Left And Right

Left and RightLeft and RightLeft and RightLeft and Right

Beatriz Beatriz

LupianoLupiano March March

20102010

March 2010 Beatriz Lupiano 2

We learn many things in our first years at

school• Numbers• Letters, words, the ABC• We continue: • socializing• working on our gross and fine

motor skills


L R•Left

•Right

• This is also the time when most of us start learning more precisely which way’s right and which way’s left.

• Right and Left are meaningful when it comes to learning and teaching


Teachers have been aware of the specific functions of the right/left sides of the brain

for well over a decade now:

• The right side of the brain is responsible for the more intuitive part of ourselves, our emotions, response to music, colour and patterns.

• The left side of the brain is much more logically-driven. It analyzes, sorts and categorizes. The main language areas are here.

• Teachers also know that we learn better when we engage both sides of the brain, and try to plan lessons accordingly.


Now coming back to those first school

years…

• Think for a moment. Remember when you were learning to distinguish right from left.

• How were you helped when you were not sure?


I remember

• I would ask, “which way is right?”• My teacher would answer with another

question… • “which hand do you write with?”• …which only made things more confusing…• I’ve always been

• left-handed


Most people are right-handed

• If you are right-handed,• Have you ever wondered how a

left-handed person experiences the world?


Have a look at the two photos

• Which person is right-handed?

• Which person is left-handed?

• How do you know?

• How does that affect the task (if at all)?


Using scissors for school-aged children

• How about now?• List at least 3

things that are different, and think about how they might affect the outcome


Scissors again

• This person is left-handed. In slide 9, the first person is left-handed and the second one right-handed.

• Compare the photos –do you notice any significant changes?


• One of the things I notice is the inclination of the paper when it’s being cut. The right-handed person in slide 9 goes upwards, while the left-handed person goes downwards. (Note that they are both adults)

• In slide 10, the left-handed person has shifted the inclination a bit and has started cutting in a more upward direction.


What’s changed?• The kind of scissors being used.• In slide 9 a regular pair of scissors was

used, while in slide 10 a pair of scissors for left-handed people was used


• I noted earlier that the people cutting were adults. The left-handed one was me.

• I learned to cut with regular scissors: the blades would move outwards, as if trying to become unbound. Cutting was difficult, and very often my teacher would point out (quite rightly) that my cut-outs seemed to have been made with a small saw.


• I can use “grown-up” scissors now, which are more firmly bound. I have tried scissors for left-handed people. They feel more comfortable, but the truth is I don’t feel confident cutting with either kind.

• (I assume it’s because I’m used to right-handed scissors and so my natural tendency is not “free”; I have to think before holding and cutting using left-handed scissors and compare what I’m doing to what I notice I need to do with the other pair –for example aiming at lines: do the blades need to go inside, outside, right in the middle…?)


A brief example from my experience as a teacher

• A few years ago I had a left-handed 6-year-old learner. He dreaded cutting-out tasks.

• We got a pair of scissors for left-handed people.

• The next time I set a task with scissors he looked down, and grumbled a bit…


• …When he remembered his new scissors, his face lit up with a broad smile

• From then on, his cutting skills were similar to those of his right-handed peers.


So why am I saying all this?

Pre-schoolers and 1st graders are still developing their

GROSS AND FINE MOTOR SKILLS


We all need to use motor skills

• Gross motor skills involve control of large muscles, big movements, even whole body motion

• Fine motor skills require the use of small muscles and precision in small areas.


Examples of motor skills

Fine (or small)

Cut, colour, write, paint, solve jigsaw puzzles, build things using unit blocks, hammer, make dough models, sew

Gross (or large):

Skip, walk, run, catch a ball, tiptoe, kick a ball, cycle, throw a Frisbee, turn around


As teachers, we try to help our learners

• If we see a learner squinting at the back of the class, we’ll probably consider checking whether they need glasses

• If we see a learner systematically turning round in the opposite direction as their peers and teacher when singing and dancing…what do we do? What do we think?

• When that learner becomes to look puzzled, dance more slowly and tentatively…what do we think?


As a left-handed person,

I don’t feel confident when I…• Need to use a ruler (I know my line will not be

perpendicular. Look back at slide 8 and try to figure out why I’m holding the ruler that way)

• Need to cut things out.• Am performing a group choreography and the

instructions don’t state clearly which way we need to turn.

• Open certain doors• Sit to the right of a right-handed person and

we both need to write (arms and elbows collide!!)


There are many more examples I could give, and I’ve learned from experience that

I need to develop some kind of strategy to get the result I want when:

• I use a felt-tip pen (plenty of smudges at first!), • I sit on a chair with a desk attached that covers

only the right side• …when people are curious and ask why I write

with my hand this or that way and why I position the paper differently

• When as a teacher I write on the board and want to turn my head and keep some degree of eye-contact with the class


As teachers, we try to cater for all learners:

• Those who are more visual, auditory, kinesthetic.

• Those whose learning styles are more closely connected with the right or the left side of the brain.

• Those who have some physical impairment, like short-sightedness.


Do we do the same for left-handed learners?

• For example…

• Do we explain to them that some tasks may be more difficult for them because of the way they’d naturally tackle them?

• And that it’s not their instinct that’s failing; • it’s just that the environment isn’t always prepared for

both right-handed and left-handed people?


Maybe some teachers do, maybe some parents and peers do…maybe even more

will do so in the future.This presentation aimed at raising

awareness, where needed, as to how left-handed learners experience the world, and

how sometimes they need to adapt themselves to the world and how some small steps from their significant others could perhaps contribute to make this

adaptation easier.

Thanks for taking the time to read this presentation.Beatriz

Left And Right

Education

Transcript of Left And Right