Working One On One With Students

In both of my classes, I have recently been spending a lot of time helping students one on one.
The other day in Mrs. Brown's class (kindergarten) I helped a couple students point to the words and read their "Yy book".  Mrs. Brown asked that I made sure each child points to exactly the right word and says exactly the right name. Some students struggled with this.  One little girl in particular struggled. After several failed attempts to help her, I discovered that if I really slowed down she could mostly point to the right words. After some drilling she could point and read that book like a champ. I tried a similar approach with another little boy, it did not work at all. To me this seemed to point out that different individuals have different learning styles.
In Mrs. Heaps class, we have been working primarily on  writing stories. While working on a story about Johnny Appleseed with a little boy I noticed that he could tell me exactly what he wanted to write, he just had a little frustration trying to get it down on paper.  I believe that if I could find his preferred learning style, this child's ability to write stories would improve exponentially. This is why I believe Gardner's theory is so important.
Prior to the 1980's, when Gardner's theory became widely accepted, teachers were generally using a direct instructing approach. I believe that the multiple intelligence approach has greatly improved the classroom beyond what it was in the colonial or even the common school movement period.

Learning Modalities in the Classroom

One of the greatest struggles in education is confining different individuals, with different strengths and weaknesses, to a standardized curriculum. It's kind of like trying to fit a square piece into a heart shaped hole. 

From my experience in Mrs. Brown's (kindergarten) and Mrs. Heaps (first grade) classrooms I have noted that each child is totally unique, therefore they develop at their own unique pace. 

There are several factors that play into the way a child develops including genetics, parental involvement, and the learning style of the child among other factors.  One of the biggest ways that educators can positively impact the development of a child is through teaching the child according to the child's preferred learning modality.  The three learning modalities are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Each individual has the ability to learn using any of these modalities, however, most people have a preferred learning modality that they seem to learn best with.  Because the majority of people are visual learners teachers tend to focus in on teaching through visual means. To best fulfill the needs of the class it is crucial that teachers also teach using auditory and kinesthetic  methods.  

In Mrs. Brown's class the students have been working on their letters.  While working on tracing the letter "S" one little girl did not seem to understand how to recreate the shape on her own. After a failed attempt to explain how to create the letter, I asked the little girl to hold the pencil with me as I traced the "S".  I had hoped that through holding the pencil with me she could better understand the letter through feeling the motion.  I saw her eyes light with delight, and believe it or not, her "S" improved.  It was beautiful to see! 

In Mrs. Heaps' class the students have been working on sums. It was interesting to see the different ways that the children would work out the problem.  Some children preferred to count with their fingers (which I assumed was kinesthetic), while other children preferred to draw pictures (visual).  

I have certainly grown an appreciation for how difficult a teacher's job really is.  Just from observing I can see how much teachers care for their students and their success.  I can see that teachers spend countless hours outside of the classroom creating new methods to help all of their students succeed.