When I think back on my learning experiences from elementary school through College, I can see my learning style. One of my earliest memories that I can now relate to learning styles was from second grade. Mrs. Tobler, my second grade teacher, had assigned each of us a book and instructed us to write a book report for homework that evening. My book was about the Indians tribes hunting buffalo. The book would probably not been my first choice in reading material, as I was not very interested in Indians or buffalo, but most discouraging was the lack of illustrated pages. I struggled to understand the meaning of the hunt. I was tortured by the violence describing the kill. Why did they have to kill this beast? What good could come of it? Most upsetting was how I could find the words to describe what I read! Desperately I wrote three lines of facts. "The Indians hunted the buffalo with bows and arrows. They stuck the buffalo with the arrows. The buffalo died." Now, granted, my writing in second grade was quite large and took up most of the page, but I knew these words were not enough to tell the whole story. I had to tell Mrs. Tobler how I felt about this book, about this terrible act the animal endured. I decided to draw a picture. With colored pens I drew a brown buffalo, lying on this back, feet in the air, dozens of arrows deep in this body and red blood oozing down to a puddle below. The scene continued with the depiction of Indians smiling widely dancing around the sad hurt buffalo. This was how the material in the book made me feel, and what I imagined. .
This pattern of picturing what I was reading or learning became a constant theme throughout my education. If I could imagine what it looked like, or touch it, I could begin to understand it. Furthermore, if I could feel that the result of learning this subject meant that I could contribute positively to the world around me, I could master it.
