Visual Learning

Many of our students in the classroom are going to be visual learners, meaning that they need visual representations of the content in order to develop a deep understanding of it. As a future ESL teacher, I think visual learning is especially important. When teaching non-native speakers, it is crucial to provide visual cues so that the student can make connections with the new language and the visual material. If the student is just given the language, how are they supposed to gain a full understanding of what it means? 

I had a great experience of this idea today at the school where I am completing my observations. I was working with two Spanish-speaking kindergarteners, and we were working on the names of colors. Since this was my first time working with these two students, I decided to try a quick exercise to get a sense of their background knowledge of colors. I first asked them to point to something blue. The two students just looked at each other, unsure of what to do. I asked the same question but substituted the color yellow, and arrived at the same result. My understanding of this exercise is that the students had no context in which to put the words "blue" and "yellow." I grabbed a pack of crayons and some coloring sheets for the students and we began coloring together. As we colored, I held up each color crayon, said its name, and asked the student to repeat it for me. I then found a corresponding object in the classroom that went along with the color. After a few repetitions of each color, the students began naming the colors without any help from me. Next, I took them to the carpet, which had each color blocked off in its own section. We began by stepping on each color and saying its name. Then to really test their knowledge, I decided to instruct them to go to certain colors. For example, I would say, "James can you hop to the color purple?" By the end of the game they were hopping around and they knew the names of their basic colors! Providing them with visual cues was crucial in developing their understanding of the content I was trying to teach them.

There are many technologies that can help teachers develop visual aids for their students. Last week I learned how to use Inspiration, and I have been using it for my own benefit ever since! Inspiration allows users to create webs, graphic organizers, lists, and more that organize material in an appealing visual style. I have been using it to create graphic organizers for my midterms that are coming up, and it has been really beneficial for my own learning.