Appeal to Their Passions! One of the best ways to teach!

I'm going to give you one of the best ways to teach that I have every found; use your child's passions and interests! Some may think, "those are just their hobbies", or "you can't teach through Shopkins or Pokemon". My answers are, if it's their hobby it means they are interested in it, and yes you can teach through Shopkins and Pokemon! Our goal is to help kids enjoy learning and want to keep learning! This is the key to doing that!!! I'm going to explain how to do it and how to do it according to personality type to maximize their learning potential. This can be done by teachers or parents!

This type of teaching has been one that I have used throughout all my years of teaching. It helps the kids that are bored with learning get excited, but also those who love learning, to love it even more! The word to know when teaching this way is INTEGRATION. What that means, is that you can put almost anything they need to learn mixed into what they are interested in. You are integrating them together.

For example: I had a student who was VERY interested in drawing medieval knights and dragons. He didn't want to pay attention to anything else we were learning in school and so I started integrating his interests. We integrated reading, writing, math, science, and of course history. I would have fiction and non fictional books about medieval times. Some of the books were above his level, but he was so interested that he would get help from me or his parents, or figure it out himself. I noticed his reading level start to improve as he was working to learn about his interest, his passion. In writing we would do journal entries about his drawings or fictional stories he could illustrate. We also did nonfiction writing to diagram about what he was learning and researching. Math we were able to make story problems about his characters and draw pictures to illustrate what was going on in the story problems. Science we looked at inertia of catapults and look at the plants they used for medicine.

It was amazing to see the difference in this child when he would come to school. Instead of being unwilling and bored, he was excited to continue work on a project or share with me something he found at home. His education was continuing outside of school.

There are many resources now that will help integrate interests and lesson plans. But if all else fails, you can create it yourself, or ask someone you know, or you could even email me and I'd be happy to help create some lessons.

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Looking at how personality would play into this type of teaching. Let's look at the template. Whenever we plan a lesson this will help us to remember what helps your child's type when learning.

Helpers: They usually like routine times when they work on things, so they know what to expect. They also like to work in groups, so try to find others with the same interests while doing this kind of teaching. Find ways to connect things to what they know in their life.

Example: If they love animals, go to a farm or zoo. Let them take notes and draw pictures on what they see and find. Tell them to write down questions about the animals. You could provide some too. (What do they eat, where are they originally from? What was the ratio of lions to camels? What is a story you could write about them?)

Players: They need less routine and more spontaneity, but more time to think through what they are doing- don't rush them. They might want to work in groups, but they may also like to work alone. Since they are more sensory oriented, let them use their hands, building supplies, tools, things that get them messy. Also try to connect things to what they see in everyday life.

Example: If they love baseball, go play the game. While they are playing, ask them how fast they think they can run? How could you figure that out? How fast to other things go? What are batting averages? How did baseball start? Could you make bat?

Feelers: Use discussion to talk about their interests and how they are integrated into other subjects. Allow group work. Allow creativity and fantasy in thought, things that maybe couldn't be in this world. Use pictures and writing because they are often their strong suits. They like interactions with adults, find someone in that speciality to help.

Example: If they love fantasy novels you could have them write their own story and characters. Ask them to draw a map of the world of their book or that they have created and make a map key and symbols. Dress up and do a play for family or friends. How many people lived in medieval times? What wars or plagues occurred during those times? Can you figure out the percentage of change in the population after one of these events?

Thinkers: Have as many resources available to them. They like to work alone and have everything available to them. Be a resource yourself by observing and being available to them when needed. Give them time and space to explore and think and to make connections. Give them hypotheticals in their studies.

Example: If they love youtube videos then you can have them research who is that top video sellers, how come? (with your supervision for content) How do you create a video? What type of computer skills do you think are involved? How does editing work? What does it mean to go viral? How any viewers does that mean? Create a script and record it. Create a video about a historical event or teaching a math or science principle.

One example I have always loved, is a TEDx talk done by a boy named Logan LaPlante. He talks about learning through is passion of snow skiing. It is incredibly inspiring. Check it out here.


I love this way of teaching and children do too! I was reminded of this type of teaching by my friend Connor Boyack. He has written a book titled Passion-Driven Education. I highly recommend checking it out! You can look at the amazon page here.


Try this way of teaching out! I think it will surprise you how involved and interested your child/student end up being and the growth that comes from this! I think you'll have a wonderful time teaching them this way and being caught up in their passions and interests!! Enjoy!!