MI+Chapter+6+Block+1

Abstract:
Chapter six gives [|specific teaching strategies] for all Intelligences. Since all of our students learn differently, as teachers we should have many different strategies. One goal as teachers is to help students to develop more in depth understandings of the content and this can be done by incorporating different learning strategies into the classroom. Specific examples include: For linguistic learners: storytelling, brainstorming, tape recording, journal writing and publishing. Spatial learners: visualization, color cues and picture metaphors. Bodily kinesthetic: classroom theater and hands on thinking. For musical learners: rhythms, songs, raps, and chants. Interpersonal: cooperative groups, board games and simulations. Intrapersonal: personal connections, choice time and goal setting. And finally naturalistic: nature walks and plants as props.

Synthesis:
Whether directly saying it or not, there had seemed to be a general consensus that all of these example from the chapter will become more tools that we as teachers will have in our “bag of tricks”. Also while reading the classes responses there was a common theme of identifying their own personal intelligences, but more importantly there was a lot of acceptance of having to work on or become familiar with the intelligences they do not relate to. Among several classmates there was the recognition of the importance and the effective-ness of [|storytelling] mainly because it can be applied to all disciplines. It was nice to see a few people talked about how to turn some of these examples in to type II technologies, because it is very important in engaging students.

Abstract and Synthesis by: Spencer Hodge

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Sam Leal
Chapter 6: MI Theory and Teaching Strategies

Chapter 6 in Armstrong’s book Multiple Intelligences gives many great examples of teaching strategies to teach to all eight intelligences. It’s very important to pull a few tips from each of the eight intelligences because there are going to be so many different types of learners in every classroom. Got to just make the bag of tricks bigger and bigger. Also when I first thought to read this chapter I was thinking to myself I should really focus on the teaching strategies for logical-mathematical intelligences because I’m a math concentration. But then I thought, well that’s already what I’m good at and not all my students are going to learn like me. So I changed my focus to pull some strategies to teach to the other intelligences, I’ll have to learn to teach math to many different learners.

One thing I really like as a trick is using different colors while teaching a lesson. It really makes sense that many students who are spatial and visual oriented will be more focused if they see the changes in colors while I teach. I just thought that was quick, easy, and pretty cool. My favorite section in the chapter described strategies for teaching to bodily-kinesthetic learners. Just by having students be more involved raising their hand, holding up 1,2, or 3 to show their understanding will get some students excited and stay on topic. Lots in this chapter to pull into my future classroom.

Alex Randall
MI Chapter 6 This chapter start right off by saying that no one type of teaching will appeal to all of the eight intelligences (proposed by this book) and that, as long as a teacher shifts the "intelligence emphasis from presentation to presentation, there will always be a time during the period or day when a student has his or her own most highly developed intelligence(s) actively involved in learning" (73). Then it goes on to talk about different effective strategies into several paragraphs as ways to help students of each intelligence. The entire chapter is spent on explaining these efficient ways to help students of each intelligence. These strategies could be used to teach lessons with a focus on one intelligence at a time, making sure that everyone has had a chance to learn in the way that is most comfortable to them. This is a really great resource for educators (especially the newer ones that are not experienced enough or the older ones that are stuck in their older ways) to use. Reading through some of them gave me ideas as to how to address intelligences that I am not comfortable with myself. As an interpersonal learner that has a strong suit in visual and intrapersonal learning, I need to be able to understand how to teach students that learn through musical or logical means.

Cidney
Chapter 6 provides a wealth of information on different activities, techniques, and teaching strategies that use different intelligences. Most of the activities described in the book are open-ended, are easily accessible to every student, and are especially helpful in exposing students to all intelligences, even ones that they might be weaker in. In today’s classrooms, the most commonly addressed intelligences are the linguistic and logical/mathematical. Armstrong leaves out the traditional worksheet, textbook, and lecture teaching strategies in his description of linguistic intelligence techniques, and instead focuses on strategies that are accessible for every learner. Armstrong also gives examples of logical/mathematical strategies that can be used in every subject (not just mathematics) such as Socratic questioning, which promotes critical thinking in students. The other intelligences’ examples are also adaptable to multiple subjects.

I particularly liked the sections on logical/mathematical intelligence and naturalistic intelligence because my logical/mathematic is my least developed, and I find it difficult to see how I would fit naturalistic intelligence into my classroom. I particularly like the strategy of Socratic questioning to promote critical thinking skills, and can see this activity fitting into my classroom easily. I have used socrative.com (the digital alternative to traditional Socratic questioning) before in my practicum classes, and absolutely love it. Talking about literature in this framework is very easy, and taps into the logical/mathematic intelligences. In the matter of naturalistic intelligences, I can definitely see myself having a class pet to provide a more comfortable atmosphere to naturalistic learners, especially if it’s a fish! Also, holding class outside would be another way to use naturalistic teaching strategies in my classroom.

Colby Hill
MI Chapter 6 Reading about these strategies does make me a bit skeptical, admittedly. Sometimes it seems like these books are trying to eliminate the use of lectures and worksheets, which I think would be crazy. Page 73 does disprove total elimination, though, saying “this is not to say that textbooks, worksheets, and lectures should never be used. They serve as excellent channels for effectively imparting certain kinds of information.” Although I would complain with total annihilation of textbooks (cheaper online and can be used just as effectively with an iPad etc), sometimes nothing will work better than a good old worksheet or lecture. Throughout the chapter, though, many nice alternatives are presented, and many of which I had already planned on including or will now. Storytelling is a great one, for example, because it’s great to read to students of any age—even in college. What’s even better is the idea of students coming up with their own stories and acting out the script for the class. Even if a student does not like acting, the idea of coming up with their own stories is great. Require various writing strategies and then the student wants to write. Journal writing is another great one. We did this in my junior year, and then we got to read them out loud some days. It was quite embarrassing the first few times, but it ended up being one of the favorite things we did in class each week. Other strategies include classification, Socratic questioning, visualization, color cues, body answers, songs and raps, peer sharing, board games, simulations, and goal-setting sessions as the big ones I would like to include.

Elizabeth Sargent
Chapter 6 of //Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom// gave 40 teaching strategies, with five examples for each of the eight intelligences. For example, in linguistic intelligence, the author gave examples of storytelling, brainstorming, tape recording, journal writing, and publishing. The author said what was needed in each strategy and how they were effective.

In one of my practicum classes we must create a digital story to help teach viewers/learners in an engaging way. This may be why storytelling stuck out so much to me. Not only am I currently involved in doing a lesson to teach my peers but also effectively portraying the essential ideas in interesting ways. Knowing why storytelling is an important way to teach is also good for me at the moment. I now know I don’t need to get too extravagant or original. Students respect speaking from the heart, and storytelling is not just for little kids.

When I was reading about journal writing I couldn’t help myself from trying to figure out ways to make journal writing a type II technology learning experience. I’ve always written journals on actual paper, but what if we could create posters, or movies, or a wild jumble of random thoughts on graphic organizers on technologies like Glogster, imovie, and Mindnode. Of course, I have used journal writing in Noteshare before, and we were able to share Noteshare with our peers and teachers. We could also make comments on the side, where we wanted to interject a thought.

Jordan Hale
Teaching strategies for linguistic intelligent learner include such things as storytelling, tape recording and journal writing. These activities focus on word projects so the learner can read, write or listen to stories to help them learn the material better. For stronger mathematical thinkers, examples of strategies to include in teaching lessons include calculations and quantifications. In other words, if you can quantify or include numbers or logical word problems in lessons than it will help reach those stronger in the mathematical learning style. Teaching to students with a strong spatial intelligence, teachers can use visualization and color cues, picture metaphors or idea sketching. Spatial learners are good with images and visuals. Including anything picture-like into a lesson will grab the attention of more students. Students with a strong kinesthetic intelligence tend to want to move and use their body athletically. Such teaching examples include classroom theater, hands-on activities and body answers. Musical learners need rhythm to help learn. Therefore, anyways to add music to a lesson can be very beneficial. Interpersonal learners tend to respond to peer sharing activities, cooperative groups and board games well during lessons. Any interaction between learners will be beneficial to this group of learners. On the other hand, intrapersonal learners tend to be by themselves. In order to help these students, teachers can give students choices during the lessons, have goal setting sessions and give reflection periods after long lectures for students to have a chance to just think about Naturalistic learners tend to venture towards nature. Including nature walks including animals or pets into any lesson plan will greatly help grab the attention of students with a strong naturalist intelligence. All of these strategies are useful in my future classroom because they can help me reach all of my students. Personally, I need to work on my naturalist and spatial intelligences.

Karina Sprague
The main idea of this chapter was teaching to fit the different intelligences in the classroom. I think the best way to put their general suggestions would be to say: assign lessons that are open ended enough that they can suit all the intelligences. There were countless examples things to do in this chapter. It is pretty obvious that most lessons appeal to linguistic and logical learners. I think this is probably because teachers think it is easier to photocopy a segment of reading and hand it out than it is to create a interactive lesson plan. WRONG! A lot of these suggestions could be less work than photocopying. Unless you have to teach your students about a new piece of equipment, new software, or create a student sample, you don’t really have to do much as a teacher.

I admit I was skeptic at first about type II technologies, but after learning about MI, I can really see how the two things are starting to tie together. If students can collaborate and see each other’s work, they can find an example that fits their learning style. I think this would be especially helpful in group projects. There is no way that you could make an even number of groups and have all the intelligences grouped together. Most of the time groups are made up of mixed intelligences. By having access to each other’s work 24-7, students can find projects from other groups that might fit their learning style better. I think that peers are very useful tools in teaching. =

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Emily Haskell
Chapter 6: MI Theory and Teaching Strategies

I thought it was interesting that in this chapter the author said that the linguistic intelligence was the easiest one to teach to because it had been given so much attention over the years. I have to respectfully disagree. Being and English major I think that this intelligence is actually more difficult to teach to. Yes there are many ways to teach to the linguistic intelligence, but how good are these strategies?

We have to look at how we have taught to the linguistic intelligence in the past and ask ourselves, “Is this really working?” Yes, for years teachers have told students to read and write responses, to recite poetry and memorize vocabulary, but as modern teachers we have to reimagine the entire concept. We must find better ways to teach to the linguistic intelligence that allows them to really showcase their creativity.

I thought one of the most helpful things a teacher can do for a student is to have them keep some kind of log or journal. Even if the teacher never reads or even sees them, it is very helpful for the students to track their own progress and to have a place to keep track of their ideas about all kinds of things ranging from the environment to ideas they may have about a project or paper.

I also thought that story telling in the classroom is very important. It helps the student to understand the material in a more interesting way. It also engages the student and helps with other things like classroom management.

Spencer Hodge
Chapter six legitimately hammers out specific teaching strategies for all Intelligences. Since all of our students learn differently, as teachers we should have many different strategies. One goal as teachers is to help students to develop more in depth understandings of the content and this can be done by incorporating different learning strategies into the classroom. Specific examples include: For linguistic learners: storytelling, brainstorming, tape recording, journal writing and publishing. Spatial learners: visualization, color cues and picture metaphors. Bodily kinesthetic: classroom theater and hands on thinking. For musical learners: rhythms, songs, raps, and chants. Interpersonal: cooperative groups, board games and simulations. Intrapersonal: personal connections, choice time and goal setting. And finally naturalistic: nature walks and plants as props.

One strategy that I could relate with was story telling because it can be applied among the variety of disciplines. This is a strategy that Dr. Theresa does very well; she can always make connections with the content through presenting it in a story format. Even if it is impossible to teach using each intelligence in every lesson I will do my best to make sure the unit uses all eight intelligences at some point so that all students have the opportunity to learn in their preferred manner at some point. Like I mentioned in my chapter five response students will become more engaged when the teacher is willing to change up lessons and material to help benefit different learning styles.