MI Chapter 12: MI and Cognitive Skills

Chapter 12 of Mi is about teaching students to use the different intelligences to think deeply about a topic and remember it. Everyone thinks in different ways so it makes sense that the multiple intelligences should be used to describe the different ways that people think about a topic or subject. This will be great when trying to teach my students ways to study for a test as well as when thinking about ways to help students think deeply about material. If I can tap into how they think I can teach to that and encourage that process. Being able to think is often more important than the material.

MI Chapter 11: MI and Special Education

Chapter 11 of MI discusses using MI theory when teaching students with disabilities. It also provides a list of famous figures for each intelligence that struggled with some kind of disability. This affects me because it is a good reminder for me and for all teachers that there is more to the students then just their disability. It is important to stop looking at what they can’t do and focus on what they can do. The MI theory is an excellent way to teach the same material to a student with a disability because it looks at how to communicate information in all intelligences. This is important in my classroom because these strategies will help me teach students in my class who have disabilities.

MI Chapter 8: MI and Classroom Management

Chapter 8 of MI is about using the Multiple Intelligences to help in classroom management. The chapter gives a few different ideas on how to use them when breaking the class up into cooperative learning groups, when trying to develop classroom rules, in conveying transitions and in trying to get the class’s attention. The last one was most useful to me because I had many teachers in school that just could not get and keep the attention of their students. It will be great to try out these strategies on my class and see which ones work best. It affects my class because getting my students’ attention is vital to teaching them. It also means I have a few ideas on how to manage a class which is also important to the learning environment.

MI Chapter 14: MI and Existential Intelligence

Chapter 14 discusses the possibility of a ninth intelligence, existential. This intelligence focuses on the “ultimate life concerns” or in other words the big questions that every culture tries to answer and no one can agree on. The chapter also gives a few ideas on how that intelligence can best be activated in the classroom. This intelligence is pretty interesting because it involves thinking about the unanswerable in many different ways. It affects my classroom because as a teacher it really should be my goal to do this anyway. In order to help students understand other cultures, ideas, people, beliefs and motivations these questions are important to look at.

MI Chapter 13: Other Applications of MI Theory

Chapter 13 applies the MI theory to other aspects of the world besides the classroom. Different software is suggested for different intelligences. The chapter also discusses the different cultures that value each intelligence. This would be good to bring into the classroom after teaching my students about multiple intelligences. This way they can see value in the way they learn. It’d be especially good for those students who feel like teachers don’t value their way of learning.

MI Chapter 7: MI and the Classroom Environment

Chapter 7 is about creating a classroom environment that is friendly and welcoming to students. The chapter asks questions about the environment to help students make improvements on it. It also suggests setting up activity centers for each of the intelligences. This way students can enjoy their strengths while getting a chance to develop intelligences that are not as well developed. I’m not sure that as a teacher I would set up the activity centers but I do understand how important a good learning environment. My high school was always too cold and it made it hard to focus in the winter. Having an environment that is more cozy will make my students feel more welcome in the classroom.

MI Chapter 10: MI and Assessment

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.

MI Chapter 6: MI and Teaching Strategies

Chapter six of MI suggests five different teaching methods for each of the eight intelligences. It emphasizes the fact that there are many different ways to activate students’ intelligences in all subjects. It suggests ways to bring math and science into humanities classrooms. It offers ideas on how to use music in the classroom and how to involve the highly bodily-kinesthetic learners in the lesson. All of the suggestions are excellent and very helpful. They impact my classroom because they are ways of rethinking teaching so that I can help all of my students learn.

MI Chapter 5: MI and Curriculum Development

Chapter five suggests ways to design curriculum that will activate all eight of the students’ intelligences. Suggestions on how to do this include, thematic learning and a seven step lesson plan procedure. The thematic instruction suggests coming up with a theme that can be taught differently to students using each of the eight different intelligences. Using the eight intelligences in creating lesson plans will mean that my lessons help students develop intelligences that are underdeveloped. It will also help them understand the concept in a way that works for them. The idea is to help as many students as possible learn the content to the best of their ability.

MI Chapter 4: Teaching Students About MI Theory

Chapter four of MI is about teaching the multiple intelligences theory to my students. In this chapter I learned that it can be beneficial for my students to reflect on their own learning processes. The chapter suggests many different activities to teach the theory to my students including a kind of treasure hunt, field trips, wall displays, readings and board games. These activities both teach the students about the theory and help them to learn about their own learning processes. This chapter gave me some ideas as to how to help me assess my students’ intelligences and help them understand themselves more. Both will help them succeed in school.

MI Chapter 3: Describing Intelligences in Students

Chapter three of MI is all about trying to figure out what intelligences are strongest in each student. I learned several ways to figure this out including asking parents, collecting student work, looking at school records and asking the students themselves. I also learned how important it is to try and figure out how students learn best as it is helpful in trying to plan assignments that will keep the students engaged in the class. Keeping students engaged will ensure that more students succeed in my classroom. Hopefully, it will also keep behavioral issues to a minimum. All of which will make my classroom excellent.
 

MI Chapter 2: MI and Personal Development

In the book Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, chapter two discusses ways in which I can develop my own intelligences. I learned in this chapter that it is often helpful for a teacher to be skilled in multiple intelligences in order to better help the different learners in his/her classroom. I also learned that certain experiences can either help to “kick start” learning in a certain intelligence or hinder it. The last one is very important in my classroom because it means that I could stunt my student’s growth if I am not supportive enough. Teachers should help students grow, not hinder them.

MI Chapter 1: The Foundations of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences

The first chapter of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom is about the Multiple Intelligence theory. In this chapter I learned that there are currently 8 intelligences in this theory and that everyone has capacity in all intelligences. It doesn’t mean that a person is very good at music and nothing else. Also, the theory states that, most often, more than one intelligence is used at a time. The intelligences are a nice way to think about how students that I will have in my classroom learn best. I am sure that they will all have their strengths and weaknesses, and this theory may help me to find ways to teach to those strengths.