Teaching to the
Person:
Differentiating
through Variety
Stillwater Area
Schools
August 2015
Agenda
• INTRODUCTION/CONTEXT
– Introductory Activities & Conversation
– Systemic Differentiation
– Exploration of Learning Styles
• Designing for Variety
– Experiential Framework
– Action Planning
• CLOSING
Enduring Understandings
• Intentional and systematic variety in
lesson planning can support a
multiplicity of learning preferences
• Systemic differentiation is about
planning for variety
Guiding Questions
• How do learning and learning styles/preferences
intersect?
• How can educators support the vast diversity of
ways students learn?
• What is the nature of powerful learning
experiences?
Protocols
• Assume good intentions
• Spinach in the teeth rule
(Ouch/Oops)
• Right to Pass
• Make it work for you
• Others?
~ Howard Gardner
Empowerment: “Me”
Panic Zone
Growth Zone
Comfort
Zone
Learning Styles or Preferences?
1. Reading texts or other printed material
2. Writing term papers
3. Participating in group activities in class
4. Doing major team projects
5. Doing cases/case studies
6. Taking multiple choice exams
7. Giving presentations to the class
8. Learning about different theories
9. Doing practical exercises
10.Solving problems
11.Doing library research
12.Exercising a lot of creativity
“…weak relationships between assignment
preferences and learning styles.”
“… recommends that faculty use a variety of
learning methods in every class and that
they encourage students to be receptive to
different methods rather than equating
particular approaches with their learning
style.”
Loo, R. (2004). Kolb’s learning styles and learning
preferences: Is there a linkage? Educational Psychology, 24 (1), 99108.
“… builds on Kolb’s notion that no one
learning style is better than another.
Rather, skilled learners match styles to
tasks and are not locked into their
preferred style.”
Loo, R. (2004). Kolb’s learning styles and learning
preferences: Is there a linkage? Educational Psychology, 24 (1), 99108.
A Few of the 70+ Learning Styles
• Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic (VAK)
• Multiple Intelligences – Gardner
• Quadrants – LSI (Kolb), True Colors, 4Mat
(McCarthy)
• Others?
Verbal/Linguistic
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Like to write
Use words well when speaking
Enjoy telling stories and jokes
Have a good memory for names, places, dates,
and other information
Enjoy reading
Like poems, puns, and tongue twisters
Like word activities like Scrabble®, anagrams,
crossword, puzzles, and so on
Like to speak in front of groups
Find it easy to explain ideas to others
Often contact friends through notes and letters
Logical/Mathematical
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Think things out clearly
Can do math in head
Enjoy using computers
Like chess and checkers
Like to do experiments
Like working on thinking puzzles
Keep things neat and orderly
Like step-by-step directions
Like structure
Find it easy to solve problems
Visual/Spatial
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Like pictures and other visuals
See pictures in mind when thinking
Like mazes, jigsaw puzzles, and Lego® blocks
Enjoy drawing and designing things
Like maps and charts
Daydream a lot
Like creating art using different tools: chalk, paint,
or markers
• Like to rearrange a room
• Like watching plays, musicals, and other
performances
• Can remember the way a room looks and feels
Musical/Rhythmic
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Enjoy music a lot
Often sing, hum, or whistle songs to themselves
Play musical instrument or sing in a choir
Hear sounds others may miss-birds, crickets, bells
in the distance
Like to have music playing all the time
Find it hard to concentrate while listening to the
radio or TV
Have good rhythm to music
Like the rhythms of poetry
Like musicals better than dramatic plays
Find it easy to remember words of songs
Bodily/Kinesthetic
• Cleverly mimic other people’s movements and
behaviors
• Enjoy taking part in sports
• Like to dance, act, do aerobics, martial arts, or
mime
• Move a lot when sitting on a chair
• Like physical activities such as hiking, swimming,
biking, or skating
• Good with woodworking, sewing, or carving
• Enjoy making things with hands
• Like working with tools
• Find it hard to sit still for long periods
• Enjoy arts and crafts
Interpersonal
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Am a leader in the neighborhood or school
Understand people very well
Have a lot of friends
Like to be with people
Try to solve disputes
Enjoy group games and/or group events
Care a lot about people and their feelings
Learn and perform best when working with
others
• Dislike working alone
• Like belonging to clubs and other groups
Intrapersonal
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Am deeply aware of inner feelings and thoughts
Have strong personality and will
Like to work on projects alone
Seem to live in own private, inner world
Have self-confidence
Act very different in style ofdress and behavior
Put out a lot ofeffort when I believe in something
Like to be involved in causes that help others
Am very aware ofwhat I believe
Believe that fairness is very important
Naturalist
• Care deeply about animals
• When outside, closely notice sky, clouds, and
plants
• Enjoy growing plants
• Like collecting rocks and seashells
• Like going to the beach or walking in the woods
• Like to watch fish in an aquarium for a long time
• Care very much about the environment and
endangered species
• Believe it is very important to recycle
• Enjoy hiking and camping
• Spend a lot of time outdoors
Existential
• Enjoy looking at the stars at night and thinking about
how everything Hts together
• Frequently think about the signifcance of my own life
and my impact on others
• Enjoy reading certain kinds of philosophy, religious, or
spiritual literature
• Like to figure out how things relate to each other
• Sometimes have trouble focusing on details
• Like to think about why things happen as they do
• Like to read and learn about the meaning oflife
• Ask lots of questions that start with “Why?" and
“How?”
• Wonder a lot about why people die
• Like to listen to sermons, discuss deep subjects, or
both
LEARNING STYLES
FEELING
ORANGE
BLUE
· TRIAL & ERROR
· RELATIONSHIPS
· WHAT IF?
· WHY?
DOING
REFLECTING
GOLD
GREEN
· MODELS
· INFORMATION
· HOW?
· WHAT?
THINKING
Designing for Variety
ZULL’S MODEL OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN
BRAIN FUNCTION AND HUMAN LEARNING
Active
MOTOR
Testing
Creation
FRONTof
New
INTEGRATIVE
Concepts
Reflection/Obser
BACK
INTEGRATIVE
vation
Gathering
SENSORY
Information
FEELING
ORANGE
BLUE
DOING
REFLECTING
GREEN
GOLD
THINKING
HOMEOSTASIS
Leaning Pairs
Or
Scales
Context:
Balance
What did you have to
do to maintain
balance?
Concept:
Homeostasis
Homeostasis Definition
Concept Map of human body
Examples
HOMEOSTASIS
Leaning Pairs
Or
Scales
Context:
Balance
What did you have to
do to maintain
balance?
Concept:
Homeostasis
Homeostasis Definition
Concept Map of human body
Examples
Research Examples
• Human body: body temperature, glucose
concentration, calcium levels, fluid volume
• Ecosystems: carrying capacity, predator-prey
relationships, biodiversity, case study of a species,
overcrowding, habitat degradation
• Agriculture: Effects of monoculture
• Sustainability: Human influence, changing
conditions on…
• Mental Health: Balance, stagnation, and growth
HOMEOSTASIS
Leaning Pairs
Or
Scales
Research Homeostatic
Relationships
Present findings
Concept:
Homeostasis
Context:
Balance
What did you have to
do to maintain
balance?
Homeostasis Definition
Concept Map of human body
Examples
Graphing
Multiple
Intelligence
Inventory
1. 2. Determine something of which
you would like to observe the
frequency, number or amount.
Create two different graphs.
Context:
MI + Human
Bar graph
Human Bar Graph
Concept:
Graphing
Teaching of different types of graphs: Bar, Line, Pie…
Chart your own MI