I would use the visual impact. The classroom I teach in is small and the seating is tight with a computor in front of each student. I am thinking by usingthe guidelines in this particular section of the module will enhance the learning experience for the student. i.e. motivitional poster on the wall, use the different colors on the reader board for the classes learning outcomes and maybe even music at the start!
Mount colored posters with key information that I want students to remember. Maintain an agenda chart so students are aware of the day's schedule. Play music before class and during breaks. Ensure that any instructional visuals reflect the colors appropriate for learning. Avoid seating that is row, by row, by row and try for U-shaped seating or student clusters in order to increase discussion.
I try to use bright colors to attract and keep their attention. I also like to have the students seated towards the front of the class and not facing other students to minimize distractions.
I like the idea of quotes on brightly colored paper throughout the room. I think I will give it a try.
powerpoints, overhead slides, aromuor therapy are all great stimulants to learning. I wear bright colors clothing to keep the students focused on me during the courses with limited time, especially after lunch.
I often play soft music while students are working in groups. I've noticed this helps keep them energized and engaged in the activities. I also incorporate music into lessons - we listen to a song and discuss the implications of the lyrics.
During a lesson on persuasive appeals, I give students construction paper and colored pencils and ask them to create an ad in which they sell a product. They select a target audience and use colors, images, and words that would appeal to their chosen audience.
by seperating and reseating loud students to quite or shy the real desire is to get the students to work with someone who they do or might not know
Hi David!
Please help me understand how seating roudy students helps to create a multi-sensory learning environment?
Thanks,
Jane Davis
ED107 Facilitator
Ive tryed using ther seating environment in classes that I have a lot of roudy students in they sit where thay want 1st week (this starts there roudieness) second week I set the room seating to much grumbling after teh second day there fine on the third week I (sometimes) let them sit where they want to see where/who they sit with
Working in a kitchen is simple to do. While lecturing, visual aids such as the different kinds of flours during a wheat lecture is very useful. That way not only do they hear our discussion, they can see and feel what I am describing.
As someone else stated my school is very strict on what can be used in a class room. We (instructors) can rearrange seating to a point & we use industry posters on walls,etc. Music is not allowed due to copyright laws. I usually write quotes on the white board every day or two & the students DO seem to look forward to new ones.
Provo Carol!
I would love to be in your class. It sounds like you place emphasis on all learning styles.
You mentioned "the wrong colors". What colors have you found to be the best?
Good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
What i use is drawing on a large white board as i lecture to reinforce what i am talking about.
This will sture up questions.
All of which lay the groundwork for greater retnetion of the given work. Color can bring the student into a perfect learning platform; if the wrong colors are chosen, it will ruin the learning. Visuals are important for the visual student that I am teaching (fashion design majors). The visual provide a memory marker for them. The seating puts the student in the best seat to remove any reason for not seeing the class members and the teacher. The creative supplies enhance the learning environment and allow the student to get into the class and make mile markers with majic markers, ets. Music smooths the lesson out and helps the student concentrate and push out other distractions.
The most successful I've been so far was a graduate course for in-service teachers. Six teachers (a convenient number for two teams) met one night a week, three of them having traveled several hours to get there. I'd been thinking about their stress.
We sat in a circle in the common area of the department office. The colors were warm, and the books and desks were familiar to the students. I had Steven Halpern's music playing quietly in the background (I hadn't realized then that such sharing might be violating copyright laws).
We always began with a team activity (we varied the team make-up) that produced two posters focusing the week's reading assignment. Sometimes we referred to the previous week's posters. All the theory was applied to their specific situations. The course demanded a final project (and its presentation to the group) that would demonstrate (or plan for doing so) application of the theory of the course to their classroom situations.
Near the end of the course, one student made a comment something like this: "I know this is a graduate course, and the requirements are as demanding as any I've ever had, but I've never felt so relaxed about a class."
That's my ideal--students are stretched in their learning, they're seeing practical use for their learning, they're relaxed and enthusiastic about the process.
My environments have varied widely, and I'm always looking for ways to add just these elements--warm and comforting color, peripheral reinforcement of learning, flexible seating, graphic cues. Sometimes the magic works--and it really can work magic. And sometimes the sterile environment and regulations win temporarily.
It can be tough as an adjucnt to come into a room and try to put some interesting multi-sensory ideas into play. Seating is definitely one of the easiest ways to change up your classroom and it can change from session to session - you can group tables and desks together - or you can even have the students come up with arrangements that they would like to see. If you can't control your walls or music policy, etc. you can still control how the chairs are arranged.
use colorful posters on walls
I teach pharmacy technician so I could easily employ color schemes to the different drug classes. If every drug class was a different color and the drugs contained matched that color..then that would be another way that the student could group them.
Greetings Lillian!
I like to remove the barriers to learning when possible and I think that desks/tables can be barriers. I, too, like the informality and openness. It's a good way to demonstrate how a group can work together.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED107 Facilitator
I couldn't agree more, Keith! Color plays a big part of lives. Just think how we decorate the nursery for the new baby and the colors we paint our homes and even the colors of the clothes we wear. So it only makes sense that color in the classroom can increase learning.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
