Curriculum & Instructional Procedures
Lesson 6
Check Your Understanding Key
1. Read the following learner profiles. What type of perceptual learning style do you think is described?
Visual-verbal, visual-nonverbal, aural, or kinesthetic?
Learner Profile
Sally is always wiggling in her seat and tapping her
pencil, foot, or teeth. Her mother shared that she
was diagnosed as hyperactive when she was in
elementary school but they never put her on
medication. When Mrs. Smith lectures, she often
sees Sally fidgeting and staring out the window
with a glazed expression.
Anna always has a pencil or pen in her hand,
regardless of the class activity. Her notes papers
are literally covered with doodles, some of which
have to do with the concepts discussed in class.
However, if Miss Compton notices that Anna hasn’t
looked up from her paper in a while, it’s a sure bet
that she is drawing cartoons or writing her name
linked with her boyfriend’s name.
When he takes tests, Aaron often closes his eyes.
Miss Compton has asked him what he is doing and
he tells her that when he closes his eyes, he can
see the sentences she wrote on the blackboard.
When doing group work, Amos often sits quietly
while the other students discuss a concept. Miss
Ames used to insist that he participate in the group
Curriculum & Instructional Procedures
Lesson 6 – Check Your Understanding Key
Enter the probable perceptual learning style:
[answer: Kinesthetic. Sally’s activity is a sign that
she feels compelled to express her bodilykinesthetic intelligence.]
[Visual-verbal or kinesthetic. Anna is probably a
visual-verbal learner since she represents the
concepts discussed in class with drawings. She
may also be a kinesthetic student who has learned
to internalize concepts by drawing, thus learning
information “through her fingers.”]
[answer: Visual-verbal or visual-nonverbal. Aaron
may be either visual-verbal or visual-nonverbal
because he seems to have a memory for words,
but might also be making a “mental picture” of the
blackboard contents.]
[answer: Amos is probably a visual-nonverbal
learner who is able to make connections between
concepts or comments and graphically represent
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discussion until one day she noticed that he was
drawing a Venn diagram. Later in the period, Miss
Ames asked Amos to show the other group
members his diagram and one of the group
members said, “Yes, that’s it! That’s exactly what
I was trying to say! Amos, you’re a genius – let’s
use your diagram for our group paper!”
Mr. Kingston lectures and draws diagrams on the
board for his physics class. He is frustrated with
Joel. Every time the bell rings to signal the end of
class, Joel crumples up his notes page and throws
the paper to make a perfect basket in the waste
can. Mr. Kingston has asked Joel before how he
expects to study without any notes, but Joel replies
that his notes weren’t that good, anyway, and he
will copy his friend’s notes. Regardless, Joel
doesn’t do too well on the tests.
Jason has taken to mimicking Joel’s behavior and
also throws his wadded-up notes toward the trash
can. Jason rarely makes a successful basket,
however, he always “aces” the tests. Mr. Kingston
knows for a fact that Jason doesn’t get the notes
from anyone.
Candy is always whistling or humming under her
breath, stopping only when Mr. Jones is lecturing.
Mr. Jones has to insist that she stop during group
work. She often annoys the other group members
by singing back their comments to them.
things for his own and other’s benefit.]
[answer: Kinesthetic. Joel is probably a
kinesthetic learner because of his ability to make a
basket. It is probable that he is not an aural
learner or he would be able to get the content from
merely listening to the lectures. He is probably not
a visual-verbal or visual-nonverbal learner or he
would be taking better notes or reproducing Mr.
Kinston’s diagrams.]
[answer: Aural or visual-nonverbal. Jason is
probably an aural learner because he doesn’t seem
to have to study from notes. He is probably
“getting it” by merely listening to the lectures. He
could also be a visual-nonverbal learner who learns
from Mr. Kingston’s diagrams but does not feel the
need to copy them.]
[answer: Candy is probably an aural learner.]
2. Provide a brief description of a learning strategy that you could suggest to each of the students in
Curriculum & Instructional Procedures
Lesson 6 – Check Your Understanding Key
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question 1 that they could use to improve their understanding and retention.
[answers in chart – these could be suggestions; there are no right or wrong answers for this exercise]
Sally
Anna
Aaron
Amos
Joel
Jason
Candy
[Sally could draw diagrams of the concepts or record the lecture to listen to later as she
exercises.]
[Anna should continue the strategy of drawing pictures of the lecture content, however,
she should consider recording the lecture in case she misses some of the content if she
succumbs to day-dreaming.]
[Aaron seems to have a photographic memory so he doesn’t need to worry about
retention. However, he should be encouraged to test his understanding of the concepts
by applying them to problem-solving situations or by explaining them to others.]
[Amos should be encouraged to continue making graphic representations of the group
discussions. By explaining his drawings to the other group members, he is developing
his interpersonal skills. ]
[Joel should be encouraged to tape the lectures and listen to them later as he exercises.
He might also benefit from short assignments where he explains, demonstrates or “acts
out” a concept to the rest of the class. Group work with role play exercises would also
help Joel. ]
[Jason should be encouraged to summarize concepts verbally for the rest of the class.
He will benefit from hearing his own explanations, and other students may benefit from
hearing a paraphrase or examples of the concepts discussed in class.]
[Candy should be cautioned to restrain herself from parroting the other group members,
however, her “jingles” might be helpful for her own or other group member’s study
purposes, so she could write them down or record them at home.]
3. In the space below, briefly describe in a few sentences how you might go about determining your
students’ learning preferences. Justify your ideas by commenting on the nature of your subject matter
and the characteristics (age, level, interests, etc.) of your students.
[For graders: Possible answers should include consideration of student age and other characteristics and
Curriculum & Instructional Procedures
Lesson 6 – Check Your Understanding Key
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the subject matter, and may include examples of questions they could ask, online inventories they
could have their students take, or class exercises designed to determine learning styles.]
4. In the space below, describe one of your learning units that you think either does or does not appeal to
a variety of learning styles. Explain why it does or does not meet the needs of students with different
learning styles and how you might adjust it to provide more differentiated instruction (in your answer,
make reference to a specific learning styles model of your choice).
[For graders: Answers will vary but should include learning activities that address the needs of different
learning styles using a specific learning styles model.]
5. Read the following paragraph and identify as many examples of needs – from Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs – that must be met before successful learning can take place:
Thursday morning in Mrs. Smith’s third grade class has gotten off to a chaotic start. As she looks
around the room, she notices that Suzy is fidgeting in her seat. Before she has the chance to tell
her to sit still, Suzy’s stomach let’s out a loud growl. The children all giggle. Seated next to Suzy,
Jimmy has his head on his desk, his eyes closed and is drooling on his paper. Joel has launched into
a long explanation of the way he helped his neighbor clean up the yard and keeps saying “Mrs.
Smith, are you listening?” Mrs. Smith notices that Jennifer has another bruise on her arm and
keeps glancing out the window with a worried expression on her face. She wonders if Jennifer’s
father has been on another drinking binge again. Andy was once again trying to complete his
science paper that was supposed to be finished two days ago. He had no trouble telling Mrs. Smith
about the science project he wanted to do, but when it came to writing it down, he just didn’t have
the patience for the writing. Andy had lots of grand plans so she didn’t understand why he couldn’t
get this done. Cynthia was hanging on Mrs. Smith’s arm again. When Mrs. Smith asked what she
wanted, Cynthia just smiled and said “I’m a hugger!” Mrs. Smith tries not to look annoyed.
[answer: Suzy and Jimmy – physiological needs; Joel – esteem; Jennifer – safety; Andy – selfactualization; Cynthia – love/belonging]
Curriculum & Instructional Procedures
Lesson 6 – Check Your Understanding Key
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