MI+B1+Chapter+4

Abstract
Rachel Fritschy

Chapter four, //Teaching Students About MI Theory//, begins by explaining how the MI Theory is so helpful because they are “linked to concrete antecedents that young and old alike have had experience with: words, numbers, pictures, the body, music, people, the self, and nature” (p. 31). By simplifying the eight intelligences into what they really are, even children as young as eight years old can understand them and therefore use them to determine their personal intelligences in as little as five minutes. Before explaining the model, a MI Pizza is drawn on the board. The [|MI Pizza] is simply a circle drawn on the board that is split into eight slices. Each slice contains an intelligence put into simpler words and an image. Some easily understood questions that could be asked are as follows: for Logical-Mathematical, how many of you can do math? And for Interpersonal, how many people have at least one friend? The most important thing is to “make sure they build in inclusion and give all children a chance to see themselves as intelligent” (p. 33). The next important part is to let the students experience the eight intelligences with activities. Some examples include field trips where you could take the students to a science lab to reinforce logic smart or wall displays in the classroom that represent the intelligences. Another cool way would be to teach a lesson plan using all of the eight intelligences at one point. Beforehand, tell the students to try and be aware of which intelligence is being focused on.

Reflection
Rachel Fritschy

After reading all of the abstracts for chapter four, //Teaching Students About MI Theory//, I noticed how different everyone interpreted the information from the chapter. Amongst all of the differences, however, I did notice some commonalities. The one that recurred three or four times and really jumped out at me was the problem with the lesson idea being too simplistic. Thomas Armstrong demonstrated a great way to convert the actual names of the multiple intelligences into simple terms but for some, his ideas were too simple. Everyone in our practicum is secondary education majors so we will be dealing with middle and high schoolers. If you found the MI lesson ideas too simple for your future classrooms, consider teaching the theory similar to how we did in practicum or by using an awesome [|WebQuest like the one I found here]. It’ll allow the students to investigate multiple intelligences while challenging them at the same time. Another theme I recognized throughout the summaries was excitement about getting to know the students better and having them get to know themselves better. By incorporating a lesson about MI Theory into your curriculum, not only will you have a better idea of how to be a great teacher for the students but the students can really get to know themselves. Students that struggle may realize that it’s not their fault but rather their strongest intelligence isn’t being addressed in the class. It will allow students to take this new knowledge with them throughout the rest of their education and will most likely help them succeed.

Rachel B.
I found this chapter very helpful as a future teacher. It did a nice job of explaining how to integrate the multiple intelligences into your classroom. There were so many examples of how to, overtime, really get your students to connect with and understand what the different intelligences are. I liked that Armstrong simplified the eight intelligences into more manageable, kid-friendly, phrases. The only concern I have is that we are middle/secondary education; therefore we won’t be working with second graders. Middle school students or high school students would laugh at you. Obviously they can handle their teacher stepping it up a notch and describing the eight intelligences with more detail, which I’m sure the author meant. The general idea behind it was good, and I honestly can say I don’t remember learning about multiple intelligences other than sophomore year in high school and that was due to a psychology class, so I’m thrilled to introduce this to my students early on!

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Jen T.
After all these years, now I understand why my teachers thought it was a good idea to have those stupid bingo games on the first day of school. The scavenger hunt in chapter four seems like a good idea, but I think it’s a little too tame for the age group we’re teaching. I’d probably do something I little more wacky. I just can’t think of anything right now. As far as talking to the students about their eight intelligences, I might approach it from more of a psych way by having them do something similar to what we did in class, and I wouldn’t use it as a first day ice-breaker. Overall, I thought this chapter really missed the mark when dealing with middle and high school students, but maybe I am just getting too old.

Rachel F.
Especially after chapter three, I am well aware that I need to include all of the multiple intelligences into my lessons because of the variety of intelligences my students might have. I never thought about actually teaching my class what the multiple intelligences are. I can definitely see how it could be very important and useful for my students to be aware of the multiple intelligences. In the beginning of the chapter, I loved how the teacher asked questions regarding the multiple intelligences that were broad and probably applied to many students. For example, the teacher asked if anyone in the class could speak. Once all of the hands went up, the teacher pointed out that it meant that you must be word smart. Each student, now, might feel more confident and even more intelligent. I also enjoyed all the different ways that the multiple intelligences could be incorporated into the classroom such as field trips, class visitors, and wall displays. The information in this chapter really made me think about the different ways I could get to know my students and how they learn better. I will always strive to be a great teacher and I know that applying lessons like this, I will be able to get through to my students better.

Sara
I think it is important to explain the concept of multiple intelligences to students. This can help them become more understanding of other students’ personal learn styles. As an aspiring high school English teacher I don’t know how I would fit in the lesson on multiple intelligences. I hope to spend part of a lesson period one day explaining the multiple intelligences. In order to familiarize the students with the styles it might be beneficial to assign them groups and assign each group an intelligence. Each group would then present a relevant topic from our English work targeted towards their specific intelligence. Each group would thus engage the class in each intelligence while still working with the current English text. I definitely feel such an exercise would be beneficial to all involved as each student learns which way he or she learns best as well as which ways his or her classmates learn best.

Karin
This chapter gave the idea of introducing the multiple intelligence theory to the students in the classroom, and introducing it to them in a way that includes – which is to say that every student understands that everyone has a potential in each of the eight intelligences. I also like the idea of a “getting to know you” activity using the MI theory. Explaining the MI theory to my students is going to be absolutely crucial in my classroom if (and I do!) intend to use MI theory in my teaching. I think that, as important as it is for me to know what each student’s inclinations are, it is more important for them to know their own inclinations – they might just learn something new about themselves and discover a method of learning they had never before known.

Geoff
Chapter 4 deals with explaining Multiple Intelligence to your students. I think this is a really good idea, because if I can get students to think about their intelligences and to see what their strengths and weaknesses are, it will ultimately help me as a teacher because I will be able to then understand how they learn and how I can best include their learning styles in my instruction and assessment. I also like the idea of wall displays on page 35. I am a big fan of covering the classroom walls with student work, but I think that including posters and pictures of people or scenes that depict the multiple intelligences will also help increase student self-awareness in terms of intelligence, and I also plan on including students in helping to create these displays, which could include putting their own work up on the walls as well. I think that it is the benefit of everyone in a classroom when students are aware of their own learning styles and when teachers can include as many of these learning styles as possible, and introducing MI and making it an active and visible part of the classroom could go a long way in making that possible.

Courtney
This chapter really opened my eyes as to how easy the multiple intelligences can be introduced to students at any level. I like the idea of when introducing the concept make sure to describe it in a way that all students realize that they have all the multiple intelligences so they don’t try to focus on one specific one. The big concept is to want them to explore all intelligences. I really liked all the activities that chapter provided to explain MI Theory but the one I liked the most was the biography portion. As an English teacher I think that could easily fit in to my class. It would be interesting to have the students pick a famous person that represents a specific intelligence and relate the famous person to themselves, I may be able to learn a lot about a student in that way.

Tracey Hollingsworth
"Teaching Students About MI Theory"

The best way of teaching students about Multiple Intelligence Theory, is to simply explain it. Explain it by asking questions that build inclusion, draw the MI Pizza (shown above), and use simple terms. Put the concepts of Multiple Intelligence into their perspective by providing examples of famous figures and heroes. Teachers should also plan activities and projects that teach all of the intelligences by using examples of “real-life” applications such as career days, field trips, and biographies. By giving students choices, teachers can observe which intelligence certain students lean toward. Another fun example of teaching the intelligences is the Human Intelligence Hunt similar to what we did in class. After students learn about their own intelligences and those of their classmates, creating a wall display is a great way to reinforce what they learned. By emphasizing relationships about the intelligences throughout the year, students will build a great sense of the Multiple Intelligence Theory.

Stephanie P.
The eight intelligences are a concrete in education; they can be taught to the younger and older generations. There are many different ways to teach them in the classroom. They can be shown on career day, through field trips, lesson plans, activities, displays, readings, tables, treasure hunts, board games, and stories and/or plays. I like the idea of the treasure hunts (which they called "Human Intelligence Hunt" (pages 35-36)), board games, and MI stories because they are very creative. There is a lot of thought that goes into these particular items because they are coming from scratch and to be used in a teacher's curriculum. The other ideas that I was fond of was career day and field trips. This is because the students can actually see the intelligences being played out and how they can and will use them in the real world. This may also help them decide what they want to be in the future. This is because if they see their intelligences being played out, they may want to follow in that person's footsteps. I will use these ideas in my classroom because I think that it is very important that the students know their intelligences to better succeed in life.
 * Chapter 4: "Teaching Students About MI Theory"**

Stephanie L.
Teaching students about the multiple intelligences theory is a great idea! It will help them understand that even though a certain teaching style may be boring and uninteresting to them, it may be the way other students can learn best. It also allows students to learn a lot about themselves and what they are interested in. I really enjoyed the idea of having eight tables set up, each labeled with a different intelligence. Completing the tasks at each table, gives the students a chance to see the different intelligences first hand and allows for a fun learning experience! The Human Intelligence Hunt was also a great idea because it allows students to get to know one another better, and also gives them a chance to get to know themselves a little better.

Megan
This chapter was really geared toward younger kids and setting up classrooms for younger kids. I think it’s really cool to teach them about learning styles from the beginning. I liked the idea of using terms like “word smart” and “people smart” make the whole concept of multiple intelligences easier for children to understand. Plus if you teach them about intelligences early on kids will start to pay attention to what they like and what works for them in the classroom. I also liked that the chapter talked about introducing the idea of multiple intelligences and not assigning them to children. The chapter focused on building inclusion and giving students a chance to test out all intelligences. The chapter talked about specific ways to introduce MI into the classroom. I like that it took one of the traditional pieces of education: career day and made it connect to MI. You could have people come in and either they or you could talk about how people who have job x tend to be people with x intelligence(s). it’s taking what we already do and making it better and more meaningful.

Jordan
Chapter 4 Teaching Students About MI Theory This chapter outlined activities that a class could do to learn the eight intelligences. It seemed like many of them were directed towards children in a younger age group than we will be teaching, but I can see how some can be changed to be more middle or high school friendly. I really gravitated toward the idea of having students read a biography and then figuring out which intelligence that person dominantly displayed. I think that that would be a great activity to do in a history class, which is the content area I want to teach. Teaching students about the eight intelligences could be very helpful to them, not only in class but also working on a project or studying for a test.

Jen P.
I like the Figure 4.1 model on page 33 that visualizes the eight intelligences in a wheel. All of the intelligences are represented as equal; they also have a picture and description words. That would be a great tool to explain MI Theory in the classroom! By itself, the diagram covers linguistic, logical-mathematical and spatial intelligences right in the explanation because there are words, equal proportions, and pictures; plus it makes sense. By explaining aloud the explanation, I might even be able to target musical intelligence. By using a recording from Garage Band or a video with audio on iMovie, I could show this diagram and have a noise symbolize each intelligence. In this chapter, there are also other great tips for explaining MI, as well as a whole plethora of inspiring ideas for lesson plans. I am excited to get going!