Analyzing Learners: Time-line

A coworker of mine has her students complete time-lines about their lives in order to analyze their interests and past experiences. Below are the directions for the time-line assignment.

1) Pass out colored pencils and a sheet of white paper to each student.
2) Each student draws a straight line from of the top of their papers to the bottom. This line later becomes the framework of the time-line.
3) Each student identifies eight meaningful moments which occurred in their lives, and they write titles for each of the moments along their time-lines.
4) Each student draws images along the time-line which describe each of their titles.
5) When all students have completed their time-lines, they are asked to voluntarily share with the class some of the content of their time-lines. Students should realize they are different and similar in many ways.

The time-line is a simple activity which provides great insight on the students' characteristics. I was thoroughly impressed when I viewed a few of the students' time-lines.

Analyzing Learners: Helpful Links

Below are a few links which are helpful when analyzing learners. They all use the same basic format. Students answer a series of questions about themselves, they then click next or finished, and the website automatically calculates and analyzes their responses.

http://www.ldpride.net/learning-style-test.html

http://www.psuonline.pdx.edu/learnstyle/page1.php

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

http://www.longleaf.net/learningstyle.html

I would like to know if other teachers believe these types of websites are helpful when analyzing learners. The websites are convenient to use, but they can be impersonal and too comprehensive for most grade levels. Also, it is questionable whether they are reliable or not. What do you think?

Analyzing Learners: Low Functioning Non-Verbal Students

I teach students with Autism, and all of them are non-verbal and lower functioning. To become familiar with their likes, interests, and learning styles, I had them create a collage of their likes and interests using images cut from newspapers and magazines. Even though they are struggling readers and writers, They were able to complete the assignment, and I was able to learn about what may motivate them and their preferred methods of learning.

Do any of you have strategies for analyzing lower functioning learners?

Analyzing learners

My wife used this survey to become familiar with her students.

Hello! We will ease into math on Monday, but for now I would like to know about you! Please fill out these questions and turn them in on Monday.

What I like to do most at home:

My favorite hobbies:

If I had one wish, it would be…

One thing that I am really good at is…

I do my best thinking when…

This is what one of my teachers did last year that I liked the most:

This is what one of my teachers did last year that I liked the least:

My All-Time Favorites:
candy:
movie:
song:
Pro Sports Team:
Board game
TV Show

Something else that I want you to know about me is…

Great! Now a few questions about MATH!

If you needed help in math, how would you prefer getting help?

Math is…

What is your greatest strength in math?

What do you struggle with most in math?

Thank you for this valuable information. I look forward to Monday; come ready to learn!