The Tool
Manipulative Visual Language (MVL)™:
the magical classroom tool.
What is MVL?
MVL can be anything. It can used as be a reference tool. It can be implemented as an approach. It can be a teaching philosophy. Above all, MVL is a goal. MVL is here to make learning language fun. We do not believe that jotting answers in grammar workbooks is the best way to improve one’s grammar and comprehension of a language. Learning about languages should be fun and natural. For younger learners, we have ‘stories’ with which we introduce the materials—we want the students to learn patterns as simply colors, rather than with words, which can be a bit too complex and layered for children. We want your students remember things about nouns, verbs and adjectives by their own ways rather than by remembering arbitrary rules. With MVL, we can show students how the English language, at its most basic level, all fits together in ways that are colorful, fun, and meaningful.
We make learning easier.
Learn it with your hands.
With colors and shapes, it is easier to make sense of any language’s patterns and rules because it gives the language a physical presence, something that is tactile. With colors and shapes, your students will be able to share errors faster and more conveniently. There would be no need to retell the class why that is a noun and why a verb cannot precede the initial noun. All that they would need to see is that the pattern is broken and the student is there to fix it. With language having a physical presence, it empowers the student to help others because the explantations, at its barest, has only to contain the simplest concepts and patterns.
Magic is for all ages.
Like with magic tricks — anyone can learn MVL.
If the student needs it, MVL can be brought along the student’s entire education. It can even be taught to adults. However, we have designed MVL to act like training wheels. As they become more confident in writing and reading, they will rely on the tools less, but they can refer to it independently when they need it. We ensure that this process of receiving complete independence in writing is appropriate to each student. If the process is achieved properly, they will have time to fully internalize the patterns and write without the support of this extraordinary tool. We believe that our students are, simply, extraordinary. They have minds of plastic—no matter what the age is—and it is our job to be as dynamic as possible in order to allow them possess the most of this plasticity.
The Method
The simplest tools. With the biggest room possible for creativity.
Our Method
Learning should be easy, fun, and exciting.Like watching a magic show.
Dynamic Learning
In our classroom, the student is the teacher. This means that students are not told about verb tenses; instead they are shown to them. If they don’t know whether to use ‘was’ or ‘is’—we do not sit down and attempt to explain the difference. We believe in the individual power of the student: we allow they to create their own definitions.We allow them to get up and get their hands busy playing with these physical verbs. In our class room, the English language (among other languages) does not reflect its usual face. It is not a jumble of written words, of black lines on white paper. It is our goal to create the craft of learning English as a real experience.
The traditional method of teaching grammar and classifying parts of speech requires extra effort from the student. To recognize the patterns, the student might have to think of the wordy patterns.
Our method allows the student to be creative and be reminded of the structure by a mere glance. Colors are powerful and with a single glance, one can recognize the patterns of the language.
Beyond the Tools
We do not only encourage instruction through our tools, but also through a dynamic teaching style. We provide activities and ideas for the teacher to transform the classroom into an extremely imaginative studio where students can act out upon their writing. We have students who never read or wrote much until the initial instruction year, and even they have clearly demonstrated improvements in their overall literacy skills.
Training
Join Us.
And be trained to be a classroom magician.
No pencil twirling.
Teachers learn better when they are allowed to be teachers. In our training conferences you do not sit back and twirl that pencil. You won’t have the time. You will be like a student. You will join us in the great venture of learning how to use the MVL tools, as well as learning how our classroom is much more than the tool itself. You will see how we introduce you to the tools—which, we promise, is as colorful as possible—and you will have a chance to give your insight. And we will listen (except for the ones who are asking us to grant permission to twirl pencils).
Benefits better than your 401k.
When you attend a training conference, you only have to pay a single fee and everything will be covered—from room and board to your own set of MVL tools for you to use at your school to the signatures from the inventors of MVL (well, we’re kidding, unless you really do want one). You (and your school) also will be invited into our new and ongoing internal materials site where you can access the most updated materials created by us and by other teachers. Yes, you can contribute, too! That way you will never run out of ideas and materials to enrich your students with, and when you are stuck.
Who Are We?
Real People for Real Teachers
We are like you.
This company is not a formal one where you need to fill out forms in order to get in touch with us. You can just email us, or even videochat with us, ask us questions, or even talk over a virtual lunch. We have people working hard behind this extraordinary tool, and these people know what they are doing. We’d like to introduce these people who have made bringing magic into classroom possible.
Robert Gillies
Born in England, Rob is a brilliant teacher with as much experience as Jimmy has in teaching Deaf children. Meeting Jimmy in Maine where both taught at Governor Baxter School for the Deaf, he found MVL—at the time, was only a budding idea— to be intriguing and took up with Jimmy in pushing MVL into a reality. He is the brain behind most of the in-classroom activities currently in our program.
Seth J.G.
Seth is the design and planning guru behind this organization. Graduating from Gallaudet University in 2011 in English and Visual Studies, he finds MVL a fascinating tool and thinks all children deserves a fighting chance in learning language—and MVL is that leverage. He lives in New Mexico and is a writer, currently working on his first novel. He has published several of his short stories.