Tips for Reaching Every Learner

Tailor your lessons to provide for the variety of learning styles represented in your classroom.

By Tom Duda

Group of students

Is anyone out there learning? How many times do we contemplate that question while we are standing in the front of the classroom? I have discovered part of the answer is to be cognizant of the variety of learning styles present in my classroom when I am teaching. The ability to discern the types of learners you are teaching will vastly improve your teaching methods and your ability to help students retain information while enjoying the learning process. Below, I will highlight six different learning styles, and a few ideas for how to reach these pupils.

1. Visual Learners

Visual learners learn best by what they see. They are individuals who perk up when you mention a good book or story, and usually respond well to the following:

  • Whiteboard (or blackboard) words and illustrations
  • Flashcards
  • Pictures
  • Videos
  • Picture books
  • Computer graphics
  • Maps and mazes
  • Charts and posters
  • Cartoons
  • Board games
  • Worksheets and puzzles

With these learners in mind, the classroom should be decorated with lots of pictures, posters, and decorations. Color flashcards containing vocabulary words juxtaposed throughout the classroom is a technique I always employed to engage all pupils, but especially the visual learners. 

2. Auditory Learners

Of course, auditory learners respond best when listening. I always loved teaching this type of student (as I can be a bit long-winded at times) and I found them to be focused and attentive when I spoke. I drew the line when it came to singing in class, but playing songs definitely got their minds working. Reading stories aloud is also a great activity for these pupils. They tend to learn vocabulary by sound and find it a waste of time when something is written on the board. Auditory learners respond well to the following:

With the above in mind, an instructor may want to fill the air with vibrations. Songs, stories, and videos all work well in the classroom. Animal sounds, I found, were very popular with young children, but incorporating sounds such as thunder and wind captured the attention of all age levels. The possibilities are endless–be creative!

3. Tactile Learners

Before I really learned to teach, to my chagrin, I found myself getting annoyed by those “touchy feely” children who would grab everything I brought to class. My notes, my laptop, even my cell phone found their way into curious little hands. I soon came to love the metal locker by my teacher’s desk and kept my personal belongings safely tucked away. Yet, as I matured as an educator, I started embracing these learners by incorporating objects for my students to hold, and found that this was a valuable way of keeping my pupils engaged. Here is a list of some of the props I used:

  • Drawing
  • Gesturing songs
  • Board games
  • Building blocks (Lego® is great)
  • Arts and crafts
  • Grab bags

Without touching, tactile learners will find it difficult to grasp and retain much of the lesson. I found it useful to use flashcards in such a way that everyone could hold/pass the cards around as they were trying to solve them, speaking the answers out loud (or whispering the answers, depending on my instruction). This allowed for visual, auditory, and tactile learners to benefit from the same lesson. Use something as simple as a doll, truck, or small toy to illustrate your point. Never forget improvisation and you will be well on your way to capturing and retaining the interest of your protégés.

4. Kinesthetic Learners

When I was teaching in Turkey, I was always using words like Dur (Stop!) and Otur (Sit!). Getting children to sit (and be quiet) was a challenge for me. I learned that instead of fighting against it, I could use their energy as an opportunity to help my pupils learn. Some ideas for kinesthetic learners are as follows:

  • Gesturing songs
  • Simon Says
  • Musical chairs
  • Movement activities
  • Craft Activities
  • Experiments (for your science enthusiasts)
  • Role playing 

Kinesthetic children always want to be moving. Therefore, rather than medicating them, use their energy to enhance and diversify the learning environment.

5. Analytic Learners

I know from experience that most instructors love these types of learners. Curious, analytic youngsters love to ask questions. They usually excel in grammar and love taking apart words in sentences. These students respond well to some of the following teaching tactics:

  • Structure
  • Step-by-step, sequential lessons (recipes are an great example)
  • Clear objectives and goals
  • Activities that demand analytical thought (puzzles, fill-in-the-blanks, etc.)

Getting analytic learners to engage in tasks where they need to think about the structure of the language helps them to remember new vocabulary and grammar. These learners loved putting words in alphabetical order. I had great success with games such as concentration and word scramble. When I used a SMART Board, I would play interactive Jeopardy. This was meant to target my analytical learners, but ended up engaging many other students as well. 

6. Global Learners

Global learners do not care much about specific details. They focus on the whole picture. They tend to get bored with slow-moving lessons and enjoy far-reaching, over-arching lessons. Here are some good tactics for global learners: 

Try to have fun games and activities where the objective is not too narrowly focused. Pair off these students and let them move about the classroom as they work. An important note about global learners: they do not like to be interrupted. In fact, interrupting them short-circuits their learning process, so always correct them at the end of the activity. I have also found that it is very valuable to allow these learners to ask the other students questions as they explore and learn.

Conclusion

While many of these styles seem to contradict each other, it is possible to address them all in your classroom over the course of a day. The goal would be to include different learning styles at different points in the lesson. Here is an example of how to include multiple learning styles in one lesson:

  1. When teaching new vocabulary, use flashcards to capture attention and clearly associate the sounds, thus incorporating your visual and auditory learners.
  2. Then have the students walk about and act out the vocabulary words (for kinesthetic learners).
  3. Next, try a grab-bag stocked with some of the vocabulary words. Have various learners guess the items, and have everybody do some sort of associated drawing activity (for the tactile learners).
  4. Finally, have your pupils get into teams and make models (perhaps making it a challenge giving prizes to the best teams), this will excite your global learners. Voila! You have now incorporated all learning styles in one lesson! 

In reality, you are not going to extend every lesson in this manner, but you can vary your lessons enough in the day to be certain you have included every type of learner. Knowing how your pupils learn, and possessing the willingness to improvise, will go a long way toward ensuring that you have effectively reached each student in your classroom. 

How do you incorporate learning styles in your classroom? Please share your tips with the Lesson Planet Community.

Lesson Planet Resources:

Effective Coping Strategies through Multiple Intelligences, How Do you Learn Best?, Four Learning Styles