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Abstract-Marcy
The theory of multiple intelligences is a great way to teach material to students. However using the theory in assessing students is also the best way to capture their understanding of the material. Unfortunately, education for the most part, is still stuck in the rut of standardized testing. The two best ways to assess students is through direct observation and documentation. There are a few communities, schools, or organizations that have attempted to change over. Some examples at different levels in the educational journey are Project Spectrum, for preschoolers, PIFS programs, for middle school, and the Arts PROPEL in high school. The Key Learning Community is a kindergarten through graduation school district that documents students’ progressive learning through video tapes. Along with video tapes, the chapter also suggests several other ways best suited to document student learning. Those ways would be through the use of student self assessment, rubrics, and portfolios. A method of grading portfolios is by the Five C’s of Portfolio Development: celebration, cognition, communication, cooperation, and competency. All of these methods allow for the assessment of the two most important types of learning, competency and ipsative. Competency measures how much the student learned and ipsative compares the student’s learning or progression of learning against the student’s own work. These are the most effective forms of assessment using the MI theory according to this chapter. [|Reflection-Marcy]

As a class we found the Huck Finn examples especially relevant and helpful. The difference between the [|standardized test] way of assessing the students’ knowledge of Huck Finn and the MI way of assessing is so stark that the reader draws conclusions about the usefulness of MI assessments almost instantly. The need to assess students through the MI theory was agreed upon by everyone in the class. However, standardized tests are still a reality and informally administering parts of standardized tests can help students get over test anxiety.

As a class we had a lot to say about how [|MI assessment] will affect us as teachers and how it will affect our students. In general this changed the way we previously thought about assessment and how we plan on assessing in the future. Apparently this chapter laid out quite a persuasive argument because it convinced the whole class. A main component to this persuasion was the fact that assessing this way is so much fairer to students. We all can remember the teacher that gave the test which covered material we had never seen before and we can all remember how that felt. The concept of assessing how the information was taught seems to be obvious but so many teachers do not do that. This theory also gives the students the opportunity to choose how they want to be assessed. By giving the students choices on how they want to show their mastery of the material, this involves them in their own education. This can either allow the students’ to practice more than one of their intelligences or allow them to use their strongest intelligence. This makes the assessment more about what the students’ know and understand than whether the student can figure out what the teacher wanted. The class found that the MI portfolio idea is worth lifting from this book. This portfolio is helpful not only to show the students what they learned but also to teachers the students will have in the future. Lastly, a consensus was reached that the MI theory will help students think more deeply and more creatively than by using standard assessment practices.

Cam
This particular chapter explains that teachers need to be conscious of when they introduce the eight intelligences, the teacher then cannot go and assess students in a standardized manner. These intelligences cannot be assessed by coloring in bubbles. The most efficient way to assess students is by direct observation and documentation. Collecting data from a student can range from calendar records to audio cassettes. The MI theory of assessment has been simulated in different levels of education, starting with Project Spectrum at a preschool. During the Key Learning Community, kindergarten and high school students were assessed by videotaping. The PIFS program involved the assessment of middle school students by making them understand school and developing cognitive skills. High school students experienced the Arts PROPEL assessment through domain projects and processfolios. When a teacher produces an MI portfolio it should contain the Five C’s of Portfolio Development; celebration, cognitive, communication, cooperation, and competency. The MI theory is meant to help build and support a student’s knowledge and intelligences. This impacts me as a teacher because I will let my students have say in how they are assessed. For example, they can have the option of writing an essay on the nine planets, make a media based project, or produce an art project with a description. This impacts my students because it allows them to practice more than one of their intelligences.
 * Chapter 10; MI and Assessment **

Dani
This chapter is about using the multiple intelligences to assess learning. I learned in this chapter that it just doesn’t make sense to teach to the multiple intelligences and then ignore them when assessing my students. I also learned a number of strategies to assess students using the multiple intelligences. This affects the way I have always thought of assessment. Before taking practicum the word assessment just meant test to me. Whenever my teachers said that word they were talking about testing. This affects my classroom because it will mean I will spend less time writing tests for students and more time creating activities and projects to assess them with instead. It also means that my classroom will be filled with more creative learners.
 * Chapter 10**

Marcy
The MI theory suggests a fundamentally new way for teachers to teach the students but that theory would be useless if teachers continued to assess students with the same methods that have always been used. Again observation and documentation of a student’s work will show true understanding. A few schools or programs that have implemented a system using the MI theory are project spectrum, the Key learning community, and Arts PROPEL. The chapter also suggests the idea that the way the student learned the material should be taken into consideration when assessing the student’s understanding. If the student learned the material by graphs and pictures and the test had neither of those, only a written explanation of what the graphs would show, the student would not do as well. The chapter ends reiterating the importance of portfolios to document students’ progress of learning. Assessing portfolios should assess two types of learning; competency, how much the student learned, and ipsative, comparing a student’s learning against his or her own work. This affects me as a teacher by affecting the way I assess. It offers many ways in which I can assess my students’ learning. Besides if a student can use multiple intelligences to communicate their understanding of a subject then that really shows that the students has learned the material. This effects my students by helping them demonstrate their learning in the way it was learned. It will also help them learn the material better if they learn it in different ways and then are assessed in those different ways as well.

Jason
In this chapter, I learned the importance of using assessments for all eight of the intelligences instead of having just the usually verbal and logical ones. I thought that the example of Huck Finn and how you could use all the different intelligences on his character (Armstrong 93) was really fascinating and important. On a personal level, the chapter struck a cord that I have been talking about for a long time, the notion of standardized tests. I agree with Armstrong that asking a student a multiple choice question about a character is stupid because everyone has a different opinion and sees things differently. The other thing I dislike is when they ask “what was the author thinking”, and all I can say is “if I was the author then I could let you know”. If we are to continue using standardized tests, then I think that questions should have definite answers instead of questions where there could be more than one option. I would definitely use the MI portfolio in my class along with the checklist that allows for students to pick a topic and how they would show they understand the material. This book has some really good strategies to use in the classroom.
 * MI Chapter 10: MI and Assessment **

**Andrew D**
This chapter is all about assessing in ways that go along with students multiple intelligences. According to Howard Gardner the two most important prerequisites to authentic assessment are observation and documentation. A list of a number of different ways teachers can document their students is provided, as well as a few different projects a teacher could use. The Key Learning Community project I thought was interesting because it documents a students learning from kindergarten to twelfth grade. One of the key parts to this chapter and one of the things that impacted me was how you could take one topic, like Huck Finn, and assess it in a way that incorporates each of the eight multiple intelligences. The chapter also talks about MI portfolios students can make that documents there different learning abilities. This chapter will impact my classroom because along with trying to teach to the different multiple intelligences, I will now try to assess in the same way.

Lizzie
When using the MI theory there is always going to be the question of evaluation and assessment. The MI theory is one that proposes a fundamental restructuring of the way in which educators view students’ learning. There are so many ways in which students will learn and teachers will teach, therefore really engaging students as well as getting to know their “minds” is crucial. There are many varieties of assessment, the first of these being the most obvious, observation. What better way to address a students’ learning level then to watch them and see how they understand the material and interact with other students. Another important component of assessment is documentation such as anecdotal records, work samples, audio cassettes, videotapes, photography, student journals, student-kept charts, sociograms, informal tests, informal use of standardized tests, and student interviews. Other ideas include criterion-referenced assessments, classroom maps, and calendar records. There have been several projects that have attempted to create models of assessment similar with the fundamental theory of MI such programs are Project Spectrum, the Key Learning Community, the PIFS (Practical Intelligence for School) and the Arts PROPEL program. Assessment can happen at every level of the eight intelligences, meaning that students can demonstrate their learning in almost any way possible. There is also the idea of assessment in context meaning that both the manner of presentation and the method of response will be important in determining a student’s understanding. The need to provide students with good assessment experiences and access to a variety of presentation will determine the output by the students. Another way to assess is a portfolio which can then be used in five different ways, celebration, cognition, communication, cooperation, and competency. The MI theory provides an assessment framework for which students can have their knowledge and work acknowledged and appreciated. As a teacher I hope that I can always be fair to my students. These different ways of looking at each intelligence, then assessing them is crucial to helping students develop their own skills. Appreciating and acknowledging students’ gifts and creativity is what will make them strive to continue on that path of succeeding.

T ed
The chapter on Multiple Intelligences and Assessment had a great many suggestions for assessing students. The chapter started off with a good laundry list of observational assessment that we can use. Observational assessment is good because it’s almost always authentic. Observation forces the assessor to look at students’ abilities and works, strengthening impressions of multiple intelligences. One idea that I was somewhat surprised with but really liked was informally administering a standardized test. In addition to relaxing students and keeping them from freaking out (which is a normal response to standardized tests), the test would give students the chance to see what standardized tests look like. Familiarity with standardized tests could help prepare them for taking high-risk tests like the SAT (assuming, probably rightfully, that College Board doesn’t make sweeping changes recognizing the validity of Multiple Intelligence Theory). On that note, the large tables comparing Standardized Testing to Authentic Assessment made the distinction even clearer than it has ever been. The section on assessing in eight ways, suggesting for each intelligence various ways to let students show their knowledge about specific topics. I really liked the large eight-by-eight grid showing assessment contexts for assessment by activity. If I can overlap certain activities, it will certainly help my own classroom. The MI Portfolio will also be really useful, providing I can use it correctly. I think I should be able to.

Lindsey
Chapter ten asks the classroom teacher to move away from traditional, standardized tests and instead work towards teaching students in the creative manner from which we encourage their learning. The first step in assessing students in this manner is to observe them at the height of their learning, and to recognize how this helps their learning. In addition, teachers should work to capture student progress in a variety of ways in order to understand how far the student has gone throughout the semester. An interesting aspect of this chapter was that it provided many examples of how various schools have incorporated the multiple intelligences into the classroom, showing that no matter the age, it is very possible to maintain curriculum while still incorporating the intelligences. MI theory maintains that curriculum is essential, yet the students must be permitted to learn in a way which is suitable to them rather than forcing students to test their knowledge in an outdated manner. The “Huck Finn” example was great as this truly depicted how easily the eight intelligences could be incorporated into any subject. Along those lines, students are allowed the liberty of choosing the method of grading. The teacher does not need to worry that the student will not learn as students are being asked to become involved in their education in a manner unusual to most classroom settings. The student is pushed to think deeply and create intriguing products which show their learning.

Jenna
Chapter ten of __Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom__ suggested that teachers use a system based less upon formal standardized or norm-referenced tests, and more upon authentic measures that are "criterion-referenced, benchmarked, or ipsative (i.e., that compare a student to his own past performances" (Armstrong, 88). Authentic testing allows students to show what they've learned in context, which means that they would show their learning in real world situations. There are two very important prerequisites to implement authentic tests in the classroom: observation and documentation. Teachers are recommended to keep journals, work samples, videotapes, photography, student journals, student interviews, etc. to be able to target a child's specific learning styles and needs. When the intelligences are located and specified, a teacher is then able to effectively assess a student without having to worry about whether or not the child is truly depicting what (s)he has learned. With authentic testing, students are able to have the opportunities to use their multiple intelligences to help articulate their understanding. When a child takes a standardized test, the student is forced to show their comprehension through one intelligence that may be his or her weakness. This is why authentic testing is essential to implement in my classroom when I am a teacher. Students already place such a negative connotation with the standardized tests... and why shouldn't they? Standardized tests are biased to what the test-maker is looking for in understanding. I never want my students to feel as if they never were able to have a fair chance of showing me that they truly comprehend the material that I have taught. I would never know that my students had mastered a skill if I force them to show it through one intelligence. It has already been proven that every child learns differently, so it makes perfect sense that every child should be assessed differently. If I give my students a variety of assessments, I will truly being giving the children a fair chance of succeeding and proving to me that they have mastered a skill or subject content.

Andrew F.
This chapter describes the ways in which we must incorporate the multiple intelligences in the way we assess things as educators. The natural progression once providing each lesson in a manner so that each student understands the ideals of a concept, is creating a test that each student can successful by using what they have learned and then applying it. Something this chapter included that I found interesting was a breakdown of the way a teacher could communicate //The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn//, to a multitude of learners just by phrasing certain questions in a way that each student can relate to.

The idea I feel that I can take the most from this chapter was that of MI portfolios. These portfolios are a great way to measure a student's success throughout a semester as well as provide a record for an educator to keep for further reflection after the course has ended. It shows what worked for certain students, and what was not successful, just in case at somepoint in the future you need to try old tricks to reach new students.

Nicholas
Chapter 10: I learned about the Five C’s of Portfolio Development. You have celebration, cognition, communication, cooperation, and competency. This chapter definitely made me think of how important it is that you use all five with your students. There is not one more important than another and they all work together to help document an accurate representation of each students’ multiple intelligences. As a future teacher I want my students to be very involved with each of the Five C’s when building their portfolios. The content of the Five C’s sounds negative as though students are stupid or their intelligence isn’t as high as it should be. I am going to make sure that my students understand the importance in knowing their learning styles and that it is positive knowledge.

Ben
This chapter covers MI and assessments. When embracing the MI into the assessments I will have to create, I need to keep an open mind about authentic situations. The use of Porfolios, Rubrics, and Student-Self assessments are good ways to allow the entrance of MI into the assessments. Using other methods liket the tic-tac-toe assessment, you are able to create different MI spaces that so that the student can line up the 3 that best suit him or her. If you are like me and will have already learned what type of learner your students are, you will be able to set up a tic-tac-toe board where there is a string of the 3 that each student will best fit. Creating assessments that embrace my students' MIs will help them demonstrate what they will have learned throughout the year, the way that suits them best.