Teaching Strategies to Support the Visual Spatial Learner

Sarah GiunchediIllinois Association for Gifted Children

ConferenceFebruary 6, 2012

Two Perspectives

Imaginative

“Big picture”

3-d mastery

Sees relationships

Recognizes patterns

Out of the box thinker

Radar scanning

Emotional intensity

Gamesmanship

Unorganized

Unfocused

Poor spellers

Poor with math facts and memorization

Fidgety

Daydreamers

No sense of time

Unusual, different

Two Hemispheres of the Brain

Left Brain

Step-by-step

Sequential learning

Auditory teaching

Words and numbers

Right Brain

Think in pictures

Thoughts move like movies playing in their heads

1 in 3 students have a strong preference for the visual-spatial, right brained learning style (Silverman, 2002).

Our World Today Is Changing

Information AgeLogical, linear capabilitiesBased on words and numbersMedieval clerk skills-reading, writing, counting, memorizing, learning foreign languages

Conceptual AgeInventive, empathic, big-picture capabilitiesBased on images

Graphic designers increased ten-fold in ten years. More Americans work in entertainment, design and the arts than work as lawyers, auditors or accountants (Pink)

Identifying These Students

Good at puzzles, mazes

Likes to build with LEGOs, K’Nex, blocks

Often loses track of time

Knows things but can’t tell why

Remembers how to get to a place visited only once

Can feel what others are feeling

Remembers what is seen and forgets what is heard

Identifying These Students

Unusual problem solverWild imaginationLove of arts: theater, dance, artSeem unorganizedLoves playing on the computerHas trouble spelling words correctlyLikes taking things apart to see how they work

Learning CharacteristicsStrengths:Loves complexityLoves difficult puzzlesFascinated by computersGreat at geometry, physicsKeen visual memoryCreative, imaginativeSystems thinkerAbstract reasoningExcels in math analysisHigh reading comprehensionExcellent sense of humor

Learning CharacteristicsWeaknesses:Struggles with easy materialHates drill and repetitionIllegible handwritingPoor at phonics, spellingPoor auditory memoryInattentive in classDisorganized, forgets detailsDifficulty memorizing factsPoor at calculationLow word recognitionPerforms poorly on timed tests

How Do They Learn?

Visualization

Hands-On

Whole Picture

Use Technology

Increase the Difficulty

Aha!

Visualization

Show everything

Using color is best

Encourage the child to visualize lists, patterns, words

Ask the child to create pictures of the topic

Encourage child to draw or construct

Use Venn Diagrams, graphic organizers

Allow wait time for visualization of ideas

Hands-On

Manipulatives:Attribute blocks, fraction bars, patterns blocks, LEGOs, strategy games, base ten blocks, geoboards, tangrams, pentominoes, puzzles,

Hands-on Learning

Encourage Building Models

Whole Picture

Often perceived as “slow processors”

See relationships between parts and whole

Don’t understand if learning is presented in small chunks or isolated facts

Have difficulty attending to details

Explain major concepts

Provide real-life scenarios

Use interdisciplinary teaching, so students can see the connections

Technology

Encourage the use of computers

Encourage and teach keyboarding at an early age

Encourage use of Inspiration for organizing thoughts

Increase the Difficulty

Excel at concepts, computation is more difficult

Detest routine, repetitive tasks

Does not learn by rote memorization

Do not force student to succeed at easier material before moving on to more difficult work

Emphasize mastery of higher level concepts over perfection of simpler ones

Aha! Learning

Typically can not explain the steps of their thinking

Understand all or nothing

Once an “aha!” moment occurs, learning is pretty permanent

Allow for discovery learning-tell the child the goal of the instruction and let them figure out the way to get there

Strategies for Teaching Math

Avoid drill, repetition and timed testsDo five hardest problems firstTeach to find patterns and work backwardsTeach within the context of the entire number systemDo not focus on memorization of rules, formulas, steps and facts: focus on higher level skills

Strategies for Teaching Math

Be understanding that showing their work is difficult

Give opportunities to solve problems in their own way

Let them use their own strategies-don’t judge

Hands-on-Equations program

Use Grid for Multiplication Factsx 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

3 3 6 15

4 4 8 20

5 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

6 6 12 30

7 7 14 35

8 8 16 40

9 9 18 45

10 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Tricks to Remember Difficult Facts:

You have to be 16 to drive a 4 by 4:4 x 4 = 165,6,7,8: 7 x 8 = 561,2,3,4: 3 x 4 = 12Finger method for 9’sRhymes-bounce/jump to rhythm:5 x 5 =25, 6 x 4 = 24, 6 x 6 = 36, 6 x 8 =48Music-Schoolhouse Rock (song for memorizing three’s facts)

Strategies for Teaching Reading

Many are late readersChild may never be a good oral readerFocus on sight words, not phonicsPoor visual memory-never actually look at words long enough to store them in memoryConnect a word to a picture instead of a sound

Strategies for Teaching Reading

Junior Great Books program is great!Program called “Mind’s Eye” out of Escondido, CA focuses on training students to produce mental images as they read“Picture at Punctuation” (Ron Davis) encourages students to stop at punctuation and tell the picture you haveTextbook Scavenger Hunts are great!Study word analysis (Greek and Latin roots)

Strategies for Teaching Reading

Good speed readers-encourage to use index finger and jump over words they can not make a picture for

Get content first, then read for details

Study captions, pictures

Skimming

Strategies for Teaching Reading

Love to read books with strong visual images: fantasy, books with underlying themeLove to read graphic novels, magazines, nonfiction or heavily illustrated materialContinue to read aloud to them-running fingers under words as you go

Strategies for Teaching Language Arts

Writing:

Visualize entire sentence before writing it

Tape record work and then transcribe

Use webbing to come up with ideas

Grade content and mechanics separately

Spelling:

Kids need to see the word shape so draw word on graph paper

Write each word on a card in color

Rhymes such as “I before E” can be helpful

Strategies for Teaching Organization

Color code calendars, assignments, books, supplies, key words

Use an hourglass to help see time passage

Watches

Teach to take a picture of assignments they are given

Teach to create priority lists and schedules

Teach to highlight important concepts or directions

For Lectures:

Pause to let words register

Encourage note taking in visual format (webbing, graphic organizers)

Emphasize concepts, not details

Distribute handouts

Things to Use:

ColorMnemonicsHumorMeaningful materialVenn DiagramsRhythmMusicEmotionFantasyManipulatives3-d imagesExaggerationUse as many senses as possible

When Interacting with these Students

Teach child to take cues from classmates

Moment of silence

Reduce unpredictable noise

Use wait time

Let child completely finish answering

Discipline in private

Be non-judgmental

Focus on students’ strengths

Why Nurture Spatial Skills?

Schools (and testing) emphasize verbal over spatial skills

In the last 25 years, college students have increased 50% but number of graduates in STEM fields has remained flat (NYT, 2011).

40% of those planning engineering and science switch to other degrees, twice the attrition rate of other majors (NYT, 2011).

Why Nurture Spatial Skills?

51% of Engineering Doctorates and 43% of Mathematics Doctorates earned by non-citizens (Mann)Individuals gifted in spatial ability are undereducated and underemployed (Gohm, 1998)Increasingly technological world needs ability to comprehend complex relationships and problem solvers with unique strategies (Shea, Lubinski, Benbow, 2001)

Many Famous Inventors Noted as Having Trouble in School

Einstein-grades so poor, a teacher asked him to quit school when he was 15

Edison-”dull student” so disruptive one teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything and thrown out of school at 12

Newton-did poorly in school, teachers throught he couldn’t learn

daVinci-wrote his notes backwards (mirror image), spelling errors

Darwin-had to have his dad pull strings to get him into college

Believe in these children…

You could be teaching a future Edison or Einstein and our world desperately needs these kinds of

thinkers!

Effective Materials for Visual Spatial Learners:

Attribute blocksFraction barsPattern blocksGeoblocksSoma cubesLegos™MindbendersGearsStrategy GamesDestination Imagination

Base ten blocksGeoboardsTangramsPentominoesPuzzlesConstrux™Logic ProblemsString Art3-d geometric shapesSetKanoodle

Cited:Eberle, Bob. Scamper. Waco: Prufrock, 2008. Print.Freed, Jeffrey F. Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World. New York: “Simon”, 1998. Print.Gardner, Howard. Five Minds for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business School, 2006. Print.- - -. Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic, 1993. Print.Golon, Alexandra Shires. Visual-Spatial Learners. Waco: Prufrock, 2008. Print.Mann, Rebecca L. “Eye to Eye: Connecting with Gifted Visual-Spatial Learners (Teaching Strategies).” Gifted Child Today Magazine. N.p., Fall 2001. Web. 27 Jan. 2012.- - -. “Gifed Students with Spatial Strengths and Sequential Weaknesses: An Overlooked and Underidentified Population.” Roeper Review Winter 2005: 91-96. Print.Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the World. New York: Berkley, 2005. Print.Silverman, Linda Kreger, Ph.D., ed. Visualspatial.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2012.Visual-learners.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2012.Wallace, Kathryn. “America’s Brain Drain Crisis.” Americabraindrain.blogspot.com/ . N.p., 8 Dec. 2005. Web. 27 Jan. 2012.West, T.G. In the Mind’s Eye: Visual Thinkers, Gifted People with Learning Difficulties. Computer Images, and the Ironies of Creativity. Buffalo: Prometheus, 1991. Print.