What is multi-sensory education?

I have been dabbling with curriculum since I was a baby teacher and could barely crawl. If you’re a teacher, too, you probably have a similar story. I cut my teacher teeth on theories and practices from many different models, but the one that makes my brain do a happy dance is Multi-Sensory Learning. 

The system of our senses is fascinating in and of itself, but what is extraordinary is that teachers can learn how to maximize a student’s awareness of how their senses work together to help them learn and retain knowledge. I also enjoy studying up on the latest neuro-research, and once again, multi-sensory education rises to the top of my favorites list. Here’s why…

When your brain reacts to stimuli, there will be a mini-explosion of both chemical and electrical responses. The brain has both sensory (Woo Hoo!) and motor regions that must communicate with each other. These regions get gabby by means of areas called association cortices (KOR  tuh sees). These association areas are like bridges between the sensory (sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste) regions and the motor regions that direct how our bodies move. Based on fMRI images, we have learned that visual input influences sound input. Basically, what we see makes more sense if it is connected with an accompanying sound, and vice versa. We have further learned that if you combine the sense of touch with the senses of sight and sound, learning anything improves by almost 30% as compared to touch alone. That’s significant!!!

So, think about this. People learn better from words and pictures together than from words alone. If you can figure out a way to incorporate the sense of touch, then you have win-win-win as far as learning goes. Now, get this! If you take it just a bit further and want to juice up the neural connections in the brain, add the sense of smell. Advertisers have been using fragrances and aromas in stores for years to jolt the consumers’ into buying-mode. Well, why not in the field of education? Here’s an example. Suppose we are reading the poem A Pop Corn Song by Nancy Byrd Turner. This is an over-the-top obvious example, but it will make my point. The very topic of the poem should take your imagination to all the right places so that in conjunction with the reading of the poem, you will also add the following multi-sensory components: the smell of popcorn in the classroom; the sound of the kernels popping; and of course, the taste of the popcorn will delight the senses and tie them all together with the other sense stimuli. In the poem, the author even describes how to string the popcorn and make a necklace, which involves the sense of touch, too! These elements don’t have to occur in exact synchronicity, but you get the gist.

I counted myself lucky if I could get my students to buy-in to my lessons, and when I began to apply the strategies I learned from Shurley English, my language arts lessons began to soar. The kids were also getting a healthy dose of dopamine and serotonin, brain-food chemicals that the brain produces when it’s getting a charge out of life! In fact, I used to say things like, “Okay, ladies and gents, let’s make some brain food!” In just a few teachable moments, I let the kids in on a big secret…they could actually make their brains smarter simply by singing and dancing their way through all of their lessons, touching, smelling, and even tasting (when possible)—in every subject! By combining all of these strategies and initiating an event like the “popcorn” poem example, my students’ brains were firing and wiring to make for lasting learning.

I challenge you to become acquainted with multi-sensory education. The beautiful thing about Shurley English is that it trains teachers how to implement multi-sensory approaches as a natural part of the language arts lessons. It’s on-the-job training that will stick tight in your brains and nourish your ability to teach in a way you never knew you could. Your kids will thank you…and your brain will thank you!

Back-to-School Planning: Creating Shurley English Centers

As you relax into your summer break and feel the freedom of each day, consider thinking about those learning centers you wanted to create during the school year but never had the time to do.  With a clear mind and more time to tap into your right brain, creating Shurley English Learning Centers might just be a fun little project to work on.  My two-part series called, "Shurley English Centers for Your ELA Classroom," will teach you how to create them step-by-step.   Here’s a quick review:

GET ORGANIZED:

1.     Select the subject materials you would like to develop.

2.     Decide how many learning centers to create. (Computer stations can count as one.)

3.     Plan where each center will be located.

4.     Determine the student objectives for each activity.

5.     Calculate the amount of time to allow at each center.  Decide if learning centers will be open on a weekly basis or a specific day of the week.  How long will the learning center be used?

6.    Name each learning center.  On a sheet of paper, write a description of the center.  Then, write the step-by-step explanatory instructions to complete each task.

7.     Be sure to review the expectations with your class before the centers officially open and close your learning centers with a "Wrap-up Session" or "Take-Away Time."

GET FOCUSED:

M.E.A.P.S. is the acronym used to explain the characteristics included in effective learning centers. The letters stand for:

Multisensory: Activities should appeal to all learning styles!  Students will
"See It, Hear It, Say It, Do It!"

Engaging: Strive for 100% student participation!

Aligned: Content must support your current classroom instruction.

Purposeful: Centers should serve a purpose to support learning. Watch students in action and assess what you need to assess!

Student directed: Students should be able to follow directions without teacher help. They should be responsible and accountable for their own learning.

GET CREATIVE:

Here are some ideas for learning centers that will support Shurley English curriculum:

1.  Listening/Video/Jingles

2.  Question & Answer Flow Practice

3.  Practice & Revised Sentences/Sentence Blueprints

4.  Writing

5.  Silent Station

6.  Teacher Station/Float

Remember to come back next week to see even more information about creating classroom learning centers.  The most important thing is for you to develop centers that will support your curriculum in a fun and creative way.  Your students will thank you!

Grammar Reinforcement + Sentence Building FUN!

As you near the end of your school year, it’s more important than ever to change up how you review any of the skills you want your students to retain over the summer. If you’re using Shurley English, there are many ways to add a twist to almost any concept you want to reinforce.

Earlier in the year, we showed you how to make Grammar Necklaces with the parts of speech. Here's a variation of this activity that I like to call "Team Building Sentences." (Team Building/Building Sentences...see what I did there?!?)  Here's what you need to get started:

Supplies Needed: yarn, construction paper, markers, stapler or tape

Assembly Instructions:

1.   Fold a sheet of construction paper in half over the yarn.

2. Staple or tape the outside edges to keep the yarn in place.

3. Write words on the construction paper. The more choices you offer, the more fun your kids will have! Be sure to have samples from all eight parts of speech. Here are some examples to get you started:

a, an, the

bug, lizard, leaf, log, rock

creepy, slimy, brown, scary, hairy, fuzzy, wet

under, over, around, inside

scuttled, oozed, crept, slithered, zig-zagged

Now, you can utilize these word necklaces in a variety of ways. Here are a few ideas:

1. With students wearing the word necklaces, arrange them in front of your classroom or learning space in a scrambled order. Then, when you say “Go!” have them rearrange themselves so that the necklaces create a complete sentence. You may even want to spice up the competition by giving them a time limit. Students who aren’t wearing the necklace can be the audience first, and then have everyone switch roles after one turn.

2. To help build teamwork skills, have your students who are “wearing the words” to collaborate and assemble their own sentences by traveling around, linking arms with other suitable partners whose words will help them build a great sentence. Be sure to have punctuation signs available that are not on necklaces, but displayed where they can be selected and used to make the sentences complete.

CHALLENGE LEVEL:

After you have verified that a correct sentence has been created, it’s time to jazz it up a bit by having students experiment with the four sentence types taught in Shurley English: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. Students will get a great grammar workout by arranging and re-arranging the “human sentences” so that each kind of sentence is created, using the same words.

The possibilities are endless! Feel free to share your ideas with us by using the comment section below.