Rediscovering Learning Styles

My daughter is 10 years old and is in fifth grade.  I taught 5th grade for almost 10 years.  So naturally, you would think that I would know how to help her succeed right? This is easier said then done.  After many attempts at assisting my child in studying for tests, and not seeing A+ results, I felt like I had failed.  Keeping in mind that the only real mistake is the one from which I do not learn (see my first blog post), I tried to figure out what the mistake was.  What was my daughter not doing when she studied?  What could I do to help her?  How could we fix this "mistake" and boost her confidence for her to succeed on future tests.  Then suddenly, I had a revelation and realized I needed a blast from my past!

Old School Inventory

Learning styles!  I spent the entire first month of school every year I taught fifth grade helping students figure out their personal learning styles and then we brainstormed ways they could study based on the way they learn best.  Why had I not thought of this earlier when my own daughter first entered fifth grade?  I immediately ran to my old teaching materials (see pic to the right) and found what I needed, but also quickly realized that these materials were outdated (clearly). Thank goodness we are now in the 21st century!  With pretty much the click of a button I tried a few different sites and I came up with what I needed: 

ONLINE LEARNING STYLES INVENTORY

I took the test myself first, to find out what I already knew; I am visual.  Then, I had my daughter do the same.  Her results yielded that she was equally tactile and auditory (40% each).  We had an amazing conversation about how my learning style was different from hers, and if I continued to dictate her study habits, it wouldn't benefit her because my strategies were not the ones that helped her learn best. Instead, we looked up tips for studying for the different learning styles.  The next thing I knew, she was up in her room making up songs and cheers about the Lusitania and how it led to World War I and the difference between nationalism, militarism, and imperialism.

PowerPoint Table of Contents Slide

Not only did she learn the material from her study guide - she did it independently.  We didn't fight. We didn't cry (and I say "we" because often times it really was both of us crying over studying).  And now suddenly there was less of a "we" learning the material, and a motivation for her to learn and succeed for herself.  In addition to the songs she made, she created a PowerPoint Presentation with the sample essay questions, linking each question to a different slide and then back to the slide of question - modern day flash cards!  

Needless to say, she did very well on the test (not an A+), but she made a huge improvement from how she did prior.  I was so proud of her accomplishment, but realized that most importantly, she was proud of herself and her confidence in her ability to retain information soared!  

Reflecting on this experience reminds me that by remembering what worked for me in the past, will help in the present, and motivates me for the future  I am excited to see what else I can rediscover and modify it for the 21st century!