Jill Arnold
Learning Styles Transcript
J: Today we will be discussing learning styles and the way they affected the way you learned to read and write. We will also be discussing different literacy events in your life throughout all your years of schooling.
S: Okay.
J: To start, how old are you?
S: I am 61 years old.
J: Where did you grow up?
S: I was born in Passaic, New Jersey. I moved to Lodi, New Jersey when I was four years old.
J: With your parents?
S: Yes, my sister and brother were not born yet. They are 10 and 16 years younger than me.
J: So you did all your schooling in Lodi?
S: Yes, I went to two schools. Kindergarten through eighth and highschool. I graduated from Lodi High in 1968.
J: What about college?
S: I went to Hackensack Hospital School of Nursing. I graduated there in 1971. We took all of our nursing classes at the hospital and we took our college classes at Farleigh Dickinson.
J: Okay, how did you do in school?
S: Uh, I always did well. When I was younger I excelled in all subjects, but as I got into highschool, math became a hard subject for me.
J: How about the other subjects?
S: I always did well in reading and writing. Those were my strongest areas. Every year I was the spelling bee champion in my class.
J: What kind of grades did you get in school?
S: I always got As and Bs when I was little, but in highschool I had a hard time with math. It was hard for me to pass those classes. I usually got Cs and Ds in math. It was weird because I was in the honors english classes, but in the lower level math classes.
J: Did you ever go for extra help in the classes you didn’t do well in?
S: No I didn’t. They didn’t have tutoring and extra help back then like they do now.
J: So, do you remember when you first began to read and write?
S: Well, we were split up into groups, fast, medium, and slow. I was always in the fast group.
J: How did the teacher know what group to put you in?
S: The teacher would see how well you could read and if you could understand what you read. I always had fantastic reading comprehension. I always understood what the teacher asked me to read.
J: Okay, how do you think you learn best? Listening? Watching? Doing?
S: Um, definitely not through hearing. Um, through reading and seeing it done. I have a hard time doing something when someone explains it to me. I do best when I read instructions myself or see someone else doing it.
J: Okay, can you take this learning styles quiz to see what type of learner you are?
S: Yes.
(S TAKES LEARNING STYLE SURVEY)
Results: Linguistic: 100%, Interpersonal: 89%, Intrapersonal: 50%, Musical: 44%, Bodily Kinesthetic: 42%, Naturalistic: 42%, Visual/Spatial: 42%, Logical/Mathematical: 38%
J: So, what do you think about the results?
S: I’m not surprised, makes a lot of sense. Linguistic is totally me. Talk, talk, talk. Anything with reading or spoken word totally relates to me. I think it pretty much sums up the way I learn. My brain has an affinity for that I guess.
J: Are any literacy events that stand out in your mind?
S: When I was in high school, my german was so good that I recited a whole section of the german bible and went to a contest and gave a speech and won an award.
J: What type of award?
S: Well, there was a contest state-wide and there was gold, silver, and bronze and I won the bronze medal.
J: Thats awesome.
S: Yeah, I’ve always been very good with diction and pronouncing things.
J: Did your parents ever help you with work or influence the way you read and write?
S: No, my parents didn’t help me with homework. I do remember my father helping me study for tests, especially vocabulary. He would test me and ask me to repeat the definitions back to him. In those days, parents weren’t as involved in school as they are now.
J: Did they influence your reading and writing at all?
S: I think probably genetically. Also, my mother was always a reader so I think she influenced me to read. Also, She was in the quill and scroll when she was in highschool. She wrote a play that was produced in her highschool. So I think I got that genetically from her.
J: Do you remember what tools your teachers used when teaching reading and writing? Do you remember anything that helped or didn’t help?
S: I remember the Carden Method.
J: What’s the Carden Method?
S: It was a spelling method. I don’t really remember anything about it because it was so long ago. I don’t remember specifics about how they taught me, but I lived at the Lodi Library. I was always reading and I could not get my hands on enough books.
J: Any other methods or tools that helped you?
S: I do remember the Spellman Method for writing. They would give you a big piece of graph paper with lines on it and you would draw circles.
J: What was that for?
S: It was to help you get feel of the paper and the way your hand would move around when you wrote.
J: Do you think that helped?
S: Yes, I do because I think it helped my penmanship. I don’t think they teach penmanship now-a-days the way they used to.
J: Do you think you could name a literacy event from each schooling experience in your life such as elementary, middle, highschool, and college?
S: The first thing that comes to mind is my honors english teacher my senior year in highschool. He taught us how to write a term paper and really prepared us for college. He was a huge influence in my life and really helped the way I learned to write. It completely changed the way I wrote for the better.
J: Thats great. What about elementary and middle school?
S: Well, I always remember going to the Lodi Library throughout elementary and middle school. I loved the librarian! He would always pick out books for me and he was always very nice. He would put books on the side for me if he thought I would enjoy them because I was always there.
J: Sounds like you have a lot of good experiences with reading and writing. What about college?
S: I loved one of my english composition teachers. He was fantastic. He would stand in the front of the room and explain books to us and bring them to life. He made you want to read and he livened up the classroom. He brought it down to our level and related well to our age group.
J: Do you think the way you learned to read and write has benefitted you as an adult in any way? Not benefitted you?
S: It has benefitted me immensely. I have a fantastic vocabulary, I’m a great speller.
J: Do you think thats from your teachings or something else?
S: I think a mixture of that and the fact that I love to read. Reading really helps vocabulary. Like I said, my teacher when I was a senior in highschool was the best teacher I ever had. After him, I never got less than an A on a paper.
J: So there were no issues when it came to learning to read and write?
S: No, no issues.
J: Is there anything you wish you were taught or that you missed out on?
S: No, I think I learned everything I need to know.
J: Do you think your learning style hindered you in any way? Why? How has it helped you?
S: It definitely hindered me in math (laughter). I am not good with mathematical thinking. My brain just goes towards linguistics and reading and writing more, I guess.
J: How did your learning style spill into your life?
S: I’m a nurse and I have to constantly talk to people and get information out of them. Why they are there and whats going on with them. It certainly helps to be very talkative and interpersonal.
J: Okay, is there anything else you would like to share before we conclude this interview? Anything else about reading and writing that we didn’t discuss?
S: One thing I do feel is that I think that this generation is losing a lot because instead of seeing people in person or talking on the telephone its all through texting and computers. When I was younger I had to write letters to my husband when he was in college and we wouldn’t see each other that often. Its not like that anymore and I think a lot is being lost and the art of writing because of the internet. Spelling especially too, all the kids have spell check now on their computers. We didn’t have that. I think that something is being lost along the way because of that.
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