Speaking from personal experience, the value that needs to be placed on our students learning styles and incorporating differentitation in our teaching is very high. My elementary career was spent being verbally abused by other students for my weight and I started viewing words as something that werent important to me because of the hurt it had broguht me. I decided to ignore any verbal communication I was recieveing at school which started affecting my grades. My teachers were only using auditory learning and for me it created an problem because I ignored any verbal communication I was recieveing. I developed a kinestetic learning style due to having been so scared by words. I placed value on actions rather then words, which my teachers did not do, they valued auditory learning when I needed Kinestetic learning. Elementary school was a very difficult time for me but I think if my teachers had made more of an effort to reach my learning style it would have been an easier experince for me.
As a teacher I want all my students to feel accepted and supported. That’s why I believe it is important to take the time to get to know your students and their learning style. If we as teachers can find ways to reach all of our students styles I think their learning experience will be a positive one and we as teachers will get to see more success from our students. We can not expect a visual learner to succeed when were teaching auditory learning, but if we can find a way to incorporate both they will find greater comprehension. Same goes for the other styles. By using many different strategies to give our students the information we are setting them up for greater success. Not only will they succeed but we as teachers will too. Do your research, find multiple ways to incorporate all the learning styles and differentiate the process you’re using. It’s our job as the teacher to put our students in the best position to succeed!
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