Lauren Valla Reflective

Reflective (7)- I study best when I have time to think about something. I like to read through or listen to content and then think about the questions and problems that came up afterward. I like a quiet study environment to review what I've read or learned in class. I also like to mark material with Post-Its or notes so I can come back to it later.

Sensing (7)- I learn best when I am learning well established facts and processes. I can easily memorize facts as long as I see their relevance in a process or in the real world. For example, I almost always remember geometry formulas and theorems even if I haven't used them for a long time. I like these detail oriented tasks because I work carefully and go back and check the work that I do.

Visual (7)- I learn best when I can see the information in charts or other organized formats. To study for a major test I often make my own study guides. I create flashcards and I find that just rewriting the information helps me retain it. I also create color coded study guides, where the information is organized by topic so I can easily remember each topic by its color and find details quickly.

Global (1)- I learn best when I know where I am going. I am fairly balanced in this area because although I like to know where I'm going, I like to know the order in which I'm going to get there. For example, when taking a course or attending a workshop, I like to know the final objective for the day (i.e. Teaching children to express their thinking in math in writing). However, I also like to see the outline of how I'm going to learn this step by step.

As a math teacher I try to appeal to each learning style. For example, in a typical lesson I might start by giving kids a question or problem to think about independently. This is for the reflective learners who want time to think about a question before they share with the class or a small group. Often I try to make this question or problem allow students to see how this math topic relates to the real world, for the sensing learners. Following this, I usually explain our objective for the day so that the global learners know what the point of everything they will be working on. Then to give directions, we read them orally, discuss, and I model the process for both the verbal and visual learners. When giving directions of how students will reach their objective, I try to give them as step-by-step directions and often write them on the board or overhead for the visual learners to refer to throughout the lesson. Students then use group work (active learners) and discuss and experiment with different methods (intuitive) to solve their daily problems to reach their objective. As closure, we summarize what we have done, review the objective and depending on the lesson come up with a specific rule or procedure to help the sensing learners.