The
Learner Profile
 Please
note: These are informal "information
gathering" tools for you to use in your classroom. They are designed
to make teachers and students more aware of their different strengths,
interests, modalities, and personalities. Please do not accept any results
or responses without checking them out by watching your students in action.
Observation and data gathering go hand-in-hand and enable you to detect
the difference between what your students SAY
and what they actually do.
Workshop Handout: download PDF of this page.
Choose a
puzzle piece to read its description.
Pick
an Alien
 What
is this? Students select an Alien trading card from the 8 cards
provided, and then click on the picture of the Alien that seems
to be a lot like they are. Often, they will select 2 or 3 cards.
In doing so, they are telling you what their dominant and secondary "intelligences" are.
Clicking on their Alien leads to a wealth of information–how
they learn best, which products or report styles "fit" their
intelligence best, Web sites that "match" their preferences,
and how others can benefit from their special strengths and interests. Read
more about Multiple Intelligences!
Record
their intelligences (Aliens) on this form.
Print
an Activity Sheet for the First
4 Aliens.
Print
an Activity Sheet for the Second
Set of 4 Aliens.
You
and your students can take an interactive question/answer survey
which produces a colorful Multiple
Intelligences wheel of your levels in each of the
intelligences and it is easy-to-use for grades 7 to adult. (Birmingham
Grid for Learning)
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Crack
Your Learning Code
 What
is it? In a nutshell, "Crack Your Learning Code" is an informal
tool designed to heighten awareness and promote discussion
of the different personality
types (as defined by Myers and Briggs, and more recently
by Keirsey and Bates and others) and how they impact the teaching
and learning process.
Amazing
Facts About YOUR Personality as a Teacher
Printable Student
Activity Sheet
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Meet
Your Mode
 What
is it? This is a ready-to-print checklist of behaviors that
encourages students to think about how they learn best. Use the
activity to lead students into a discussion of how they can:
- plan
or control how they approach assignments
- monitor
their understanding/comprehension
- evaluate
their progress as they work toward completing a given task
"...higher
level reasoning skills are achieved PRECISELY when we allow
a person to learn through his strongest modality, whatever that
may be..." (Discover Your Child's Learning
Style, by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Hodson, page 154)
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 What
is it? Give students an opportunity to see themselves
through the lens of an infrared HoverBeam Habit Detector! Discuss all
four categories of habits, and then ask students to click on the statements
that best describe how they tackle assignments or study. The HB Habit
Detector will automatically reveal ways to build on good habits and
improve the bad ones.
Mission
statement: "Work smarter, not harder!"
Name
Your Favorite Things
 As
you know, this is extremely valuable information to gather on students!
When we build lessons around students’ favorite things, they tend
to spend more quality time with the activity or project, and
they will most likely feel that it has real purpose for them.
They expect to be successful and will feel motivated to persist
in the assignment because they are dealing with something that has real
meaning in their corner of the world.
"…we've learned that helping kids find out who they really are---what
they are good at and what they love to do---is the most important way
of maintaining natural curiosity and an eagerness to learn. We need
to stop drawing attention to what kids can't do and start emphasizing
what they can do." (From DISCOVER YOUR CHILD'S LEARNING
STYLE by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle Hodson. Copyright (c)
1999 by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle Hodson. Used by permission
of Prima Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc.)
"Learner-centered environments attempt to help students make connections
between their previous knowledge and their current academic tasks. Parents
are especially good at helping their children make connections. Teachers
have a harder time because they do not share the life experiences of
all of their students, so they have to become familiar with each
student’s special interests and strengths." National
Research Council. (1999) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience,
and School. Washington, D.C.:National Academy Press.
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