Teaching Vocabulary to the Visual Learner

Vocabulary is such an important element of comprehension and instruction. Every lesson, unit, and course that we teach contains vocabulary within its infrastructure. Without it, a subject or course will collapse. So what do you do when a student needs to learn a vocabulary term? As educators, we often try to define terms in a way that our students can understand. This provides another means of representing the material (Principle 1 – Multiple Means of Representation). But the fact is that what might help one learner understand a particular concept, may not help another student understand the same concept. Barriers exist in perception and understanding. It could be the barrier of a learning disability. It could be the barrier of another culture. It could be the barrier of having a lower reading level. Whatever the barrier, we need to give our students a way to access understanding of vocabulary. For example, suppose you are trying to describe what a lobster is to a group of