School is a private club for visual learners. Education needs to expand the membership in that club. Michael Grinder, who graduated from high school with a fourth-grade reading level, demonstrates how to expand that membership.
How the Kinesthetic (Hyperactive, ADHD) Student Learns
Read the modified transcript to “How the Kinesthetic (Hyperactive, ADHD) Student Learns” below:
My name is Michael Grinder, I’m an education consultant. I just love trying to figure out how people learn and how to make teachers even better, and how to reach the students and the variety of ways that they can learn.
If you want to know my background, watch this video. Two minutes long, black and white from my childhood. I really was and still am the poster child for ADD. Hyperactive. Two minutes, watch it. It goes fast, I tell you already.
How did I learn? How did I figure out how I learned? Because I had to teach myself.
One of the things I find with my style of learning is that most teachers will show something and then they will show a variation of it. In this case, we have the word cannot and then we have the word can’t over here.
Why can’t I learn can’t?
Well, it’s because of the middle column. I mean, it was here, I get it. How did it get over there? What happened? It’s that middle column.
What’s it called? We have a name for it. It’s called the appear, disappear, reappear.
If we could just get rid of that disappear column, wow, what a difference it makes.
If you would, based on your age, you probably know the name, either Houdini or Copperfield. That’s the middle column. Don’t let them in the classroom. Keep Houdini and Copperfield out. Honest, you’ll be amazed at how those kinesthetic learners can actually get something.
What’s an example of how do you go from appear to disappear to reappear?
I was watching a teacher. Happened to be in California. She was teaching social studies and showing a big map of California. United States. Here’s California right over here.
Then she started passing out these papers, 8 1/2 by 11 with a full map of California on it. All of the kinesthetic learners in the room would look at the paper in front of them and would look up at the map of California.
They didn’t get the connection. Why? How did it get from there to there?
That night after school, I just talked with the teacher and explained this and said, “How about if we vary it and try it again tomorrow?” Because she had a different class she was gonna teach it to.
What she did was, she went into the room before the students arrived and put a little Post-it just where the California sign was. Then with everyone watching, she took the little Post-it, outline of California, put it in a bag. She then took and pretend that she was blowing up the bag. As she puffed, the bag of course expanded. Out from the bag she pulled an 8 1/2 by 11 map of California. Passed it out to all the students. Those kinesthetic learners we got the connection. “Sure, she blew up the bag.”
Get rid of Houdini, get rid of Copperfield. We can learn.
Let’s go back and look at that cannot and can’t and see how we’d get rid of the disappear column.
Here it is. Get to see all the letters at the same time. We got to show what’s going on. Make sure that they know they’re there. They still can see them if they want.
Here’s what’s great.
You know that apostrophe, just pretend it’s a paperclip that’s holding two letters inside.
Kinesthetic learners, they’ll love it. They get it.
The other thing that’s important about understanding this is the mechanical nature of a kinesthetic learner. They need to see that movement. They need to see what happens.
Here’s another example. We’re now in math. We’ve been in English, we’ve been in social studies, and now we’re in math.
Got 3/4. It’s a fraction. We got this four divided into three, and got this middle column. Got to get rid of it. You get rid of that column, they’re okay. You know what happens? Kinesthetic learners, they watch this and they go, okay, one of the numbers goes inside whatever you call that thing over there. Sometimes it’s the bottom number sometimes it’s the top number.
You know what’s helpful? Get rid of the middle column.
Why don’t we put the top number on all fractions as green because that’s someone that moves or go, and make the bottom number in a fraction red, I mean, stop. And you have to pass out the pens. Yes, you’re gonna hear the clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking. But as they do their worksheet, they make sure they click to the green for the top number and trace it, and they click to the red for the bottom number, and that’s red, cause now we know which one moves and which one doesn’t.
Get the mechanical. Watch. Showing this to a kinesthetic learner, they go, why didn’t you show me this yesterday? Because I can understand this totally. I can figure out which number moves.
One more time. Make the top number in green, make the bottom number in red. Mechanically, let them see it. Let them see it, let them see it. Yes, you do have to buy one of these for each of your students.
Those kinesthetic learners can learn. Just help us. Get rid of Houdini, Copperfield. We’ll be good.
Thank you for loving all my cousins. Michael Grinder here.
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