Visual-spatial learners tend to visualize ideas or information while making connections to other images as they learn information. Encourage this trait by presenting information in a visual format, using bright-colored images and visual diagrams to demonstrate ideas to your students. For instance, when teaching a series of vocabulary words, show them large pictures of the words with a picture demonstrating how the word is used or how it looks. A picture of a soldier, a president taking office or people saluting the flag can represent the word “patriotic.” Show the word under the picture, allowing them to connect the image to the word.
Inductive teaching is the process of sharing an idea or theme as a whole idea and then discussing applications of the idea with the class. Visual-spatial learners are adept at learning from an inductive approach, understanding a larger, complex idea and then working downward to understand the specifics of the idea. As an example, share the general idea that patriotism represents a love for your country, sense of being a part of your country and a concern for its well-being. Discuss how specific actions, such as voting, watching the news or volunteering to help a political party represent the idea of patriotism.
Visual-spatial learners adapt and understand larger concepts before learning the specifics of those concepts so they benefit from an immersive learning environment. Instead of presenting simple ideas first, engage your students in a learning environment that immerses them in the subject. For instance, if you are teaching a foreign language, decorate the classroom in cultural images from the country they are studying. Include visual aids such as labels on objects in the room written in the foreign language.
Standard grading systems encourage teachers to focus on details in a student’s work in order to assess a grade. Visual-spatial learners often suffer from the inability to grasp specifics, such as correct spelling or correct paper format. Grade these issues lightly, while focusing your grading on the larger concepts in your student’s papers. As an example, take off fewer points for formatting and spelling errors, while determining the largest percentage of each student’s grade based on the thought and skill used to construct the main points in a paper.