Chapter 12: MI and Cognitive Skills

Gardener has theorized that people do not have “good” or “bad” memories in general, but rather they have varying degrees of memory in different intelligences. People may have a great bodily-kinesthetic memory and can easily remember a dance, but they might have a poor visual memory and cannot keep different works of art straight. Another cognitive skill that MI can help strengthen is problem solving. Thinking through problems and issues in different intelligences can be very helpful: people who are stronger spatial learners can visualize a problem rather than write a mathematical equation to help solve it. One large issue all educators face today is clearing up students’, no matter how old, misconceptions; often people firmly believe in the wrong answer because they were never taught otherwise in a way that made sense to them. The last application of cognitive skills in relation to MI is Bloom’s taxonomy working along side MI to take learning from simply understanding something in one intelligence, to being able to apply, explain, analyze, and evaluate it as well. As a teacher, I will need to use MI not just for teaching understanding, but for teaching problem solving and higher order thinking.

Chapter 11: MI and Special Education

Special education sadly tends to focus on what students can’t do instead of what they can do. Being lower functioning than average in one intelligence does not mean that a student isn’t going to be well versed in another intelligence. MI theory supports the idea that forcing students who have disabilities or difficulties to focus only on what they struggle with and rarely let them explore the intelligences they excel at is no way to teach. A dyslexic student might struggle with reading, but be a brilliant spatial and bodily-kinesthetic learner. MI suggests that rather than try to work on reading in a linguistic sense, work on it in the intelligences the student excels at. Students in special education with IEPs need to be taught in all the intelligences, just like students in mainstream classrooms. Everyone is smart in different combinations of intelligences, and special education students are no different: we just need to learn to teach to them in a style they understand. I am currently in an Alternative Education classroom at Mt. Blue and the way my mentor teacher handles students with learning disabilities, behavioral problems and “at risk” home lives is MI theory at it’s best. I hope to continue learning from her different ways to teach students who may not have the set of intelligences teachers are used to.

Chapter 8: Grading and Reporting Achievement

Grading is not about letters or checks and minuses, it is about giving appropriate, useful feedback to students so that they may progress and become better learners. A grade must represent a student’s ability to meet milestone goals set in place by standards that are clear to the student. Assessments and grades are two different things, and grades do not need to include assessments. Assessments are used for reporting student knowledge at a particular time and figuring out misconceptions a student has or how far long they are in learning, and there for should be used to help teacher see where to go next and not in the grade book. Using mean averages to calculate grades is a poor idea at best, because it doesn’t reflect what a student knows as an end result of their learning process. Bad grades at the beginning when understanding was weak shouldn’t weight down thoughtful understanding at the end of a unit. When I grade, I will need to do so by the school’s standards and procedures and while I may not agree with them, I can help my students to understand my grading system and what it means as well as how it must translate into the pre-set report card grades they must receive in the end.

Chapter 8: MI and Classroom Management

Management and control in the classroom can also be taught through the multiple intelligences. One of the first steps towards managing a classroom is getting the attention of the students. Using a hand signal, a word, a clapping patter, or simply going silent are all different ways to get students focused on the teacher while still utilizing different intelligences like bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, musical, or intrapersonal, respectively. Another important time to be able to manage the room is during transition periods, like before and after lunch, recess, and at the end of the school day. Using MI cues get students in the “zone” can be very useful to save time and quickly get back on track. Class rules, group forming, and individual behavior can all be managed with more grace if teachers implement MI strategies that their students respond to. Which strategies I choose to use will largely depend on what intelligences my students are. As I get to know my students, I will be able to try different ways of managing classroom activities and occurrences that best capture their attention and respect.

Chapter 14: MI and the Existential Intelligence

Gardener has some what proposed a ninth intelligence that meets the majority of his criteria: Existentialism. This intelligence hasn’t been fully supported by enough evidence to become an official intelligence, but it is worth knowing about and understanding. It focuses on the ability of an individual to see their place in the “big picture” of their life, their world, and their universe. It also includes an understanding of life, death, fate, and an ability to fully experience love or total immersion in art. While this sounds like a “spiritual” or “religious” intelligence, it is not: it simply means an individual strives to answer and understand the big issues and questions that many religions also try to answer, because it is human nature to want to understand. It can be difficult to integrate into a classroom setting, and will often not be included in lesson plans to teach to this intelligence, but it can be done by asking students to think deeper about the subjects they are studying. To me, the existential intelligence is really just trying to answer deeper and more broad “essential questions” and should be used to further probe students’ understanding of material and big questions.

Chapter 13: Other Applications of MI Theory

Multiple Intelligence Theory is relevant not only in the classroom, but in all aspects of life. People of all intelligences can use computers, which are becoming a bigger and bigger part of our culture. Photoshop, Microsoft Word, Google Earth, and Garage Band are all programs that work very well with different intelligences. Cultural Diversity also naturally incorporates the Multiple Intelligences. Different cultures value different intelligences, such as navigation, song, dance, and written word. But all cultures use all eight intelligences. What children want to “grow up to be” relies heavily on their favored intelligences and will likely lead to a career in a field that requires participants to be very strong in their intelligence. This means that I will need to tie intelligences into things other than the classroom, and help students to see that this isn’t just a way of learning English, but a way of leanring throughout life.

Chapter 7: MI and the Classroom Environment

Not only is it necessary to teach to the multiple intelligences, it is necessary to organize, arrange and decorate a classroom keeping them in mind. A classroom should be set up with many things to stimulate each intelligence. This could mean having pictures on the walls, pets in the room, music in the background, or many other intelligence-stimulating surroundings. But it is not only about how the classroom appears, but also how time is managed, how the teacher speaks, and how students are exposed to experiences. Activity centers can be placed around the room and may be permanent or temporary. Have sketchpads and paints at a spatial area, headphones and CDs at a musical area, clay at a kinesthetic station, anything to help stimulate students’ intelligences. In my mind, the set up of my classroom will be very important. The classrooms I functioned the best in were always ones that had an area for me to feel comfortable in, whether that be a beanbag over by the bookshelf or an area for me to spread out my work and get organized. I hope to create a classroom in which all students feel stimulated and comfortable.

Chapter 9: Bringing it All Together” Curriculum and Instruction Through the Les on UBD and DI

Teachers who use backwards design and differentiated instruction to strengthen their teaching methods generally follow nine “rules.” These “rules” create a framework for teaching and learning with respect, supporting students’ needs, and teaching and accessing in a fair and effective manner. By looking at a unit plain about nutrition aimed at 5th and 6th grade students, the reader can see how a well-constructed unit can and must morph into a unit that addresses different students’ needs. The use of pre-assessment as well as continuing assessment throughout the course of the unit can help the teacher understand what misconceptions or understandings students’ have and how they can be addressed to make sure the students are on-task and learning at an appropriate level. This chapter also suggests a litany of ideas that teachers can use to differentiate their units and lesson plans so that all students can benefit. The chapter really brought to life the idea that even the most well constructed and well thought-out unit will need to change as new information is presented to the teacher. I will need to use the results of assessments to shape my lessons and help me learn how to reach and teach all of my students.

Chapter 7: Teaching for Understanding in Academically Diverse Classrooms

Understanding requires more than the memorization of facts and the ability to pass a test. “Active intellectual work” is necessary for students to truly gain understanding (108). Essential questions help students to use higher order thinking and begin to understand what they know, what they don’t, and what they wish to learn by using deep critical thinking. Teachers should remember that the ladder framework isn’t really how students learn. Learning does not happen sequentially, it is not always necessary to know the basics to explore the deeper questions; often, exploring big ideas helps to teach the basics. The WHERETO framework is also helpful in leading students to true understanding. All these ways of helping students think deeper and question further and understand better are essential for teachers to use in order to assist their students in deeper understanding.

Chapter 6: Responsive Teaching with UBD in Academically Diverse Classrooms

Teachers who wish to teach effectively must create a curriculum that built up from the most important and relevant ideas within a discipline. Students should learn the skills and knowledge the curriculum is teaching, but more importantly, students should know how to apply their knowledge and see how it is relevant to their lives. Students should know the goals of the curriculum and how they can meet them. All students should be focusing on the big ideas and how it relates to them. Just because student needs to catch up on basic skills before they can fully understand a lesson does not mean they should be left out of seeing the big picture. This means that as a teacher, I need to know what my students’ strengths and weaknesses are so that I can teach to both to ensure that I strengthen all their knowledge. My students will gain a better understanding of my subject that is applicable to their lives and presents knowledge in a clear manner that displays it’s importance.

Chapter 6: MI and Teaching Strategies

Expanding on the previous chapter, Armstrong goes into detail about multiple ways to teach to each intelligence. Instead of using expected examples, he lists ideas that are novel and do-able. Rather than reach linguistic students only in English, tell them a story in science. Use color to help students organize their ideas, opinions, and facts. Don’t just play music in class: set vocabulary words to a rhythm, put the names of the fifty states into song-form. The possibilities for each intelligence are endless, and reading about ideas and examples just sparks more for me. Coming up with new ways to convey information or get students to think is exciting and invigorating to me. While it may be a challenge, learning teaching strategies to teach to all of the intelligences is a task I look forward to.

Chapter 5: MI and Curriculum Development

Teaching to different intelligences isn’t a new concept: Plato, Rousseau and countless others throughout history have made note of different ways of learning. Now, this concept has transformed into a way of teaching that is essential in the modern classroom. MI teachers need to be able to shift from one intelligence to the next in their teaching to ensure that they reach all students. Most classrooms are focused on the teacher delivering the content through lectures, notes, worksheets, and textbooks. In an MI classroom, the teacher spends time brainstorming and planning different ways to teach to all the intelligences. When planning a curriculum, I will need to be constantly thinking, “how can I translate this to a different intelligence?” The goal is to be able to create lessons, units, and curriculum that cater to all types of learning, and this can be done through asking questions, considering the possibilities, brainstorming, creating suiting activities, making a plan, and setting it into action.

Chapter 5: Tiering Assessments

Tiering is when a teacher adjusts assignments and assessments to suit students’ abilities and interests. It does not mean less work for students having a harder time and more work for students who have already grasped the concepts. Through the use of tiering, teachers are able to provide assignments for all students based on their readiness level that will still allow them to meet standards and expectations. Learning contracts, learning menus, and tic-tac-toe boards are great examples of using tiering to suit students’ needs and interests while still bringing them up to speed on the gaining of required knowledge. Like most things in teaching, tiering is a learned skill and the more it is practiced, the better we are able to do it. In order to teach in a differentiated classroom, we need to be able to tier and do so effectively. In my classroom, I will need to fully understand my students and their needs as well as the standards they need to meet in order to tier effectively. Giving students options and say in how I will do this will be a great way to involve them in their learning and show me what I need to know about them.

Chapter 6: Creating Good Test Questions

Tests are meant to assess students’ knowledge, and therefore should include only clear, important information that will reflect mastery. Using all one type of question, like multiple choice, is repetitive and won’t reflect mastery of a student who doesn’t think in multiple choice terms. Questions should be varied and require students to provide their own answers at some point. Unclear and tricky questions should be avoided because they don’t assess students’ mastery, but rather if they can comprehend a muddled question. But in writing clear questions, it is essential to not give away the answer because of grammar, statements in previous questions, and so forth. And while prompts must be clear and not give anything away, it is fair to include common errors in a list of answers. Differentiated instruction is all about students’ work over time, not just a snapshot of their abilities, because of this, multiple small tests work better than one large, high-stakes one at the end of the unit. All of this boils down to the fact that I will need to create tests that vary in question format, have clear directions and questions, and make sure that the end result is a reflection of the mastery of my students.

Chapter 10: MI and Assessment

If one teaches to the multiple intelligences, it makes no sense to test to only a few. While assessment usually consist of pen, paper, and a litany of questions to answer, MI assessment seeks to prove an understanding of knowledge in any form that gets the job done. Students who learn in different intelligences should be allowed to demonstrate their understanding in ways that best suit their learning styles. Students should be allowed to submit essays, songs, videos, dioramas, photographs, anything that shows they know the material. If students are being taught to strengthen their intelligences and become accountable for their own learning, they should have a say in how they get to demonstrate their learning. Portfolios are a great way to do this, and they can be anything from physical manila folders to online compilations of student work. Portfolios can be used for self-reflection, celebration of knowledge, sharing of achievement, and competency. With endless possibilities for assessment in MI, I feel confident that I will take the time to learn and understand how to evaluate student knowledge in many different ways. After all, they deserve to explain their understanding in a way that makes sense to them.

Chapter 4: Three Important Types of Assessment

Portfolios, rubrics, and self-assessment are all essential in a differentiated classroom. Portfolios provide a long-term look at a student’s work and progress throughout a period of time and can be valuable to help see improvement. Rubrics, either analytic or holistic, are great for assessing papers and projects that can go into portfolios. Rubrics are a learned skill and are never perfect and can always be revised and reused. Student self-assessment is wonderful because it allows the students to reflect on their progress, their strengths, and their weaknesses. I am partial to all three types of assessment and will likely be happy to use all of them in my teaching. I’d use analytic rubrics to grade assignments and allow students to use the same rubrics to assess themselves and then put all the works and filled in rubrics into a portfolio for later review.

Chapter 5: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms

True assessment is evidence of leaning because it fairly assesses whether or not a student has mastered a subject and is able to apply the knowledge gained in real-world situations. Assessment that is reliable needs to see knowledge displayed in multiple ways. Giving multiple vocabulary tests in the same format is not fair assessment as it does not assess all students fairly or show mastery in multiple ways. Declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and disposition are three different goals for education; it is necessary to formulate different assessments for each type because they are all different. One cannot measure different types of knowledge with one blanket assessment. All students need to be able to prove their understanding of what is being taught, but how they do so should be up to them. In order to be a productive and effective teacher in a differentiated classroom, I must assess my students before, during, and after a unit, and I must do so in many different ways to insure that all of my students can demonstrate their knowledge in a way that works for them.

Chapter 2: Mastery

Mastery is being able to use and apply knowledge in contexts other than the one it was learned in. Many different forms of assessment and tracking the progress of the student in multiple ways over time can determine mastery. Just because a student can complete a project or talk about a subject and sound knowledgeable does not mean they are. Using written responses helps to see how well students know something, because in writing, it is harder to graze over the parts one does not know. Students should be able to prove their mastery in multiple ways in a differentiated classroom. This means that I need to assess my students multiple times throughout a unit to make sure they are on the right track. It also means I will need to figure out how many ways to let them prove their knowledge.

Chapter 3: Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom

Chapter 3: Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom
In a differentiated classroom, assessments and lessons are made clear to the students. There should be no surprises on tests or worries about what will be on it: the students should be well informed about what they will be assessed on and how. Pre-assessments should be used before starting a unit, and the information we learn from them should be used to shape the unit and lessons we are going to teach. Formative assessments should occur frequently and help us to determine where students stand in their understanding of the subject mater: formative assessments are essential. Summative assessments should be created before the unit is fully planned. All lessons should help guide the students to understand and master the material that is on the summative assessment. This means that as a teacher, it is my job to be clear about assessments and make sure there are no surprises for my students when they take any test or quiz: they should already know what will be covered.