check in with her to check for understanding. Students that are auditory learners and have a hard time focusing can utilize music to help them.  Smith (2021) states, “Studies show us that music helps memory formation and retention”.

            Lastly, Student E is an even mix of kinesthetic, visual, and auditory learning.  As I have been working with this student, he truly does seem to be a mix of these three learning styles. Student E is doing so well and is really coming along in the program the most, although he is considered “at-risk” and had failed his reading readiness test.  From kindergarten to first grade I have seen so much growth in Student E.  He participates, is on task, and is engaged in the lesson the entire time period and last year he showed none of these traits.  Rather Student E has matured or has truly made a turn for the best, I am very proud of the incredible progress that he has made behaviorally, emotionally, and socially in school.

Effect on Planning and Instructional Strategies

It is important that all learning styles are incorporated into every lesson with this small group.  These mini lessons should be short, but repeated daily.  Students should be working on kinesthetic skills by building their alphabet with letter tiles, then using those tiles to make words and manipulate those words.  Through that one activity they are also using their visual learning and their auditory skills when they hear me stating the word to spell and sounding it out again to themselves. As students practice these skills, new skills can be added in.  For example, after playing the “I spy” game where they look for a word that starts with a specific initial sound, the next practice can be looking at two pictures and identifying the initial sound in each picture.  Then, students have to come up with third picture that fits into that initial sound category.

Proper planning of instructional strategies is essential to the success of the lesson and the success of the student.  Kelly (2020) states, “When teachers know what they need to accomplish and how they are going to do it, they have a better opportunity to achieve success with the added benefit of less stress. Additionally, when students are engaged during the entire class period, they have less opportunity to cause disruptions”.  I have found this to be absolutely true in my years of teaching and I always leave school with everything in check for the next day.

Students Strengths, Interests, and Needs for Growth Effect on Instruction

            Although these students are progressing, it is important that they are able to apply the knowledge to the bigger picture.  Students should be able to go back and forth between letter sounds and the letter the sound identifies with, and be able to create new words by using rhyming skills or a rule that has been taught.  For example, when working with rhyming words today, we went from rat to rate, and discuss adding the ‘e’ to the end “makes the a say its name”, which is a lesson we started and have practiced since last week.  Every single student got it correct when working with letter tiles.  Then, we made the word take and added an s to make ‘takes’.  Students got to switch the letters around to make skate, and again all students were successful.  But, when I asked them to turn the word into ‘skater’ by adding one letter, mostly every student spelled it ‘skatre’.  So, although I see so much progress from the repetition of practice, rhyming word skills, and thinking of initial/ending sounds, I see more goals in our future.  Since this practice is kinesthetic, visual, and auditory I would also like to add in an assessment to see if they can write the word on their own, without the letter tiles.  Setting goals for these students and taking notes on weaknesses to plan for future instruction around those notes is beneficial.  There should always be a goal in mind.

Assessments

            When assessing these students, I would have a three part assessment covering the strategies I have taught the students on rhyming words.  Using our textile skills, I would have students spell certain words and change them into a rhyming word.  I would keep a checkoff on my clipboard and be able to make notes/check them off if they are able to complete this task.  I would practice with three different words (rat, ate, Ed). Using our visual skills, I would play a rhyming bingo with the students.  I would write the word on the screen, and students will mark the word on their bingo mats that rhyme with the word.  For example, if I wrote tug on the board, they would look for ‘mug’ or ‘pug’ on their mats.  Lastly, to check for auditory skills, I could play the same bingo game with students, but this time I would say the word to them.  I could also play “I spy” with students individually by placing some objects in front of them.  They would listen to me say the initial sound “I spy something that starts with m” and they would locate that item.

            Many of these skills do incorporate more than one learning style, and they are a review of skills we have practiced again and again.  Having only five students in this group allows for an easy check off or quick formative assessment which gives the educator the data needed to move forward with planning for upcoming lessons.  In this content, it makes sense to interconnect kinesthetic, visual, and auditory skills to obtain the skills that these lessons teach.  Chick (2010) reports, “…it aligns teaching and learning with the contours of the subject matter, without limiting the potential abilities of the learners” when certain learning styles are focused on within the content being taught.

 

 

References

Chick, N. (2010). Learning styles. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/learning-styles-preferences/

Grand Canyon University. (2020, May 28). How to recognize and support learning styles in the classroom. Grand Canyon University. https://www.gcu.edu/blog/teaching-school-administration/how-recognize-and-support-learning-styles-classroom

Kelly, M. (2020, March 7). Planning classroom instruction. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/planning-and-organizing-instruction-8391

Smith, J. (2021, June 29). Understanding the intersection of ADHD and learning styles. Fast Braiin Supplements, LLC. https://www.fastbraiin.com/blogs/blog/adhd-and-learning-styles