Blog Entry 1

I've been working in a Kindergarten classroom and have noticed some developmental differences among the children. After learning about different learning modalities, or learning styles, I think some of the progress, or lack of progress is a result of children having different learning modalities.

It seems like a majority of the children have a visual learning modality, auditory learning modality, or a combination of both. These children seem to easily pick up on new concepts and learn new information quickly, due to most of the teaching being visual or auditory.

For example, one student who I will call "John" is behind all the other students in his knowledge and skills. I now wonder if it has to do with his learning modality. He has not yet completely mastered all of the letters in the alphabet. Sometimes during classtime we will pull him to the side of the classroom to give him extra help. During this time we do a system of multisensory activites with him. For each lowercase letter in the alphabet there is a bag of activites all of which are done several times before moving onto the next one. In the bag for the letter 'a' there is a textured foam letter that John traces with his finger in the proper direction while saying, "Around, up, down, A." Next there is a piece of black construction paper with the letter written in white crayon and starting point marked with a round sticker. He traces this while again saying aloud the directions. Then he does the same thing but in a tray of sand. In the second to last step a semi-transparent sheet of paper is placed on top of cardstock printed with 2 rows of the letter and John traces all of them. Lastly he is asked to point to the letter 'a' on a page in a small book.

The work seems to be paying off as he now only has 3 letters left that he cannot name on sight.