Semiotic Representations

Growing up and even today, I am the type of person that can relate to what I am learning better if I take notes that include illustrations of what I have learned. For example, a while back I was in a meeting in which the leader spoke about putting negativity in the trash and leaving it there. Well I went to write down what she had said but instead I drew a sad face inside a trash can on my paper. When I look back at those notes I know exactly what the picture/illustration means and exactly why the leader said what she did. To me, this goes along with this article by Cowan and Albers. There is a quote by a fifth grader on page 134 that says, "I like this class because in other classes we have to do specific stuff. In here, we can do what we can do." This leads me to think about all we have learned, as teachers, about differentiation and meeting the needs of students. By looking at the activities in this article you can see how different students have been able to interpret tasks based on their preferences. For examples, on page 133, Cowan and Albers share two examples of students work. I see an assignment connection between the two examples but I also see how two students identified visually and poetically with the task at hand in a different way. The students learning experience is personalized!