Nonlinguistic+Representations

Nonlinguistic Representations can be a number of things that range from something as simple as a picture of a shape to having a student physically move in a way that demonstrates the concept in the lesson plan. In today's classrooms, teachers still focus on the lecture and reading aspects of retaining knowledge, however many psychologists believe that knowledge is stored both linguistically and in an imagery form. What this means is that our understanding of an idea broadens when we hear or read the words associated with it, and can see a picture, taste, smell, or touch it, even something as simple as forming a circle with your arms to understand what 'round' is.

Teachers should integrate nonlinguistic representations into their lessons in order to help their students truly grasp the subject matter at hand, and there are many ways that this can be accomplished.

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One method that allows students to utilize their nonlinguistic skills is to have them draw while taking notes, or after verbally explaining a concept to have the students draw out the mental image they have of that concept. By doing this they utilize different parts of their brain and help further cement what they are trying to learn in their mind.

This is one example of a student who not only drew the objects in question, but also labeled what colors they were, providing them with a physical and mental image.

This is an effective way to help cement a lesson with students by making them use different parts of their brain to work on one problem. This can also be helpful for students who have attention disorders, or are learning disabled since it allows alternate methods of instruction to be used to demonstrate the same concept, thus giving more opportunities for learning in a diverse classroom.

For younger students, having them move around during the class time helps keep them interactive with the lesson, and as with drawing, is another method of nonlinguistic representation. This can be something as simple as forming the letters of the alphabet with their fingers or with each other, to grouping students on sides of the room to represent math problems.

Nonlinguistic representations are most effective when used in the science and math classes, however they still can be used in every aspect of teaching in order to give a broader picture of the subject.