Nonlinguistic+Representation

Nonlinguistic Representation = = =Read and Reflect=

Whenever I have students use nonlinguistic representations, I tell the students that this is helping to create new pathways in their brains that help them remember the information. I know that I am an auditory, visual learner and that I often introduce new information through those avenues. I KNOW I should be doing more nonlinguistic representations, but it is not my style so I do not always jump to that. My school is really taking an initiative to focus on right and left brain learners. Those left brain learners need pictures and movement in order to stay engaged and retain knowledge. Lately, I have been thinking of those students when introducing new content. For example as we learned about the five different regions in the United States rather than have a student complete a worksheet on each region, they completed a page where they had to draw images the represented that region, write 6 or more statements about what that region was like, and 6 or more statements about that region was not like. I thought that the pictures and statement would allow for me to really appreciate student learning. I then assessed the students based on a rubric that I created.

I know that I do not ask students to represent their knowledge using forms other than words very often. It is a personal initiative of mine to provide student with more opportunities to use forms other than words to display what they learned. I remember from our last meeting about having students stop and draw what we had just been discussing. Then some students could share their pictures under the document camera. Also, when I assign projects to the students I am trying to allow for a nonlinguistic option or at least a nonlinguistic component. I know there are a variety of additional ways that I can include this technique in my day to day teaching.

I have two questions concerning nonlinguistic representations. Where are some quality resources where I can find some quick and easy ways to integrate nonlinguistic representations into my everyday lessons? and What are some quality ways to assess student learning when they are completing these tasks?

As I plan my different units, it may be helpful for me to ask myself the following questions:

Could the students create a graphic organizer? Could the students use pictographic representations to show learning? How could I help students create mental images? Could we create a physical model of this idea? Could I incorporate any kinesthetic representations?

=Apply and Reflect=

I like the idea of photopeach. It was super easy and efficient to use. Sometimes it requires more thinking to actually find images that tell information rather than just saying the information. I used the different images to introduce students to the concept of physical and chemical changes. We will observe the pictures and look for common ideas that show up in the pictures. Then after the students learn more about the concepts, we can return to the images to pick out the big ideas. I will get two learning opportunities out of building this one item. Students could use images to tell about a topic we are learning about or recap an experience that they had. Some well chosen images could be worth the longest of essays.

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