Title: What Color is Your Learning Style?
Objectives:
--swbat identify which learning style they are most closely identify with;
--swbat identify the characteristics of each learning style color;
--swbat determine the benefits and consequences of working in groups with different learning style colors
Introduction:
In 1978, founder Don Lowry, the person behind True Colors, became interested in the work of clinical psychologist David Keirsey. Keirsey, author of the best-selling self-help book Please Understand Me, studied the work of psychologists Carl Jung, Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers who theorized that all people fit into one of four broad categories of personality.
Lowry recognized their potential to improve people’s lives, careers and relationships. So he set about developing a fundamental and universal way to package the information into practical guidelines that could be understood and easily applied by both children and adults alike.
True Colors expands upon Keirsey’s four temperament types and simplifies personality and learning theory into “one of the easiest, most convenient ways of understanding and appreciating human behavior.”
The True Colors assessment asks participants to identify their “color spectrum” using four colors that represent key personality types: Blue, Orange, Gold or Green. Each color has particular strengths and each analyzes, conceptualizes, understands, interacts and learns differently. But these differences, if not acknowledged and understood, can become barriers to interpersonal communication, making understanding between people of different types difficult.
Activity:
True Colors Test is a quick and fun way of discovering your personality based strengths, and of understanding human behavior. This personality test asks a serious of questions to rate your likes and dislikes. The test will then rate your personality as either a blue, green, orange or gold personality type. You may be a combination of two colors, but usually a student will exhibit one primary color. A personality test is not a means to type cast a student, but it allows teachers to understand the personality attributes associated with various students. You will operate as one primary color for the most part, but high levels of stress and other environmental factors can shift your personality type for short intervals. As a rule of thumb, you should recognize your strong attributes and keep in mind the attributes that irritate people.
Give the test to the students. Have them work independently to determine their primary color. Following the test, have the students get into groups to discuss how they could used this information to become better students and how they could use the information to form better working groups.
How we see ourselves – how others see us:
Gold Personality:
Things that frustrate golds: / Things golds do to frustrate others:· Irresponsibility / · Control freak
· Lack of planning / · Being bossy and controlling
· Lack of discipline / · Working long hours
· Laziness / · Being obsessive
· High risk taking / · Being judgmental
· Illegal behavior / · Planning for everything
Blue Personality:
Things that frustrate blues: / Things blues do to frustrate others:· Lying / · Lack of planning
· Violence / · Being passive
· Personal rejection / · Avoiding conflict
· Lack of communication / · Suppressing problems
· Lack of close friends / · Being too generous
· Sarcasm / · Being overly sentimental
Orange Personality:
Things that frustrate oranges: / Things oranges do to frustrate others:· Rules and laws / · Ignoring rules
· Same routine / · Being undisciplined
· Deadlines / · Lack of planning
· Paperwork / · Being quick-tempered
· Lack of adventure / · Thinking out loud
· Too much structure / · Impulse buying
Green Personality:
Things that frustrate greens: / Things greens do to frustrate others:· Routine / · Not being sociable
· Small-talk / · Living in the future
· Plagiarism / · Being wordy
· Illogical arguments / · Blowing up when criticized
· Social functions / · Not going with the flow
· Incompetence / · Being to independent
What Is Your True Colors?
Orange stands for energy, consuming physiological, power, potency and strength. In temporal terms, Orange is the present. Orange represents desire and all forms of appetite and craving. Those with Orange as a Primary Color feel the will to achieve results, to win, to be successful. They seek things that offer intense living and full experience. Orange generates an impulse toward active doing: sport, struggle, competition and enterprising productivity.
Gold is the body's natural perceptions. It represents a need to be responsible, to fulfill duties and obligations, to organize and structure our life and that of others. Those with Gold as a Primary Color value being practical and sensible. They believe that people should earn their way in life through work and service to others.
Gold reflects a need to belong through carrying a share of the load in all areas of living. It represents stability, maintenance of the culture and the organization, efficiency, and dependability. It embraces the concepts of home and family with fierce loyalty and faithfulness.
Green expresses itself psychologically as human will in operation: as persistence and determination. Green is an expression of firmness and consistency. Its strength can lead to a resistance to change if it is not proven that the change will work or is warranted. Those with Green as a Primary Color value their intellect and capabilities above all else. Comfort in these areas creates a sense of personal security and self-esteem.
Green characteristics seek to increase the certainty of their own values through being assertive and requiring differences from others in intellectual areas. They are rarely settled in their countenance, since they depend upon information rather than feelings to create a sense of well-being. Green expresses the grounding of theory and data in its practical applications and creative constructs.
Blue represents calm. Contemplation of this color pacifies the central nervous system. It creates physiological tranquility and psychological contentment. Those with Blue as a Primary Color value balance and harmony. They prefer lives free from tension... settled, united, and secure.
Blue represents loyalty and a sense of belonging, and yet, when friends are involved, a vulnerability. Blue corresponds to depth in feeling and a relaxed sensitivity. It is characterized by empathy, aesthetic experiences, and reflective awareness.