Paper 3 Final Draft

Aly Jensen

English 101

Sonia Begert

Formal Paper Three

Argument Paper

            What will and always has impacted the future of our lives, and the lives of others? This is education. Becoming educated can affect the rest of your life, whether or not you will be successful in life or not. Dan Brown from his article what makes a great teacher says, “Education policy had tremendous impact on the ecosystem where teacher and students operate.”(1)  Whether or not your children will be successful or not, education has affected so much of our lives today as well as it has history. What can we do today to improve the future generations? One way we can improve K-12 education is teaching students through their individual learning style. These learning styles include, visual, kinesthetic and auditory.

             Some may say that we are already doing visual learning in our education system such as labs. Yes, this may be true but there are so many opportunities that we can take to make visual learning happen more often and not only visual learning, but also to use all the different learning styles to educate children. Deanne Lachner from Visual Learning in Children says, “Eighty percent of people learn through their eyes.” How do people learn through their eyes? There are many different ways some of which are movies, pictures, diagrams, and graphs. When visual students are watching movies, they are able to remember things in the movie or situation better because they are able to visualize that event. A good example of visual learning in the movie Mona Lisa Smile was when Ms. Watson takes her students to an art studio and shows them an actual canvas painting. She explains to her students that their assignment for the day was just to consider it; they did not have to like it they just had to consider that painting (Mona Lisa Smile). This is an important lesson in education; to consider what it took to make that canvas and what led that person to make that object, what lesson can you learn from seeing those things? Mr. Escalante in the movie Stand and Deliver uses this lesson of visual learning when he gave his students apples that had slices out of them. Then he proceeded to ask the students what fraction of the apple they had. The students could see if half the apple was missing or if only one third of the apple was missing. (Stand and Deliver) If students who are visual learners were given more of the opportunity to watch movies or look at different object or pictures during class, that they would better understand the message that the teacher is trying to convey to them. But, sometimes it takes more than just student’s eyes to help them learn.

            Some people would claim that because teachers talk a lot of the class time, we are helping our auditory learners. Yes, this may help them learn a bit, but there are many other ways that we can help our students pick up the material faster. Maybe if we taught our students by music, making up little songs or rhymes to help them memorize things; whether it be equations or dates in history. If these auditory learners are given a beat to remember the information with, they should be able to retain that information better. I have seen this song method in progress, when I watched Waiting for Superman, and there was a math teacher who was teaching her students rap music that had math equations in it. This method of teaching kept the children interested and they were more engaged in what the teacher was teaching. I have also heard that some students process better if they can listen to music while they are working. If this is true then we should let those students listen to music in class if it is truly helping them get their work done. In addition, to help this auditory process a lot of students listen to the teacher better if they are doodling or taking notes in class. We should start training these students at a young age to take notes in ways that help them focus. Give them a scratch piece of paper to doodle, if that is what they need to focus.

            The last learning style that we need to incorporate into schools is kinesthetic learning which means hands on learning. To touch, feel, do labs, go on field trips. Often times we hear that it is unsafe for our children to go on field trips and be away from the school campus. However, if we express to our students that field trips are a privilege, and that they can be taken away, then they in turn will be better behaved. If we also start going on field trips at a younger age, the students will better know how to behave when they get older. However, to have hands on learning you do not have to take the students out of the classroom, you can simply do labs with the students, where they can touch and experience different things. I have also seen this when children are learning subtraction; they will put five cookies out for them. Then, the teacher will ask the student to take two cookies away; the child will move those cookies away and know that there are only three cookies left.  When Mr. Escalante showed his students how to do multiples of nines on their fingers this was a great example of hands on learning. It showed the students how they could use their fingers to count and a simple way to solve multiples of nines. (Stand and Deliver)

            It is extremely important for the school system to incorporate the learning style that best fits that student because it helps these students learn faster, because they can easily use the way their brains process information to help them learn quicker. The Inspirations Software website states, “Students see how ideas are connected and realize how information can be grouped and organized. With visual learning, new concepts are more thoroughly and easily understood when they are linked to prior knowledge.” Once the student has an easier time at learning, learning will become more interesting and more exciting for that student. When learning and school makes sense, you will want to do it more; if you enjoy something naturally, you are going to want to do it more often.

                With this new way of learning more hands on and to each individuals learning type, these students will become more involved with their teachers and their other classmates. The students will be given a greater opportunity to work in groups, in labs, or other projects. Field trips the students may go on can help them become more active with nature and the outside world. Some may say that is why children are given extracurricular activities so they can make friends and then have time to bond with their classmates. However, not all students do extracurricular activities and not all students have the time to or athletic ability. Yes there are clubs, but why can’t we make connections and friendships inside the classroom as well? If students are moving around more in the classroom and able to participate more; more than just listening to the teacher lecture the whole time or just read from and text book, they will become excited about learning, they will be more engaged and more involved. These skills to communicate with other people will help better our future and theirs, to express ideas and emotions with each other.

           

           

Works Cited

Brown, Dan. "WJLA." WJLA. Abc 7, 31 Aug. 2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. <http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/08/what-makes-a-great-teacher--79397.html>.

Lachner, Deanne. "Visual Learning in Children." LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/273647-visual-learning-in-children/>.

Mona Lisa Smile. Dir. Mike Newell. Perf. Julia Roberts,Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles. 2003. DVD.

Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramón Menéndez. By Ramón Menéndez. Perf. Edward James Olmos, Estelle Harris, Mark Phelan. Warner Bros, 1988. DVD.

Waiting for Superman. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Geoffrey Canada, Michelle Rhee, Paramount Vantage. Paramount Vantage, 2010. DVD.

"What Is Visual Thinking and Visual Learning?" Visual Learning and Outlining in the Classroom. Inspiration Software, INC, 2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. <http://www.inspiration.com/visual-learning>.