Chapter 9: The MI School

Chapter 9 of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom was all about the MI School – a school that not only uses, but is actually built on the ideas of multiple intelligences and differentiated instruction. Key elements of the MI School include daily instruction in all eight of the multiple intelligences. Actual physical differences in the school include things like “pods,” which act as student/teacher groups which focus on specific disciplines or pursuits, or the flow room, where students do activities that stimulate their intelligences rather than letting them flounder. Another key aspect of the MI school is mixed-age grouping. This is based on the theory that having students at different ability levels is more enriching than having a class full of students who are theoretically at the same level of mastery and ability.

Chapter 12: MI and Cognitive Skills

Chapter 12 of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom focused on a series of topics such as memory, problem solving, Blooms levels of cognitive complexity, and other ideas. The section that stuck out most to me was the one on Christopherian Encounters – those special rare moments when you suddenly realize that something you’ve been sure about was a misconception. Those moments are rare, but I honestly believe that that is the most helpful part of learning something new. I really appreciate the value of the tables in this book, and the table on Bloom’s six levels of Educational Objectives was really helpful – it’s good to think about how you can get things to stick in students’ minds not so they can rattle them off, but so they understand them. The memory section was really good too – making sure that students can pass a test is one thing, but to make sure students fully understand and can use information is another story entirely.

Chapter 11: MI and Special Education

It was really cool to hear special needs reframed as a growth paradigm instead of a weakness. I hadn’t really thought about how intelligence difficulties besides linguistic and spatial aren’t regarded by the majority with the same severity as those two. The table 11.1, which emphasized translating the traditional views of special education to a growth paradigm, was really interesting. I particularly liked the part about maintaining the individual’s integrity. Figures 11.2 and 11.3 were really eye-catching and absolutely fascinating. The high achieving people were really amazing to think about, and the suggestions for dealing with difficulties in different fields by empowering different intelligences were really helpful. I really hope that knowing this will lead to fewer referrals to special education classrooms, because I feel that isolation, in most cases, is bad for everybody involved and self-esteem is vital.

Chapter 8: MI and Classroom Management

Chapter 8 of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom discussed using the multiple intelligences as a means of managing classrooms. Many of these techniques I’ve seen used before – the summer camp I worked at made extensive use of kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal techniques for getting the attention of students. Managing individual behaviors is one of my fears, and I hadn’t thought of many of the ideas given in the chapter (Some of them would have come in very handy over the summer)! The chart that the chapter supplied was really a great summation of what the chapter was discussing. Aggressive, withdrawn, and hyperactive children have always tested me and made me doubt my ability to help them, but now that I know more than one outlet for dealing with it, I feel a lot more confident.

Chapter 14: MI and Existential Intelligence

I was really excited to read Chapter 14 of MI in the Classroom, because I’ve always related as an existentially involved individual since before I became heavily interested in music or literature, and have always kept existential concerns at the forefront of my thoughts. It probably didn’t hurt that my human behavior teacher in high school preemptively included this as one of Gardner’s intelligences. I’m glad that the chapter did not dismiss Existential Intelligence as ridiculous, even backing it up in fields like math and science. I really hope that study of existential intelligence develops further. To my own experience, people who identify as existentially intelligent can feel alienated by a curriculum that could seem useless not only to real life, but to something larger than life. There’s a reason many existential thinkers have pushed away from schooling, or sought to educate themselves.

Chapter 13: Other Applications of MI Theory

Chapter 13 of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom was really interesting – it applied Multiple Intelligence theory to fields that I hadn’t really considered. The cultural section really appealed to me, because I’ve always felt deprived of exposure to anything except certain European and American cultures. I do admit that I thought it was funny that Linda Ronstadt was the best Hispanic American musically intelligent person they could come up with (although I love her music). I was also really interested in the computer aspect of Multiple Intelligence Theory – I liked how the book said that computers were intelligently neutral and relied upon the software to interact with users. The career counseling part struck me well too – I feel like I never had any career counseling, but that may have been because I was so sure of what I wanted to do when I graduated from high school.

Chapter 7: MI and the Classroom Environment

Chapter seven of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom really appealed to me – I took a Human Behavior course in high school that really did a lot to clue me into the effects of a student’s immediate environment on learning, understanding, and demonstrating knowledge. The list of questions is really helpful – if the needs that applied to me were not met in a classroom, I would have a lot of difficulty concentration, and I certainly understand that other people would be just as concerned about other issues. The grid of topic-specific and open-ended for centers addressing intelligences seem like a really great idea, but in a small classroom the temporary centers may be difficult to pull off. I’d definitely run through the checklist before opening my classroom for business!

Chapter 6: MI and Teaching Strategies

Chapter Six of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom was immensely helpful. I’ve been having trouble wrapping my head around how some of the intelligences could be addressed in an English classroom. The trouble spots for me have mostly been Naturalist intelligence, logical intelligence, body intelligence, and spatial intelligence. This chapter was full of really great ideas, and it was good to read the context that the strategies could be used in as well. For naturalist, I really like the idea of going on a nature walk – that could be good for a day of writer’s workshop. Classroom theater would be really good for discussing a play. Idea sketching out a plot line would be really good in my classroom for spatial, and I was really surprised that I’ve always left out the organization and logic aspect of logical intelligence, focusing instead on math and science. Logical organization would be my best bet for that intelligence in my classroom.

Chapter 5: MI and Curriculum Development

Chapter Five of the Multiple Intelligences book was about the role of Multiple Intelligence theory in developing our curriculums. The long lists of ideas for teaching to different intelligences was really helpful – that would be a good few pages to have an extra copy of, maybe to keep somewhere. I may have trouble coming up for ideas for some of the other intelligences I don’t really relate to, like naturalist or spatial, so it’s good to have a laundry list of ideas that can be elaborated on. I think this chapter will be very important when I’m teaching a classroom. I’m starting to realize the importance of having a professional library. The idea of making an eight-branch graphic organizer is also really helpful to me.

Chapter 10: MI and Assessment

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.

Chapter 4: Teaching Students About MI Theory

I’d always just figured that I would explain the Multiple Intelligences theory to students. While a lot of the techniques explained in this chapter were innovative and creative, many of them seem to be targeted towards younger children. These are of course excellent techniques for those grade levels, in my opinion. However, this is operating under the assumption that they’ve already been introduced at one point to these, as I was. If students have never been introduced to MI Theory, these may be excellent ways to start. In that case, I’d be glad to use them in my classroom. For my envisioned classroom, the biography exercise would be very fitting, as would the reading from books about MI Theory. I also thought the Human Intelligence Hunt was a really cute idea, especially for students who don’t know each other very well. It almost (almost) makes me wish I were planning on teaching a younger crowd.

Chapter 3: Describing Intelligences in Students

This chapter, while repeating a lot of information about Multiple Intelligences that we’ve already become familiar with, offers a great deal of useful information-seeking techniques to become very comfortable with students’ strong intelligences. I was a little surprised and frustrated with the initial contention that quick tests shouldn’t be used to exactly identify students’ strong multiple intelligences. It seemed to me like that would have been a good technique to get an immediate inventory of students, even if it weren’t exact. I think it could work if there were also personal connection to students. A lot of the ideas offered sound really helpful for going in depth.

Chapter 2: MI and Personal Development

This last chapter makes it a point to make it clear that the favored intelligences of the educator will be evident in the classroom. It is important not to obscure less favored intelligences in the classroom, so the teacher must be proactive in including other intelligences, either through student involvement or seeking advice from a colleague. The chapter emphasizes that a teacher can take steps to develop intelligences that have maybe been missed out on earlier in life. The example of Mozart really helped to show the importance of nurture in the theory of multiple intelligences.

Chapter 1: The Foundation of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences

This chapter really made multiple intelligences fall into place for me. I’d always had a vague detached understanding of Multiple Intelligence Theory since even elementary school, but until this reading it never really connected. The big chart starting on page four showed me just how big the scope of MI theory is. I also hadn’t thought about the tests that Howard Gardner set up to prove the labels of his intelligences. The key points that the chapter discussed were helpful too: I hadn’t thought how an activity could connect to many intelligences – the examples for multiple intelligences that are usually given are isolated to that one intelligence.