In this article:
1. Reading and listening at the same time (For students aged 6-13)
2. Digital manipulative objects (All ages)
3. Take a “pause” to virtual activities (All ages)
One of the challenges of virtual education is to create meaningful activities that appeal to the different learning styles of our students. How can you do this?
Before we address this question, let's briefly analyse the importance of integrating a multisensory approach into your teaching.
It's so great to see that students now have the freedom to adapt to our teaching style. Obaid (2012) stated, “teaching methods must relate to each child’s own learning preference style” (p. 76). It's not just a nice idea, it's totally possible to reach all the different learning styles if we use multisensorial activities (Volpe & Gori, 2019). The real challenge is how you can achieve this in virtual learning.
I've put together a list of three activities that can be used in both face-to-face and virtual lessons.
1. Reading and listening at the same time (For students aged 6-13)
What makes it special? When someone reads, their inner voice is activated to give meaning and emotion to the reading. But what if we add a different voice accompanied by significant sounds? This not only gets the imagination going and improves memory (Covaci, Ghinea, Chang-Hsin, Shu-Hsien, & Ju-Ling, 2018; Rojas, Cifuentes, Cáceres & Galindo, 2021), but it's also a great help for readers with learning difficulties, as the reading process involves sight and hearing at the brain level, which helps us to understand words better.
How can you do it?
It doesn't matter whether you're using a print book or an e-book. Instead of asking a student to read out any passage, why not try to bring that same passage to life by giving the proper intonation? While you're reading with expression, ask your pupils to follow you and, from time to time, to ask some significant general and specific reading comprehension questions.
It'd be a great idea to encourage students to use underlining techniques to find the evidence for their answers. This will help them use both sight and touch, which is really beneficial. What resources will you need? If your pupils use print books at home, they'll only need a pencil to underline, apart from the teacher's voice. What about an e-book? Most platforms have underlining tools, so make the most of them! If you don't have any of the above, no problem! You can simply use a digital whiteboard to put the passage. I absolutely love using Jamboard every day! It's so easy to share, you can work together or on your own, and it has amazing underlining tools and the use of sticky notes to add comments.
2. Digital manipulative objects (All ages)
Why is it so special? The more manipulative materials the better, because it allows us to use all of our senses together! (Drigas & Gkeka, 2016).
How can you do it?
It's so important to use digital and collaborative whiteboards, especially those that allow pupils to write, add pictures and draw during individual and group work. For instance, to work on reading comprehension, you can use a digital interactive whiteboard to put sentences in disorder. This helps students to put every line in the right position to get a coherent paragraph (see Picture 02).
So, why use collaborative whiteboards? Peer interaction is a great way to get the most out of your learning experience. It helps you to see, touch and hear what your peers are doing, and you can even agree on the best way to complete the task together. Anything else we can help you with? We have lots of great options, but the ones I've had the most success with are Jamboard, Google Slides, Nearpod and Padlet.
3. Take a “pause” to virtual activities (All ages)
Finally, don't be afraid to use the tried-and-true pencil and paper. Distance learning can be a little daunting at first, but it'll be worth it in the end. Students may be reluctant at first, but they'll appreciate the chance to take a break from the virtual world. The use of pencil and paper can have a profound effect on brain connections, especially when it comes to new ideas. The implicit decoding process helps to reinforce and consolidate new ideas in our long-term memory, which is really beneficial (Covaci et al., 2018).
Conclusions
In short, it's so important to remember that a multisensorial approach shouldn't be limited to just face-to-face lessons. As we can see from this article, there are so many ways we can use different ICTs to create activities that stimulate not only the sight or the hearing. And don't forget, we can always take a little break from the virtual activities to use our trusty old pencil and paper again!
References:
Drigas, A. & Gkeka, E. (2016). Montessori Method and ICTs. International Journal of Recent Contributions from Engineering, Science & IT (iJES), 4(1), 25-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijes.v4i1.5481Obaid, M. A. S. (2012). The Impact of Using Multi-Sensory Approach For Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities. Journal of International Education Research (JIER), 9(1), 75-82. https://doi.org/10.19030/jier.v9i1.7502
Rojas, A., Cifuentes, E., Cáceres, L. & Galindo, N. (2021). Estrategias de enseñanza multisensorial para docentes de preescolar mediadas por las TIC. Universitaria Agustiniana. http://repositorio.uniagustiniana.edu.co/handle/123456789/1620
Volpe, G., & Gori, M. (2019). Multisensory interactive technologies for primary education: From science to technology. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01076
Great article. Thank you
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