MI+B2+Chapter+4

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Abstract
(by Susanna Cooper) Chapter 4 provided a nice overview of how a teacher can introduce multiple intelligences into their classroom. The chapter makes sure to note that before and after doing anything with the 8 multiple intelligence, it is important to explain to the class what you are going to do and why you are doing this activity or lesson builder. This will help them to understand the multiple intelligences better. When first introducing the concept of the multiple intelligence to the students, hopefully to younger children instead of secondary students, it is a good idea to keep your lecture to a 5 minute introduction explaining the concept of multiple intelligence, then work more with the idea by showing and doing activities with the kids. The activities will make things clear and is a hands-on approach to learning the intelligence styles. This chapter also made it clear that all students are intelligent, and that it is best to find examples where everyone fits each category. For example, everyone can speak, so we all use some form of verbal intelligence. Doing multiple intelligence activities and explanations of MI at the beginning of the year is the best time. It allows the students to get to know everyone in the class better, while also learning something about themselves. There is a large range of activities for the kids to help the concept sink in. These [|activities] range from field trips to career day, to smaller ice breaker activities like board games, wall displays, biographies, and singing or creating songs. The most important thing to remember is that the students are learning in a variety of ways and understand that they have a unique way of learning.

Synthesis
(by Susanna Cooper) Everyone felt that it was very important to see MI implemented more in classrooms with younger, elementary, students. This chapter seemed more orientated towards younger children, yet a few reflections mentioned that the MI lessons used for younger children could be changed some to fit middle and high school students too. It is important in either case, that the lesson or explanation of MI is simplified in a way that the younger kids can understand it best. Most of the reflections thought that a good way of doing this would be using the “pizza chart”. This chart breaks down the 8 MI into eight slices of pizza that can be easily seen and understood. A lot of the reflections also commented on the fact that relating the multiple intelligences to real life learning would help the students learn better. Everyone mentioned that field trips and having a [|career day] are great ways of demonstrating the multiple intelligence to the students and can get them fired up about it. Yet it was pointed out that it may be harder to get out in the field in middle and secondary education due to standards which suck up lots of class time. But there are still other ways in which the teacher can use MI in the classroom to help the students get a feel for how they learn best. Activities like the intelligence hunt, and cranium are just a few ways mentioned. The important points that everyone seemed to mention in their reflection was that all students should know they are intelligent, and interactive, hands on teaching is important.

Diana Quinlan
Chapter four of this book is all about explaining the multiple intelligence theory to others. Teaching this theory to younger students can help them identify their own leaning styles which in turn can help them figure out ways to problem solve in the future. I would be interested to see just how much of a difference teaching this to younger students really makes. After all, none of the students I know were taught this model as a child but they can all still identify their best learning styles. However, the best way to teach this model is by demonstrating it and explaining it in simple terms. Nobody is going to learn anything if I start throwing out a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo. Easy ways to demonstrate the MI model for younger students would be by drawing pictures, or having professionals from the community come in and talk about what they do. Other ways of teaching this model to an older group of students would be through biographies, and field trips, or by relating it to people that teenagers would idolize. People always learn better when they can relate what they are learning about to people they know.

Sarah McGinley
Multiple Intelligences Chapter 4: Teaching Students about MI Theory 1/26/10

The Multiple Intelligence Theory can be simplified into categories that even young children can understand what it all means. Linguistic relates to words, Logical-Mathematical relates to numbers, Spatial relates to pictures, Bodily-Kinesthetic relates to the body, Musical relates to music, Interpersonal relates to people, Intrapersonal relates to the self, and Naturalist relates to nature. These are concepts young students in elementary school can all relate to. I believe that everyone should know about the Multiple Intelligence Theory because we should all know how we learn, even the younger grade students. We should all know what type of learning style works best for us and then we can take that knowledge to obtain higher knowledge while learning. One of the ways to teach this theory is through diagrams and pictures. Then I could put all of my students into the different categories so they know what intelligences work best for them. To engage the students in learning about their different intelligences I could plan several different activities such as a field trip, a lesson plan that involves all of the eight intelligences, or I could set up a display that has examples of the different intelligences on one table each and have the student participate in an activity from each table. There are a lot of other ways to teach the Multiple Intelligence Theory to all ages.

Alicia Kenison
Armstrong emphasized that “Children go to school as question marks and leave as periods,” and it is our job to answer all their questions. An MI theory should be a unit in which we first introduce what MI is and show the MI “pizza” than ask questions and relate it to people they know. I really liked the idea of having a “career day” because it would get the community involved in the learning process. With me, pursuing an English concentration, I would probably have my children write biographies on famous people that shared the same MI as them. This way they get to know someone who likes what they like. Maybe, on presentation day, the students dress up as their people and then interact with the class as a whole. The class could ask questions, etc. and for my class period, the students could truly “be” their people. Armstrong showed how interactive teaching MI can be, after all, teaching is supposed to be fun, right?

Mike Lawson
In chapter four of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom Thomas Armstrong reiterates how important knowing about the eight intelligences really is. This chapter really focused on teaching your students about multiple intelligences and allowing them to isolate which intelligences are more developed in each of them. I think I will definitely use the MI Pizza in my class. When a kid can understand how they learn they will be more animated and enthusiastic when it comes to my class and learning. Not only will knowing their own intelligences help them in my classroom it will also allow them with other classes and even other events outside of school. I liked how Armstrong asked all the kids if they thought they were intelligent, and then reinforced them by saying everyone is intelligent. That’s the kind of stuff that makes great teachers. The examples given like field trips and displays are really good ideas. I just can’t wait to implement a lot of these teaching strategies in my own class.

Scott Bowden
This chapter was about explaining the ideas of multiple intelligences to students. I think that it would be a good idea to have the students in my classes understand that they are each intelligent and have special abilities, even if they aren’t the same ones that some of their other classmates have. Some of the ideas in this chapter sounded like really neat icebreakers to use on the first day of class. I would like to incorporate some of these to help my students get to know each other and to understand that everyone has their own unique skills set and don’t all think the same way. If my students (and myself, even) could understand which members of the class can do things different from them, we could all learn something from each other. Some of the ideas seemed like they were targeting younger students, but the idea about the intelligence hunt, the MI tables, and the recollection activity could help my students not only learn about themselves, but about their classmates. This was really informative and I would like to try some of these activities in my classroom.

Jared Merrifield
Chapter 4: Teaching Students About MI Theory

The way that Armstrong provides an example of explaining the MI theory in five minutes sounds effective, and although it seems to be directed toward younger students, it may be just as effective for older kids with a few changes. I found it interesting although unsurprising when he mentioned that the grade level was inversely proportionate to how intelligent students think they are. I believe that it is mostly a matter of self-esteem, how every student is more likely to become more stressed and self-pitying as they progress through school. In the process they make new friends and enemies, which affects their self-image as well as their schoolwork and attitude. I found the "career day" method for teaching MI theory to seem extremely effective, in that it teaches students that they can aspire to do great things in several fields of expertise, and that there is a career out there for everybody. Field trips might even be more effective, because it actually shows these people at work rather than just explaining it. (Still, the way in which careers are illustrated pertains to intelligences too - career day would be more effective to linguistic learners, and field trips more effective for spatial learners.) Again, most of the other methods do not seem appropriate for seventh+ graders, but others such as the reading and MI tables would provide students with hands-on experience while still pertaining to their particular age group and level of understanding.

Teaching students a little about Multiple Intelligence theory can be a useful exercise. That is not to say that instruction has to be in-depth and tedious. A major strength of MI theory is that it is very teachable and easy to understand. Kinesthetic learners can visualize sports figures, dancers and others who interact with the world physically. Teaching students about all eight models can be an interesting and rewarding endeavor. The following ideas can be used by any educator regardless of academic concentration. Field trips are a good way to introduce students to professionals who use their modalities of learning everyday. A zoo is a great place for kids to see a naturalist learner in action for example. Products made by other classes that show each intelligence can be shown and described in class. Another interesting idea comes from quick experiential activities. Musical intelligence can be illustrated by singing row, row, row your boat. Kinesthetic learning can be shown simply by running to the end of a field and back.

S arah Robinson
In this chapter 4 of //Multiple Intelligences// it is learned that the eight multiple intelligences can be taught to any age group easily. Children benefit from teaching approaches that help them relate to their own learning experiences. This chapter taught me that the first basic step is the give a simple explanation of multiple intelligences, for an example a multiple intelligences pizza pie drawing. That has eight pieces that reflects eight simple ways of the multiple intelligences. After this basic explanation, there are many different ways of teaching the MI theory, one way that this chapter has taught me is bring members of the community in that represent different multiple intelligence through their jobs. An example of this would be a forest ranger that would represent nature smarts. This chapter has impacted my classroom in the way that I know I want to use the teaching style of having eight posters that represent all the eight multiple intelligences so students are always reminded what they are. It will be very beneficial for students at a young age to learn what multiple intelligences are because it will help them realize what helps them learn best; therefore helping their future as students. This of course will help their teachers realize what multiple intelligences will help their students learn in their classrooms.

Amanda Fitzpatrick
After reading the chapter, I felt that a lot of what was said in it was geared towards elementary students. However, there were some ideas that could be carried over to the high school. One activity that I thought was particularly interesting was that of doing an "Intelligence Hunt." This activity would be great to use on the first day of classes, before students really have a chance to get to know each other (besides prior classes). It could also give students the chance to be seen in a different light (maybe the student in the class who acts like they never want to be there will be the only one able to fulfill one of the tasks--that would, in my opinion make the student see higher of themselves). Also, it would give the students a chance to get quite comfortable with each other in a fast amount of time. As a teacher, having the students feel at ease with each other would benefit in the long run as I ask them to work in various groups or share ideas on different topics presented in class. I also liked the idea of using a game like Cranium to get the students thinking about what kind of intelligence is most like them--they could play the game, and if they always can complete the visual answer, for example they will know that much more about themselves!

Jared Boghosian
This chapter reveals a great way to utilize MI theory, teach a small lesson to the students about it. This would be a fantastic idea for the first class or two, not only to get students to socialize and know their classmates, but also to identify early on the student's strongest intelligences. If in middle school, use more accessible language and terms like word smart instead of linguistic or body smart rather than bodily- kinesthetic. As a secondary education concentration a lot of the ideas in this chapter of utilyzing MI theory is not feasible. For example, career days and field trips do not sound plausible with the amount of standards a teacher needs to fulfill each year. Something I am really interested in trying out is constructing an eight-way lesson plan that addresses the eight intelligences and gauge student's interests and success to more accurately discover a classroom's intelligence structure.

Eric Cole
This chapter is all about teaching the MI theory in the classroom. While many of the activities are designed for elementary school children, there are some that could be transitioned over into Middle School and High School. I love the idea of having a Career Day event where various professionals from all intelligence styles can come in and discuss what they did with their particular style. I honestly am interested though in what would happen if we began teaching the MI theory early in life. It wouldn’t be enough to just teach it though. We would have to utilize the information that we gather from it. It would be interesting to see how far along we could develop in school if we did this. Perhaps we could begin learning things from middle school in elementary school. I realize that that is an extreme scenario, but it would be interesting to see if it happened.

Susanna Cooper
Chapter 4 covered various strategies for introducing the 8 MI to your students. I liked the variety of ways and games that can be used to introduce different learning styles to your students. I loved how at the beginning of the chapter the reader is reminded to find positive ways that make sure all of my students are considered “smart” in all 8 intelligence styles. I believe that the way we say things is key in promoting new ideas and concepts. Why turn someone down on accident. It is then that much harder to pull that student back out of that hole! I also agreed with the point that as a teacher I should explain what I am doing with the kids before hand, unless surprise is part of the activity. In that case I explain really well afterwards. More than once this chapter reminded the reader to inform the students what the 8 MI are after doing the game, walk, or other informative event associated with the MI. I hope that I can find fun and relaxing ways to show my students what each of the 8 intelligences are. I think quick games and small projects are a nice way to not only show these 8 intelligence, but also help the students feel good about themselves and get their minds refocused if we have just finished a lot of work (I would do something like this near the end of class or in the middle to break things up).