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Kinesthetic Literature Lessons

Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. When it comes to teaching, learning styles need to be taken into account to ensure that lessons are accessible to all students and that all learning styles are developed. Some students will be kinesthetic learners. This means that they will learn best through hands on activities and will enjoy practical lessons. These students have the ability to control their bodily movements and to handle objects skillfully. A kinesthetic student will usually have a good sense of balance and his hand-eye coordination will be well developed. There are many ways to teach literature through the utilization of kinesthetic learners' skills, particularly their ability to act, mime and to express emotions.
  1. Role Play Activities

    • Role play allows a kinesthetic learner to physically act out a story or episode from a story. Develop this by dividing your class into groups and allocating an extract from a text to each group. Have each group create a script from the extract, then have each member take on a role and act out the scene for the rest of the class. Talking and thinking about characters' movements, positioning, speech and motivation and then actually acting out a character's role helps kinesthetic learners to engage deeply with a text, developing understanding and knowledge.

    Props and Artifacts

    • Provide students with objects that inspire ideas and imaginative thinking. Put a variety of objects into a box and allow students to pick them up and examine them; they can brainstorm ideas in groups for powerful adjectives that the objects bring to mind. Ask students to create a character or a setting from the objects they have handled. Being able to physically handle objects helps kinesthetic learners to become engaged with writing and can also help kickstart the creative process in other students.

    Bring Art to Life

    • Share a piece of artwork by a recognized artist; select one that contains people or animals. Give students plenty of time to look at the work and to discuss their responses to it. Then have students bring the work 'to life' by giving the characters dialogue to speak. For younger students, you could use a picture from a story book.

    Hot Seating

    • Have one student take on the role of a character from a story or novel. Other students must decide on questions they would like to ask the character. Allow them take turns asking their open questions, building up an understanding of the character's feeling and motivations. Alternatively, students could work in pairs. One partner should take the role of a character, the other the role of an interviewer, asking the 'character' a variety of questions. Interviewers can then feed back the information to the rest of the class.

    Freeze Frame

    • Again, have students work in small groups. Ask each group to act out a scene from a text. At a crucial point in the scene ask the students to 'freeze.' Other students then ask the characters in the freeze frame questions about events, feelings and motivations at this point. Have each group take a turn to "freeze," so that everyone has a chance to both ask and answer questions.

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