Reaction to Dr. Marlow Ediger's Article

Dr. Marlow Ediger’s article entitled “Psychology of Lesson Plans and Unit Development” was an interesting article on problems one may run into in the classroom and ways a teacher can fix them. He emphasized the need for a teacher to truly understand his or her lesson plan, and to be well prepared for class on any given day. He also mentioned the need to be sensitive of student’s needs, learning styles, and health. Learning styles in particular are very diverse, and Ediger covered the main ones that teacher may encounter. Since one teacher may be able to focus on the learning needs of one type of student better than another, it seemed worthy to take a closer look at those styles and how one teacher might be able to cover all of them.

Of course, in any given class, there are far too many students and too little time to reach every need during every day. But throughout the period of a school year, teachers should try and create a curriculum that will reach out to each of these students. The first type of intelligence Ediger covered was verbal. As an English teacher, these students will probably be the easiest to cater to. Verbal learners do best with reading and writing, so handing them a book and asking them to write an analytical response to it may not instill the same fear into them as it would into another type of learner. The next type Ediger writes about is the logical thinker. These students often enjoy math or science. They like things that are concrete and have a definite answer. I had an English teacher who once said he could not understand why a student would prefer math over English for the sole reason that it was more logical. English, he said, is much more logical than math, especially when you find out that i is an imaginary number, and some problems have multiple answers. Perhaps taking this mindset and trying to apply it to English would make it more helpful for some students. As a teacher, I could try and point out what about English is logical. For instance, we are never going to say “I have the coat red.” It is not the way we speak in English and that is not going to change. Showing students ways like that to look at things would hopefully help them learn. The next type of student is the musical/ rhythmic student. By incorporating projects into class that deal with music, these students would be able to tap into their best learning style. Instead of a written paper, perhaps they could compile a CD that relates to the book we have read in class, and explain why they chose each song and how it pertains to the book. Interpersonal/ intrapersonal learners will hopefully be stretched during the class, as I hope to do both group work and individual work during class. Those who learn best bodily or kinesthetically will perhaps be the most difficult to teach. They learn with use of gross motor skills and enjoy sports or other activities. Perhaps an open-ended project where a student can design a game that relates to our reading would be appropriate. Scientific intelligence is another difficult learning style to nurture in an English class. It would be an interesting idea to think about during the year, and to explore ideas that would benefit this learning style. The final style Ediger writes about is the artistic learner. This person uses art to best understand concepts. Fortunately, I often think of English and art as going together. Students will be encouraged to create cover art that shows the main or underlying concepts of a book, or to create something like a sculpture to go along with a presentation on any given topic.

A teacher must be in tune to all the learning styles of the classroom, and this is what I sincerely hope I will be able to do. It would be ideal to have a lesson plan that incorporates all of the learning styles throughout the year, and I will strive to make this possible. At the same time, I will remind myself that it is impossible to address every single style of learning in every class, and I will be content in knowing I am trying to reach as many as I can on any given day. The article by Ediger was informative and brought up some valid points which I hope will stick with me through my teaching career.