This semester I am teaching a reading and writing course with an emphasis in the social sciences. While I am teaching a general education course, I try to also integrate reading and writing strategies, which can sometimes be challenging, especially when trying to meet the diverse needs of my learners. What I have begun to realize is that I cannot reach every single learner every single lesson; it’s just too much!
However, I find that using a variety of teaching strategies helps address that different learning styles of my students. Since so much of my course focuses on reading and writing, I decided it was important to provide a visual component, so I have begun integrating more visual components into my course.
Recently I heard about a website called EDpuzzle, which I use as a way to keep all of the videos I show in one place. In addition, with this website, I can shorten longer videos and interrupt the video to have the students answer questions. My favorite feature of EDpuzzle is that I can see how many times a student watches a video. This allows me to track whether or not a student watch and re-watched the entire video or part of the video. Another feature that I can set is whether students can skip through the video or not. For more information about EDpuzzle, check out their website here or come see me!
Another way I have begun to integrate visuals into my course is by presenting artwork or images that represent a topic we’re learning. I will post the artwork or image in class and ask my students to write a response to the piece, and then we discuss what they see. I find that students often see things I did not notice or they bring a different perspective, which is always important to include and celebrate in a classroom.
Since beginning to add a few small visual variations, I have noticed that I am encouraging a different part of my learning style to show through. I have found that I have gotten into a teaching rut using the same strategies because I like them, they’re familiar, or I think they are the best. However, I am learning that as we all change as individuals, we also change as learners, thus the importance to vary our teaching styles to support the various learners in our courses. Feel free to post some strategies or methods you use to reach your visual learners!