Learning Styles

Learning Style Theory proposes that different people learn in different ways. Knowing your learning style will help you develop coping strategies to compensate for your weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths. Take the Barsch Learning Styles Inventory at http://ww2.nscc.edu/gerth_d/AAA0000000/barsch_inventory.htm to discover your learning styles and to begin planning how you will meet your own students' different ways of knowing.

Multiple Intelligences

Visit Multiple Intelligences Overview at http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm.

How do the definitions and descriptions of multiple intelligences on this site compare with those in the text? If you could re-write any these definitions, what changes would you make? Why?

Explore your own intelligences with the activities suggested under each multiple intelligence. What personal strengths did you discover? Which intelligences would you like to improve? Create a strategy for developing these intelligences.

Lesson plans across the curriculum accompany each intelligence's description, and are a wonderful resource for teachers! Try your hand at moving MI theory into classroom instruction. For your subject area, create a new lesson plan idea for each multiple intelligence.

Exceptional Learners

LD OnLine is a comprehensive source of Internet resources related to learning disabilities. Using this remarkable site as a starting point, research two specific learning disabilities of different types - e.g., dyslexia (reading) and ADD (behavioral). For each learning disorder you choose, construct a two-column table called "Myths and Facts." As you fill in both tables, highlight those facts that provided you with a new insight or perspective.