Blog #6

"Reflect on what you have observed about the students’ learning styles/multiple intelligences."

Although relevant to all of my classes, this is especially relevant to my 11th grade classes.  I have so many 11th graders with IEP's who need many different teaching styles and methods and on top of that, each student has different learning styles, obviously.  So many of my 11th graders are creative and artistic and do extremely well with work where I have use art and writing together.  They love anything creative.  I also have a lot of students who are great with hands-on activities so I have done the best I could integrating this into the curriculum, for example, when we read "Nature" by Emerson, we went outside and had class in nature.  What better way to learn about nature than to be in it?  I had them use their 5 sense, as Emerson does in his writing, and they had to write about their experience and later about the place that they go in their lives that relaxes them the most, or their favorite place where they go to escape from the world, just as Emerson did in his writing.  They loved it, and some of the students who I have a really hard time getting them to be produtive worked really hard on this assignment.  With 10th and 11th graders, I try to give them multiple assignments throughout each unit, using writing, art, media, and verbal assignments and thus far I have been extremely happy with the results and I am learning which students need to work on their skills in some areas and where students already have major strengths!