by Gayleen Langthorn

Every child is special, as unique as a shimmering sunset or an autumn afternoon. And each has a potential all his own.

Few would argue with that statement in principle, but it is a concept that often falls by the wayside in the test-score driven world of education.

For the last few years, Trinity School in north Oklahoma City has implemented a program that enhances its individualized approach to learning. “Schools Attuned” is a comprehensive professional development and service program offering educators new methods for recognizing, understanding, and managing students with differences in learning.

“The Schools Attuned philosophy is very similar to what we do already at Trinity,” said Sherry Rowan, Head of School. The philosophy includes keeping class sizes small and looking at each child as an individual learner.

Understanding the Student Better
Part of the teachers’ one-on-one time with students will be spent “attuning students” using the concepts learned during the intense Schools Attuned training. The process begins with parents, teachers, and students all filling out questionnaires evaluating the child’s learning style in each of eight brain-development categories. By involving students, parents, and teachers, everyone gains a better understanding of the underlying brain functions that can affect a student’s learning, both positively and negatively. Rowan said they plan to begin with those students who have learning challenges, but by next year they will likely have learning profiles on almost all of the students.

Schools Attuned was developed by Dr. Mel Levine from the Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. The core of the program is the study of eight developmental brain factors that affect learning. These include attention, language, memory, hand-eye coordination, the ability to recognize shapes and symbols, the ability to order letters, numbers, and recognize patterns, interpreting communication, and grasping concepts.

The entire Trinity faculty was trained in the program over the summer and Rowan is excited about the implications for students. “For an educator, this is a great tool because it lets us work more honestly with the students and have a greater understanding of where they are and what we can expect from them, what is reasonable, and how we can encourage them,” she said.

More Ways to Learn
In addition to exploring Levine’s theory of learning and understanding how to evaluate a student’s learning style, the Trinity faculty acquired strategies to help their students be more successful.

Rowan said they’ve been using strategies in specific areas for a long time, like Alphabetic Phonics to help students who are language-learning challenged. Schools Attuned will not replace those programs. But this new approach looks at the question of learning as a big picture and gives teachers strategies for all kinds of tasks rather than just focusing on one.

“It gives you so many strategies to help children maximize their strengths and use their strengths to help them in areas that are difficult for them,” Rowan said.

She used a class on the Civil War as an example. A student who has difficulty taking notes might be given the notes by the teacher and asked to use a highlighter during a lecture to mark the key points. By doing this, the student is still processing the information, but he is using a strength—his listening skills—rather than relying on something he might have difficulty with, like trying to write down notes and understand the lecture at the same time.

“You don’t want a child’s learning to be negatively impacted by something that doesn’t really have to do with your goal,” Rowan said. In this case, insisting on written notes from a student who hasn’t mastered that skill is letting a learning style issue interfere with your actual learning goal.

“In my view, and in Dr. Levine’s view, this happens a lot in school—we get so hung up on having things done a certain way that we sometimes lose sight of what the real objective is,” Rowan said.

Her goal, and the goal of everyone at Trinity School, is to help students find and maximize their strengths. The Schools Attuned program has given them additional tools to aid in that mission. “It makes you feel that you’ve opened up a whole new area of possibilities for a student,” Rowan said. “It is a very optimistic approach.”

For more information on the Schools Attuned program, visit their website.

Gayleen Langthorn is a mother of two and a freelance writer in Oklahoma City. She holds a BA in journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma and contributes regularly to MetroFamily Magazine.