Reading Lessons and Learning Style
Activities for Auditory, Kinesthetic-Tactile and Visual-Spatial Kids
Reading lesson plans and activities that appeal to multiple learning styles help students to learn phonics and phonemes necessary to meet No Child Left Behind objectives.
How can an elementary reading teacher use learning style to provide ideal learning situations for a classroom of individual children with different needs?
The No Child Left Behind Mandate (NCLB) has the noble but lofty goal of having all students reading on grade level by third grade. At present, the U.S. Department of Education website reports that a mere 32% of American children are at or above a proficient reading level by the end of the fourth grade. The importance of children learning to read is obvious, but reaching these goals can be especially challenging given the wide range of learning styles, abilities and even disabilities present in the average heterogeneous classroom. In particular, the initial goal of having students make phonemic (aural) and phonetic (decoding skills) associations with written language can be difficult since young learners absorb phonemic and phonetic fluency in vastly different ways that require vastly different approaches.
Brain research suggests that teachers who embrace a variety of learning activities that appeal to multiple learning modalities (auditory-sequential, kinesthetic-tactile, and visual-spatial) are more likely to achieve early success for all students. In general, no student learns with only one style, so it follows that providing a variety of activities for young students would help all students to learn better.
Auditory Sequential Learners
The traditional classroom was constructed around the auditory-sequential learner. Children who have auditory-sequential strengths are good at listening and following instructions. These children think in a linear fashion and are skilled at remembering details. These students rarely have difficulty learning to read using phonics and other traditional step-by-step instructions; however, these students will also benefit from the hands-on and movement oriented activities that appeal to kinesthetic-tactile and visual-spatial learners. Thus, auditory-sequential teaching strategies should be used in conjunction with methods that engage other learning modalities.
Kinesthetic and Tactile Learners
Kinesthetic and Tactile learners are at a disadvantage in a traditional auditory sequential classroom since they absorb information best through movement and touching. A reading teacher will be more likely to reach a kinesthetic or tactile learner with games and activities that connect letter sounds and phonetics with movement.
Visual-Spatial Learners
Visual-Spatial Learners often have difficulty learning to read because they see the world in pictures rather than words. Although the new technological marketplace is strongly image driven, the traditional classroom still caters to the minority of students who are auditory-sequential. This hardly makes sense since approximately 1/3 of all learners are strongly visual-spatial, and only ¼ of all students favor auditory-sequential learning. Patterns, illustrations, graphics, and geometry appeal to the visual-spatial learner, so reading teachers who include lesson plans with visual elements are more likely to reach these students.
No one learning style works best for every student, and, in fact, most students learn using a variety of learning modalities. Thus, when teachers diversify instruction style, reading skills will be more accessible to all students.
