One of the most amazing things about the human race is that, although we have a lot of commonalities we are not all the same. Everyone has their own "swag" if you will. We have our own styles and self-expression. The way we wear our clothes, the language of love that we speak, the hairstyles we try...it's all different. It is usually contingent upon our personality and environmental experiences. Just like those things vary between people, learning styles vary as well. How can you take all these different unique individuals and expect them all to learn, gather information, and communicate understanding the exact same way? Our individuality is what makes us special. I can remember some topics being so difficult to grasp in college. It wasn't necessarily because the subject was beyond my understanding, but more so the delivery of the information was confusing. It's not that the teacher was providing incorrect information or even that they didn't take time to plan the lesson. It's just that there was a disconnect between my learning style and their delivery. If there was variance in the lesson, more students could have grasped the concepts better and performance on assessments would reflect that learning. Interest Surveys, Tiered Lessons, Differentiation, Hands-On activities, etc... are tool as that help us meet the needs of the different children in our classrooms. Our students are not as simplistic as a box of cookies, so our lessons cannot be cookie cutters.
AuthorJuantonia Hill is the Math Instructional Coach for Southfield Public Schools. This blog represents the latest headline story inside of the monthly edition of Teacher Talk. Archives
March 2015
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