5 WAYS TO HELP YOUR KINESTHETIC LEARNERS

 

motivatingkinestheticlearners

After just a few hours with your class, you can usually tell which students are the kinesthetic learners. These are usually the students who are fidgeting, tapping their pencils, and having trouble staying on task while doing pencil and paper activities or reading silently. So often, these students get a bad reputation for being “difficult.” But the truth is, that they simply learn differently than some of their peers. They NEED physical stimulation. They NEED to move in order to learn. The good news is that once you start teaching in a way that appeals to your kinesthetic learners, you will find that other students in your class are more engaged, even those who learn well verbally.

It does not have to be a lot of work to engage your kinesthetic learners. Every lesson does not have to include a carefully-executed kinesthetic learning strategy.

Sometimes it’s just the little things that you do in class that can make all the difference.

Below are five simple ideas for helping your kinesthetic learners be successful and stay engaged:

1. When you have a simple task that requires getting up and walking somewhere in the room, ask one of your kinesthetic learners to do it, rather than doing it yourself. This might include turning off the lights, closing the door, passing out papers, etc.

2. When doing paper and pencil tasks, try to think of ways to allow students to manipulate what they are working on. For example, if they are working on Spelling, have them write their Spelling words on small pieces of paper that they can move around for each activity. After they’ve moved the papers around to do the activity, they can write the answer in their notebooks.

3. Allow kinesthetic learners to move around while they read. I once had a student who could not, and I mean could NOT, sit still and stay focused while he read silently. So we made a deal. I’d let him walk up and down the hallway while he read, as long as he stayed reading the entire time. And guess what? It worked!

4. Provide manipulatives. Kinesthetic learners love to move things around. When solving math problems, provide some manipulatives (blocks, coins, etc) that the students can move around while solving the problem.

5. Implement project-based learning whenever possible. Rather than limiting your students to paper and pencil tasks, have them make posters, complete interactive projects, and do experiments.

As I mentioned earlier, getting up and moving around is not only good for those students who you consider mostly kinesthetic learners. Getting up and moving can help all of your students learn. I have typically found that the more movement I can incorporate into my classroom, the smoother it runs, and the more engaged students are. One of my favorite ways to get all students up and moving is using Gallery Walks. You can read all about how to use Gallery Walks HERE.

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.