The author works as a biliteracy teacher in a bilingual school that serves students from K-5th grade. She and her coteacher provide instruction in both English and Spanish to 4th and 5th graders. They have two language arts blocks so that students receive literacy instruction in both their native and second languages, and they teach math, social…

Noted educator Carol Ann Tomlinson shares the insights that shaped her thinking about informative assessment. Informative assessment goes beyond tests and the grade book. It means assessing students both formally and informally in multiple ways and giving frequent, productive feedback on student work. Informative assessment isn't separate from…

A reply from Barbe and Milone to Dunn and Carbo concerning the latter's comments about their research on modality strengths and preferences. (MLF)

Summarizes research findings on relationships among modality strengths, learning, and personal characteristics. (Author/MLF)

Styles are hypothetical constructs that help explain the teaching-learning process. Ten learning styles and six teaching styles are suggested. (Author)

Research shows that from the beginning students should be taught through their perceptual strengths; students can identify their preferences accurately; and younger children learn better through visual experiences than auditory experiences, and best through tactile-kinesthetic experiences. (Author)

A number of studies conducted during the last decade have found that students' achievement increases when teaching methods match their learning styles--biological and developmental characteristics that affect how they learn. Correlational studies and experimental research studies are reviewed on instructional environments, perceptual preferences,…

Visual literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing, and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. (Author)

Most teachers can respond to differences in student learning styles. Eighteen elements of learning style, categorized as environmental, emotional, sociological, and physical are described. (Author/MLF)

School districts should let parents, students, and teachers establish alternative schools to accommodate differences in learning styles. (Author)

Outlines debriefing strategies to help students organize, compare, classify, evaluate, summarize, or analyze an experience and determine its meaning. Discusses several possible activities leading to increased understanding, including writing logs, diaries, or summaries, naming themes, imagining alternatives, evaluating, role-playing, drawing,…

A teacher reports on helpful advice she received from a colleague when she started teaching: to teach students in the cognitive mode in which they learn best (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, or tactile). (TE)

Differing world views and cultural expectations affect how teachers and students relate to one another. (Author)

4MAT is an eight-step instructional cycle that capitalizes on individual learning styles and brain dominance processing preferences. The four major learners (imaginative, analytic, common sense, and dynamic) can use 4MAT to engage their whole brain. Learners use their most comfortable style while being challenged to function in less comfortable…

Inquiry-based science instruction can provide a rich context in which to build literacy skills in the elementary grades. The authors discuss the benefits of incorporating reading, writing, and speaking into science instruction. They describe the results of research on two models for combining language arts and science--the Science IDEAS model and…