Auditory learners learn best by hearing something. They would benefit less from reading a section in a schoolbook than they would from hearing their teacher read that same section out loud. But, since learning from books is a necessary part of life, teachers need to find ways of helping auditory learners to learn better from books and other reading material.
So what are some ways for helping auditory learners to get more from reading?
Read-Aloud Time
One way of helping auditory learners is for the teacher to read aloud to them. This helps the students to better learn the information in the book, since they are learning through listening, the way they learn best.
Read-aloud time is good for non-auditory students as well, since some books are so dry and deep they are quite difficult to learn from. Even as a visual learner, I enjoyed when Mom read this type of book to my sister and I, because she could make even those boring (or we thought they were boring at the time) schoolbooks interesting to us.
And even though that was elementary U. S. history (which means it was quite a few years ago that I studied this) I still remember various things from the books she read to us.
Another option for helping auditory learners is to have a visual learner read the schoolbook aloud to them. The visual learner will be learning as they read (visualize) the book, and the auditory learner will be learning as they listen.
For busy home-school moms, this would free them up some to help other students, work on housework, or do sundry other things home-school moms have to do.
I could go on and on about the benefits of reading aloud. Would you enjoy a blogpost just about read-aloud time?
If read-aloud time is not an option for learning and the auditory learners need to learn something from a book, they can read out loud to themselves. By doing this, they are hearing what they need to learn, and by hearing it, they will be more likely to remember it than if they just quietly read it.
Audio-books and Audio-dramas
This next option is one that more than just auditory learners will love, and yes, that is the voice of experience speaking. Audio-books and audio-dramas are another great tool to use for learning.
Listening to an audio-book gives everyone time to work on a project or take notes while listening. It frees up the teacher, is another way of helping auditory learners to learn better, and is an enjoyable experience.
Audio-dramas are even more interesting, though you need to be careful that the ones you are listening to are accurate, if you are using them for school.
It’s always a disappointment to listen to an exciting story about something that happened at some point in history, and then read the account in a history book and learn nearly everything in the audio-drama was made up, or the events didn’t happen quite the way they were portrayed. But to that disclaimer I would add that if an audio-drama is accurate, it is a really good option for learning about historical events, scientific discoveries, etc.
If you are listening to audio-books and audio-dramas with your students, and have a mixture of learning types present, audio-dramas would probably be your best option, since non-auditory learners would find it more difficult to focus on audio-books than on an exciting dramatized story.
In my blogpost on visual learners I mentioned that teachers could write out directions for visual learners to read for themselves. For auditory learners, teachers should read written directions out loud, helping auditory learners to hear what they are supposed to be doing in their schoolwork.
Do you have any other tips for helping auditory learners learn through reading? Do any of you auditory learners have anything to add about things that help you learn better? Let me know in the comments.
And come back for my upcoming post on helping hands-on learners to get more out of their reading! Or better yet, subscribe so you get notified when the post is published.