When you tell a student, “Wow! you tested out as a highly visual learner, so obviously this class is going to be more of a challenge for you than a highly auditory learner like Mikey over there! I’m glad I know this now. Since you tested as high visual/ kinesthetic I am going to try to slow down and make myself as clear as I can in class so that I do a good job of helping you understand. Then we can work together to make sure that you do well in my class. That’s my promise.”
With one super auditory learner, I did this and looked right at her and said, “Your visual score is 16.” I was right and immediately everybody wanted me to guess their scores. The hardest one to guess is the visual score, because schools try to turn everybody into visual learners.
What is your message to your students here? It is that, although you respect how the child learns, that you also expect him to respect how you teach and so they are going to do what they can to adjust their learning style to your teaching style. It shows that you are the boss in the classroom, but that you respect your students as well.
It also teaches the visually dominant learners, some of whom have already complained to their parents about how you don’t use worksheets – which sometimes causes some of the uninformed helicopter parents to go ballistic – that your use of auditory methods is not negotiable in your classroom.
