Contextualizing Learning Skills

This monthly article will feature a different learning skill each month and instead of talking theory will ONLY give ideas for targeting/strengthening that learning skill for ages 2 to 102! Remember that you can find ALL the learning skills in a free interactive tool.

Observing: using the senses to pick up on details of an object, dynamic, or relationship

Challenging a young child to find as many squares or circles or a determined color they can in a room will get them to focus differently on the objects in the room, seeing objects in a new perspective. An older child can be given the same kinds of challenges suggested for the STEM or ARTS classrooms.

Ask students to note the adjectives they find in two different reading passages or to spend a predetermined amount of time noticing the adjectives used on signs or ads around them. They can be asked to take note of what music accompanies different television commercials. Nearly any painting or sculpture can be used as the focus for asking students to notice details that aren’t immediately obvious. Even rhetoric or comm students can track types of arguments or appeals made in commercials or ads.

Ask students to spend a predetermined amount of time noticing the numbers around them, keeping a list of the numbers, where they were seen, and what they meant (fractions, cardinals, ordinals, etc.). Biology students might be tasked with a plant survey, determining how many different plant species they see in a certain area. Engineering students might be similarly tasked with a materials survey.

The skill of observing can be usefully linked to detective work and finding clues. Challenging a learner to find clues will work with all ages and in nearly any context. (This includes adults! Observing can be an enjoyable challenge as can be seen by the popularity of crime and forensic investigation novels and shows!)