Some arrive at school speaking one language, others two. Some learn to read without formal instruction, motivated by imitation of their parents. Others may have never seen a book or magazine up close because there were none at home. Some are well socialized, others have been isolated from other children. Some are active and athletic while others are confirmed couch potatoes at the age of four.
Some students learn best using their visual abilities, reading and observing.
Others are excellent and attentive listeners. Still others learn best by manipulating concrete objects. Teachers who attempt to use just one medium of communication will find some students left behind, no matter which simple strategy they implement. The only effective posture for a teacher is to be eclectic and pragmatic, imagining new classroom activities, trying them out, reading about someone else's ideas, trying them out, planning, trying out the plan, and correcting the inevitable mistakes. Let me report on an informal experiment I witnessed many years ago in Ann Arbor.