What's Your Style - Learning-wise?

What's your style?  A learning styles questionnaire can give you some answers.  I took a few in researching this post. the VARK questionnaire says that I take in information best by reading. Next to that, I learn visually or kinesthetically. This information came as something of a surprise.  It goes counter to some of my own thoughts of how I learn, but it could make a tutor and learner think about past learning experiences in a new light.  

Another test from the website Edutopia asks questions about how you prefer to learn things and what kinds of activities you enjoy.  For instance it asks how much time you spend "getting lost in a book...writing a journal...yearning to get close to nature" and so on. Other questions begin, "How keen would you be to...?" and "When you're in a group, how often do you find yourself...?"

Indiana University South Bend offers a Barsch learning styles inventory here: iusb.edu/tutoring/barsch.php.  It works with pull down menus and all the questions as whether you do an activity"sometimes, seldom" or "often." Interestingly, of the several assessments I have taken many ask whether I "Bear down extremely hard when writing."  What's that all about?  According to Barsch inventory, I learn almost equally well by visually, aurally or kinesthetically.

Give a learning styles assessment a try. You may be able to do one in less than ten minutes. It is at the very least the source of an interesting conversation with some vocabulary it could be helpful to learn.  It could form the start of a lesson about giving personal information about yourself.  It could also be part of a career portfolio project.  You will find several assessments at the delicious website: delicious.com/literacy_network/learning_styles. Have fun!

Learning Style Quiz

A little bit of experience in teaching people language skills makes it very clear that human beings have wide diversity in learning styles. Thinking about the different ways in which human brains can work--well, it staggers the brain. Recently I got a message from Literacy Network Tutor Jeanie Bettner, who had just begun working with her learner. Interested in finding out how best to teach her, she found a way to learn more about he learner's learning style. Jeanie wrote,

I had her complete an online quiz (found at the Slingerland Method website) that helps reveal what type of learner you are
(visual, auditory or tactile) to help me get a better idea of how to form my
lessons for her.

Everybody's brain is wired differently. My four-year-old son Simon, also a tactile learner, likes to model a letter 'S' as big as his arm in Play Doh (we make our own, so there's always a bucket of it around) and asks me what starts with 'S.' He knows that his name does. He just wants to make me say it.