I had never heard of Multimodal learning
prior to reading this chapter. According
to David Lazear, at davidlazeargroup.com “the more different ways you learn
something the more you will really learn it, remember it and understand it.” For the most part, schools do not teach in all
the different ways students really learn making it more difficult for some
students to grasp the information.
Multimodal learning is a combination of “spoken words, visuals, written
text, audio and models or some other type of simulations.” (Maloy, 217). An example of this could be a list of
spelling words spoken orally by the teacher and displayed on the smart board. They could be turned in to a poem, the poems
then could be written out and posted in the classroom as well as recorded
digitally and uploaded to the classroom website.
I like the idea of using images to generate
class discussion. In my humanities class
last semester, we would look at a piece of artwork and discuss orally what each
thought about the piece. It was very interesting
and I enjoyed listening to what each student’s interpretation was. From Tefl.net there are an endless list of
questions that a teacher could ask about an image. This promotes whole group discussion and
gives opportunities for all students to participate in the discussion. This could be a picture from a book the class
is reading together or a picture related to a history assignment.
On page 230 of the textbook, the author
states that making alphabet books is a good way for all younger students to learn
letter-sound association, what types of nouns should be capitalized and the
correct way to use apostrophe’s. This
would also be helpful for ELL students. According,
to Jennifer Atkinson on Scholastic.com a first grade teacher in Texas, she recommends doing this
activity because it is an enjoyable learning experience for the students. With the student’s photograph’s in the book,
it becomes more meaningful and memorable; they also enjoy making the
books. The photos could also be
displayed in the classroom or on a classroom website.
Atkinson, Jennifer. (2014). Creating Class Made ABC Books. Retrieved from http://blogs.scholastic.com/1_2/2009/04/creating-class-made-abc-books.html
Case, Alex. (1998-2014). Discussion questions
using images. Retrieved from http://edition.tefl.net/ideas/speak/discussion-questions-images/
Lazear, David. (2003-2008). A Different
Kind of Smart! A Different Kind of Learning. Retrieved from http://www.davidlazeargroup.com/free_articles/multi-modal.html
Maloy, Robert,
Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park
(2013). Transforming
Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Fantastic Voki - can you imagine all of the possibilities for this versatile tool? Instead of writing a book report, students could use one of the book's characters to tell the 'story' via that character's perspective in their created avatar. As we look a more multimodal delivery and creation of assessments, Voki is a good one to use.
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