MI+Chapter+12+Block+1

__Abstract[[image:EmilyMI12.jpg width="800" height="472"]]__
In this chapter the author touches again on [|Bloom's Taxonomy] and how helpful it can be within the classroom. It talks a lot about helping the students to know how they learn. It is important to realize that students will not be able to learn if the teaching is not catered to their specific learning style or intelligence. Therefore it is important to teach kids about the multiple intelligences and the various types of [|learning styles] as well. If they know about the different types of learning styles and how to cater to them, then students will be able to teach themselves anything in the future.

__ Synthesis __
It seems to me that a lot of people had a problem with the way we dealt with learning and memorization in current schools. One of the biggest problems we seemed to have was that not only did we fail to teach kids about the multiple intelligences, but we as educators failed to cater to them as well. Unfortunately the two most common intelligences that are taught to in schools are the logical/mathematical and the linguistic intelligences. If a child is not strong in these intelligences then he or she will undoubtedly have trouble memorizing or even learning in an environment where these intelligences are focused on.

Alex Randall
MI Chapter 12: MI Theory and Cognitive Skills

"How kids think has become almost more important than what they think about. MI theory provides and ideal context for making sense out of students' cognitive skills. The eight intelligences in the model are themselves cognitive capacities" (page 161). This statement really lays the groundwork for the chapter. It is also a pretty concise statement that defines what the book seeks to talk about and analyze, so I thought it was important to include. The second section of the book talks about memory and students' abilities to retain information. Howard Gardner argues that memory is intelligence-specific, which makes sense to me. If a student learns something one day and just throws it away the next day, it is probably because they either do not care about the subject or they just did not learn the information in the way that is most compatible with their memory. This thought in and of itself just makes me want to be more aware of what and how many intelligences I am focusing on in my lesson plans. This is why knowing how to teach to the intelligences is so crucial.

Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Multiple Intelligences: Chapter 12

This chapter discusses goes into something more academic affects of Gardiner’s theory. In particular, it wants to widen the definition of “memory” beyond the direct repeating that more traditional educators define as “memory.” This is nothing new. Psychologists have for some time divided memory between that which is explicitly recalled and that which is implicit. The former is further divided between visual memory and that which we recall in verbal form. For example, we may know that we once did something, and can say, “I ate breakfast on the morning of the 25th”, even if we do not have a visual memory of the event. On the opposite end of the memory spectrum, there are certain events that stay in our memories, but do so in a more physical and implicit sense. You do not, probably, explicitly recall the moment you learned to ride a bike, but your learning is evident every time your do ride a bike. Memory is the essence of learning, and learning cannot happen without memory, so it is important to remember what a diverse phenomena learning is. toc

Sam Leal
Chapter 12: MI Theory and Cognitive Skills

Cognitive skills is all about how students think, which is often becoming even more important than what student think about as is described in chapter 12 of MI. MI theory definitely is associated with the cognitive skills of students. Using MI theory addresses the strengths in the ways in which students think. Teachers try to promote higher-order of thinking, including Bloom’s levels of cognitive complexity. One thing we’ve talked a lot about in Dr. Theresa’s class is memory, how students remember things and trying to teach something we assume all students know how to do. This chapter introduces how the MI theory can help students succeed with memorizing.

Students’ who often are considered to have poor memories, are typically only poor at retaining information in a couple intelligence areas. This makes it so important for students to be taught memory training in all of the eight intelligences. Students will find a way that works best for them. There are many great ideas on ways to study to address each of the eight intelligences in this chapter. One example for a naturalist is going outside and spelling words with twigs and other things that are found in nature. It’s all about making connections and triggering that intelligence to help with memorization.

Cidney
This chapter contained a lot of information about cognitive skills and how MI theory can be used to differentiate how students think. Teachers commonly run into the problem of getting their students to memorize the information that they’re being taught, and Armstrong notes that this is because the information is not relating to the intelligence that is most developed in the student. Memory is only significant when paired with an intelligence, and when students access their “‘good’ memories” (162) it is because the information somehow relates to an intelligence that the student has a proclivity for. The chapter also describes Bloom’s Taxonomy and the levels of cognitive complexity, and gives suggestions for activities that target each of the eight intelligences and each of the six Blooms (though the book is using the older model of Bloom’s Taxonomy).

Tapping into students’ intelligences is crucial to their performance in the classroom. When students can connect and relate to material, it will sink in and stick with them. Using a variety of methods that target different intelligences when teaching material will have a greater chance of success because students can connect to the material in a way that uses their “good memory”. When students have connected to material and remembered it, it’s usually because the information connects to their interests or their own lives.

Jordan Hale
Considering the MI theory while thinking about student’s cognitive skills is an important facet to teaching. Students ability to remember things, or lack of ability, does not get better by screaming the lesson or talking more slowly. The only way to help student’s memory is to connect what they are learning to them and to not only cover the material but uncover it. In relation to MI theory, a student with a “poor memory” might have a “poor memory” in the logistical category, but in the linguistic intelligence the student’s memory excels. Problem solving skills have improved by students in our country, but compared to the world, we are still struggling to measure up. When fostering student’s problem solving skills, it is important to consider the MI theory. If a student is strongest in a linguistic intelligence, than they might talk their problem out whereas a logical leaner might need to create steps to break down their thought process. Promoting chiropteran encounters, as the book puts it, is basically getting students to thinking deeper. Students must think beyond what is asked of them in order to formulate their own opinions and truly master the material. MI theory can help guide students to their deeper thinking by using the student’s strongest intelligence. This chapter told me to think about the MI theory in every single aspect of teaching. Using a student’s primary intellect is the best way to reach them. If students learn best logically, than communicating to the student, designing student activities and being a role model for the student in the logical intelligence realm makes the most sense. MI theory is telling teachers how to get to know the students.

Karina Sprague
This chapter stressed the importance of knowing the intelligences of your students. This chapter relates multiple intelligences to what students learn. Typically, teachers worry about what their students are learning. However, the tides are changing and teachers are now more aware of how their students learn. I think how and what students learn goes hand in hand. Students will not learn anything if it is being taught to them in a way that is not useful. The book used the idea of memory to describe the relationship between how and what. If a student learns something and understand something, it will be committed to memory, but if a student does not fully understand something, it will eventually get lost. Teachers need to be aware of their students multiple intelligences so they can teach in an effective way. If a teacher teaches to suit all of the intelligences of the students, all of the students will learn the material. Therefore, all of the students will remember the material. After all, it is a waste of the teacher (and students’) time and energy if they are teaching/learning something that half the class will not remember.

After reading the majority of this book, I am really looking forward to figuring out my students’ intelligences. I think it will be a good way for me to get to know my students as well. The idea of multiple intelligences has always seemed important to me, so I know it will be something that I do very early in the year, especially after reading this chapter. This chapter really made it clear to me that how the students learn is just as important as what the students learn. If I want my students to succeed, I will have to help them by catering to their intelligences.

Colby Hill
MI Chapter 12 “//How// students think has become almost more important than //what// they think about” (161). The first time reading this I thought “uh, yeah. It is.” And I still think that way too. How someone thinks can effective help them become a “better” thinker and help with what they think about. It can help with the idea of short-term memory versus long-term memory. Page 162 asks the question about knowing something one day, and forgetting in the next. It goes back to the long-term memory we learned about. It’s interesting to think about this intelligent-specific. It makes sense, though. The examples given about dance steps and music make all kinds of sense to me. When I think back to school, stronger memories lie with the intelligences. Visiting the outside classroom during philosophy or the dance routines in gym are good examples. The problem solving chapter interests me. It mentions how USA is behind but I have some questions about it. I’ve read in many places that students in other places only learn one subject when they go to a higher education. When I look at my own instances, my lowest grades are from classes that do not pertain to my major whatsoever. It makes me think that if we stuffed more of the necessary content for majors into what students were learning averages would go up. But I have no clue whether this would really work or not. There is still the question about MI too. These various classes can raise the various MI’s, but is that so necessary if other countries are passing us?

Elizabeth Sargent
The fact that there is something called “good” memories and “bad” memories and that they affect what we are able to retain in our memories is interesting. In school, I would always get stumped at how I could retain some information easily and others not so much. It now seems that based on a certain “poor” intelligence, my “poor” memory was being used with that intelligence was being used. Therefore, anytime I was using logical or mathematical techniques, it seemed like I wasn’t really getting the information. But there are ways to train the memory, so that all eight memories are activated.

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a term I have heard ever since I interned at my local elementary school in high school. While I have a better knowledge of it now, it seems to be popping up wherever I go in education. In MI Theory Blooms helps provide a “quality-control mechanism through which one can judge how deeply students’ minds have been stirred by a multiple intelligence curriculum”(169). It is easy to see how well Bloom’s and MI Theory correlate to create a positively instructed curriculum highlighting the eight intelligences and using activities are designed to incorporate all of Bloom’s cognitive levels. The table provided on page 170, gives a lot of combined ways to use Bloom’s taxonomy and the Multiple Intelligences to achieve a better understanding of the curriculum for students. Multiple Intelligence theory is truly a revolutionary theory, what have teachers been doing all these years without it?

Emily Haskell
Chapter12: MI Theory and Cognitive Skills

I think it is true that in every teacher’s career there is a point or there is a class that he or she just cannot reach. For whatever reason the teacher can’t identify with the students or does not understand their humor, but as a teacher it is their responsibility to try their hardest to identify with their students in order for the teachers to learn effectively. However, it is really hard to keep yourself from asking, “They don’t remember anything anyways, so what’s the point?”

So in this chapter when they talked about Bloom’s taxonomy, higher order thinking, and things like memory training I paid special attention to it. I think that in many cases the reason that students stop doing their work or don’t pay attention is because they aren’t interested in the material or do not understand it. I think that if we take the time to explore the multiple intelligences and to utilize them in the classroom then perhaps students will begin to be interested in the material and perhaps even understand it as well. If we use things like songs, puzzles and pictures then perhaps students will have fun in the classroom and discover techniques that can help them for the rest of their lives.

Spencer Hodge
Chapter 12 of Multiple Intelligences talks about the different ways that students think. Personally, I believe that a student shouldn’t think in only one specific way. They should have the ability and choice to think in as many intelligences that they can and want to. Also, as we’ve learned throughout this book, students should have the opportunity to learn in a way that best suits them. For example, if a question is read aloud to the class, a spatial learner will have a difficult time trying to decipher what was just said and put it in a context in which they can understand it. What I would do in that situation is, while I’m reading the question out loud, I would also write it up on the board so those learners can follow along as well and not be left behind. Another aspect that was mentioned in this chapter was the concept of cognitive memory incorporated with the eight different intelligences. It seems sort of an obvious thing, but it’s rather important for teachers to know. If their student has a preferred method of learning, then they will also have a preferred method of memorizing. I feel that this plays a very big role in political theory because there are a lot of concepts that come up a lot, and memorizing them is crucial. Therefore having students memorize in a way that is comfortable to them (as long as it’s appropriate) will be something I strive to allow in my classroom.