Snowflakes and Smarts: Teaching the Way Your Students Learn (Part 3)

Written by Chuck Gartman

Part Three in a Five-Part Series

One of the best learning activities I have ever used is asking students to look at a passage of Scripture and then create a crossword puzzle, using the information from the passage in the Bible. I've used it successfully with 8th-graders and 12th-graders. Each team created a puzzle that was meant to be very difficult, then we exchanged puzzles to see who could solve the puzzle in the shortest amount of time.

In both cases, the youth who thought logically really got into the idea and created difficult but fun experiences. I suspect that my youth are not all that unusual. You have youth like this in your group, too. They like to think, and they learn best when they put their thinking caps on.

Logical learners like:

• Problem-solving
• Reasoning responses
• Analogies
• jokes with odd punch lines (Like, "If a plane crashes on the border of Texas and Oklahoma, where would they bury the survivors?")
• Debates

Try your hand at reaching your logical learners. This week, substitute a crossword puzzle creation for one of your learning activities. Set a time limit for the creation of the puzzle. Then exchange the puzzles between teams and see who can solve the puzzle the quickest. Have a reward for the winner.

Discover more additional learning styles by reading through the rest of this helpful 5-part series.