Multimodal Teaching & Learning
Overview
Multimodal teaching and learning provides opportunities for students to engage with the same content through different sensory modalities, such as visual, auditory and tactile. This is sometimes referred to as multisensory teaching, especially when it comes to reading instruction for students with learning disabilities. Engaging with content in multiple formats helps students to encode new information in Long-term Memory, while also increasing both Attention and memory. Examples in early childhood can include offering a combination of text, visuals, gestures, manipulatives, and/or audio, and this combination will vary depending on content and individual learners. It is important to encourage learners to engage with learning through multiple modalities, beginning with the modality that best suits the learning objective. Research does not support matching instruction to perceived “learning styles,” (which are not in fact supported by research) but rather, offering a range of modalities to benefit all learners.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how these teachers provide multimodal instruction by using technology to support young learners in creating their own multimodal texts, giving them opportunities to engage their Creativity and self-direction in a collaborative environment.
Design It into Your Product
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Instructional Approaches Strategies
Read-alouds are an important part of developing young learners' foundational reading skills, and can occur both in the classroom and at home with the family, supporting the development of a strong Home Learning Environment.
Retrieval practice requires students to access information, or get information “out” from Long-term memory in order to support better retention and understanding.
Spaced practice is a learning strategy that deliberately spaces out learning or study sessions over varying periods of time, with the purpose of increasing retention, understanding, and long-term knowledge acquisition.
A strengths-based approach is one where educators intentionally identify, communicate, and harness students' assets, across many aspects of the whole child, in order to empower them to flourish.
