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How to Determine Learning Styles With Games

Discovering the specific learning style of each student does not have to be a boring, clinical exercise. Watching students play certain games can tell the teacher a great deal about how each student best assimilates new information. Some games are designed for visual learners to succeed, while others have auditory learners in mind, and still others are made for kinesthetic learners, who are those who learn best by doing. By observing students play a variety of games, teachers can deduce each student's preferred learning style and use that information to unlock vast learning potential in the classroom.

Things You'll Need

  • Two decks of playing cards
  • Stopwatch
  • List of charade ideas
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Instructions

  1. Visual Memory Matching Game

    • 1

      Take the two decks of playing cards and separate each suit. Shuffle each suit with their identical suit from the other deck. Lay these cards out in a rectangular pattern with their faces down.

    • 2

      Allow the student to flip over only two cards at a time for no more than two seconds a try. While allowing up to two unmatched cards showing at a time, this game calls for the player to remember the location of each card and make a pair by finding its matching card from a field of upside-down cards. Once a match is made, the two cards remain face up.

    • 3

      Time the student with the stopwatch. Record how long it takes the student to complete each game. Reshuffle and lay out the cards for three games per student.

    Auditory Memory Game

    • 4

      Pick a couple of popular songs that are appropriate for school. List the song's name and opening lyrics with a line filled with blanks for the missing words. List multiple choices for those blanks. Prepare a sheet for each song with the song's name, opening lyrics, word blanks, and possible word options.

    • 5

      Have students play the game by trying to select the correct option for the missing words. They may sing the lyrics up to the blanks if it helps them remember the correct lyrics. The object of the game is to guess the correct lyrics for all the songs.

    • 6

      Record how many song lyrics the student correctly guesses.

    Kinesthetic Memory Game

    • 7

      Divide the students into groups of six and those groups into two teams of three students.

    • 8

      Play charades by giving a concept from your charade ideas list to the student doing the acting that turn for her team. Using a stopwatch, give her team one minute to guess the concept strictly from her gestures. If her team does not guess correctly in the allotted time, the other team can steal the point by providing a correct guess. The other team must agree on their one guess to steal the point.

    • 9

      Take note as to which students guess correctly most frequently.

    Assessment

    • 10

      Ask each student which game was easiest for him or her to win. Note their answers.

    • 11

      Assign learning styles to students by deciding at which of the three games the student particularly excelled. If the student excelled at the visual memory match game by completing the games quickly, the student is likely a visual learner. If the student excelled at the auditory memory game by correctly identifying the missing lyrics of most songs, the student is likely an auditory learner. If the student excelled at charades by providing frequently correct answers, the student is likely a kinesthetic learner.

    • 12

      If the conclusion from step two conflicts with the student's stated game preference from step one, go with your data-based conclusion over the student's answer.

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