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Kalib Moore
Abstract & Synthesis As chapter 10 is titled, this chapter discusses how to assess your students while incorporating multiple intelligence theory. Everyone seemed to agree that standardized tests were inauthentic, and were not a good measure of one's intelligence. One of the points that a few people took from this chapter that stuck out to me as well was Armstrong's first step to authentic assessment, observation. This step of assessing comes from Howard Gardner who says "that we can best assess students' multiple intelligences by observing students manipulating the symbol systems of each intelligence." (131) Armstrong goes on to give a long list of different ways to record while observing students. Examples include: Work samples, audio files, checklists, and classroom maps. By observing students prior to assessment, one can get a better idea of how each student learns differently. Throughout the rest of the chapter, Armstrong covers all eight of the multiple intelligences and gives many different examples on how to assess students understanding. Armstrong also stresses that it is important to give your students different options when assigning a project, because then the students can demonstrate their understanding in a way that is more comfortable to them. On page 139, Armstrong introduces the "Celebration of Learning" student [|sign-up sheet], which is something that will come in handy when assigning a project and wanting to give students the opportunity to choose what kind of project they will be creating. By giving them this option frequently and requesting they choose different outcomes each time, it will be easier to assess which intelligences are students strengths and weaknesses in your class and how you can improve them. As future teachers, it is important for us to [|share] information with each other to help both better our teaching styles and the learning of our students.

Kelsea Trefethen
Chapter ten of MI focused on how to assess students in a way that reflects their multiple intelligences. It is important that students are examined in the same way they are taught. A unit taught with the MI theory should include an assessment measuring what the student has learned through the eight multiple intelligences. The chapter suggests three ways of doing this. 1) Assess the student through all eight and decide which he or she performed best with. 2) Teacher decides which multiple intelligence to test them with based on observations. Or 3) Have the student decided which intelligence they would like to be assessed with. This chapter stressed that assessments must be authentic. This means that they must relate to the real world and have meaning. Standardized tests are not authentic. I would imagine students perform better with authentic exams because they are more relatable. Chapter ten suggested that one of the best ways to assess a student’s progress is through a combination of observation and documentation. This idea has been brought up in previous chapters and other books. The book gave a great example, with the Huck Finn questions, of how one topic can incorporate all eight multiple intelligences. This seems like a challenging task but that example made it look easy. It just goes to show that a simple change can make all the difference in a student’s learning experience. Students should not dread assessments, let alone classes. The book stated that students should view an evaluation as “another opportunity to learn.” In reality, that truly is all that assessment is. Exams should be a measure of both how much a student has learned and how much a student is going to learn.

Leanne Fasulo
Chapter ten largely covers assessments and ways to differentiate them. Armstrong comments that by using the MI theory in strategies of teaching it is only right to assess the students in that way. Standardize tests would send the message that while learning can be fun and interesting when it comes time to take the test “we’ve got to get serious again and test the way we’ve always tested” (130). By differentiating assessments the results become much more authentic and hit the benchmarks in a better way. A few new ways to assess could be using a video camera to record projects, audio files, student journals, and portfolios of their improvement. Standardize tests have a way of being confusing like the example the book gave on Huckleberry Finn. A question was asked to describe Huckleberry in a multiple-choice form. A student could have a hard time deciding on an answer if two choices could describe the character. Another possibility is a student could get the answer right just by guessing. Both of these fail on figuring out what the students knows. A better way to assess the student would be to ask them to pick an adjective and explain why the main character relates to that word (linguistic). Or the teacher could test the student by asking them to write how they personally feel about Huck (intrapersonal). While a teacher does not need to differentiate every single assessment it is important to create a mix for finding out what the students have learned.

Johnny Buys
Chapter 10: MI Theory and Assessment

Armstrong argues that incorporating Multiple Intelligence theory into formulating assessments would result in a “system that relies far less on formal standardization or norm-referenced tests and much more on authentic measures that are criterion-referenced, benchmarks, or ipsative (130-131). Armstrong suggests that as Multiple Intelligences theory incorporates a variety of intelligences for learning it is important for a variety of assessments as well. This variety could include anecdotal records, work samples, video, student journals, sociograms, informal assessments, and interviews (131-134). All of these are viable options for teachers to utilize for assessment variety. Multiple Intelligence theory encourages assessment that have “exposure to all eight performance tasks” and the option for working with the student’s “most developed intelligence” (137). While meeting all eight intelligences in a variety of assessments may be daunting, Armstrong states, “variety of presentation (inputs) and means of expression (outputs)” must be provided (140). A potential option for assessment includes portfolios which Armstrong details as having five essential elements: celebration that validates student’s products, cognition to encourage student reflection, communication to present the learning progress, cooperation for group involvement, and finally competency for establishing the necessary evidence in cahoots with standards or benchmarks (143). Teachers need to recognize the importance of assessments that can meet Multiple Intelligence theory. These sort assessments encourage success, ownership, and context. This in turn makes assessment meaningful and a true gauge of understanding. It should be noted, however, that teacher bear the responsibility of promoting other intelligences than just the two tier success intelligences of students. Assessment then can be used as tool for growth as well.

Christina L Quach
Chapter 10 discusses appropriate ways of assessing students’ knowledge. Using standardized tests or forcing students to show their content knowledge by using one intelligence style, would be to assess them unfairly. A student can know the content but not be able to show their level of understanding because they are not good at taking tests or perhaps are not good at making projects like posters. Armstrong mentions that the best way to assess the content knowledge and understanding of students is to give them options of how to express what they need to be tested on. Thankfully for me, my perfectionist quality pushed me to work extra hard on my assignments no matter what format because I wanted A’s so badly. The amount of stress this causes does not always make even receiving an A seem worth it. In high school I cannot remember being given options of how a teacher would assess me. Almost always it was a written test, essay or multiple choice, or a final project which usually took the shape of a poster board with a few pieces of information. I agree with Armstrong that it is important to assess students in ways that they are most capable of showing understanding, but I also wonder how many students would put still try to take tests in intelligence styles that they are not used to. I do agree that teachers are unable to fairly judge what the student is capable of without doing it the way he discussed, but I think it is also important students try to diversify the way they are able to express their understanding.

Kalib Moore
Chapter 10 of //Multiple Intelligences// discussed how to assess students fairly, by incorporating all eight of the intelligences. "MI Theory, however, supports the belief that students should be able to show competence in a specific skill, subject, content area, or domain in any one of a variety of ways." (Armstrong, 136) I found this quote to sum up chapter 10 as a whole and give me a new perspective on standardized tests. Before, I believe that standardized tests were what calculated exactly how smart a person was. Your score on a standardized test was a number that would stick with you as how smart you really are. After reading chapter 10 I now realize that a standardized test is a partial unfair advantage for people with a strong linguistic intelligence. When assessing students in my own classroom, I hope to give them a fair advantage. If I were to be tested on something, I would want to be tested on something that I can complete using the learning style that I have mastered the most. It is only fair that I give my students the same treatment. Students should be assessed at their best because that is when they are going to perform the finest. They will feel more comfortable answering questions when it is associated with their learning styles. The chapter gives many examples of different forms of testing that can be done for students in each different learning style. Overall I found chapter 10 to be informative, and possible a resource to refer back to in future years.

Richie Johnson
Chapter ten of //Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom// deals with the MI theory of student assessment. The main theme that Armstrong proposes is that of “authentic” assessment in opposition to standardized assessment. Authentic assessments’ chiefly promote observation and the “documentation of student products and problem-solving processes” (131). In documenting observations and student artifacts over the period of a term, teachers and students alike will be enabled to see the big picture of their growth. This is incredibly advantageous in assessing a student’s abilities and general understanding of the material at hand, as well as their recognition of context. Standardized assessment, on the other hand, is largely based off of tests. Tests do not uncover a very accurate portrayal of student understanding and are mostly based off of facts, which are not necessarily relevant to real-world context. I am totally sold on the MI theory of assessment, and feel as though every teacher ought to heavily consider it. I have never felt that tests represent my true understanding of the content being covered, and hope to see them one day totally disappear! Things like journals and portfolios will absolutely be incorporated in my future classroom, and will hopefully replace students’ who simply must remember facts with students who will develop a full understanding of the material.
 * //Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom//: Chapter 10**

Tyler Oren
In the tenth chapter of //Multiple Intelligences// by Thomas Armstrong he discusses multiple intelligences and his recommendations of the best ways to assess them, ensuring that all students with unique intelligence spreads are tested authentically and fairly. Early on in the chapter Armstrong asserts that the most authentic way to assess students is often the most simple, observation. Armstrong also gives recommendations on the best way to document observational assessment with anecdotal records, work samples, audio, video, student journals and charts, and most interestingly he recommends standardized tests. However in his endorsement of standardized testing asks that teachers use it in a very non-traditional manner, without the typical restrictive guidelines, time constraints, and without the high stakes. Students should feel relaxed when taking these test use the test to stimulate the student and get them thinking about the broader avenues to answer each question, let them use the test creatively. Armstrong also dedicates a section of the chapter to a differentiated style of assessment that includes the intelligences equally. Based on each type of intelligences he gives students the choices to answer the questions in a way that they feel most comfortable and able to answer in a way were they can display the absolute greatest level of mastery and understanding. The idea to include informal standardized testing in the classroom came completely as a surprise to me, the idea of standardized testing was always some dreaded, weighty test that the future of my life depended on. As long a standardized test remain a part of assessment I feel that my students would benefit tremendously if they could experience the content beforehand in a much more enjoyable, and less stressful settling. That way when the time did come to take an SAT or MLR it would not seem so daunting and make them feel more comfortable with the assessment.

Cyril Lunt
In line with the past few chapters, chapter ten of //Multiple Intelligences// is about assessment. And, much like the past few chapters, states that using multiple ways of assessment is the only way to fully gauge a student's true understanding of a subject. While standardized testing has its place, it is rather inauthentic, and if it's multiple choice or true/false, a student might merely guess at the answer and get it right.

Armstrong talks about how to change this. He states that using all of the multiple intelligences as a guideline of a project not only shows the teacher and student what their strengths and weaknesses are, it also gives the student a fairer grade than merely testing them on form. Because of this, regular tests are considered inauthentic indicators of a student's intelligence.

I have to agree with Mr. Armstrong yet again on his assessment. I have personally experienced this way of assessment before, and I found it very practical and useful. This is how my High School French teacher would grade assignment and projects, and I found that French was one of my better subjects (on top of that, I still remember a lot of the things I learned even to this day, four years after the fact).

Brittany Blackman
Chapter ten is about assessments. The beginning of the chapter gives you a series of different ways that you can asses your students. There are journals, audio files, video, photographs, informal assessments, and many others. These are perfects ways for the teacher to keep up on the students, and to have the students learn about themselves. It is also a good way to showcase the work that the students have done well. They also talked about having assessment //projects.// I think this is a cool and interactive idea, even though it is more geared for younger students. You could easily adjust the projects to fit an older audience.

I find some of the examples in this book to be helpful, but some of them are also a little far fetched. For example, the book talks about different ways to rewrite a multiple choice question about Huck Finn. The original question is poorly constructed in a way that better demonstrates word understanding than mastery of the book. I understand that there are much better ways to re-write the problem, but I think they are stretching a little bit when they tried to make the question fit all eight of the learning styles. One question was, “If Huck Finn were a scientific principle, law, or theorem, which one would he be?” (Armstrong, 136). I can see that this is a question that makes you think outside of the box and that is good, but I don’t think a lot of students would really know how to answer that question. I don’t even know how to answer that question.

Kyle Kuvaja
Chapter ten of //Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom// focuses on realizing that it is not only important to incorporate activities that incorporate all of the multiple intelligences, but to also assess students in a variety of ways too. Teachers should not have students moving around for an activity and then only assess them using a written test. Many leading educators feel that a wide array of assessments, opposed to the typical sit-down test, are more beneficial to students (131). Authentic assessment begins with observation. We have seen this stated in previous chapters regarding Howard Gardner’s theory. Not only does he feel we should observe, but also keep a journal of our observations to help us better understand, as educators of our classroom, what assessments might be best fit for the students. Other ways listed to help better understand the students’ progression include: keeping a work file for each student, maintaining student journals, keeping a visual record of student interactions, student interviews, and creating a classroom map. All of these are useful tools to help stay on top of student progress. Armstrong lists many projects that have been done that incorporate the various intelligences. One such project, Project Spectrum, was a preschool program that involved creativity and various intelligences. Ever since I began taking classes this semester, I have begun to try to change my way of thinking. My education up until this year has been go to class, take tests, and get good grades. This book by Armstrong is easy to read and connect with. I feel that it is important to reach out to these learners. By recognizing how a lesson can integrate multiple intelligences, it can only make me a more effective teacher.

Evgeni Bouzakine
Chapter ten reinforced much of what we have been reading in the UBD/DI and FAIE book. The chapter covers the multiple intelligences theory and assessment. Many new teachers try and teach with the multiple intelligences in mind but from my experience they do not assess their students in a variety of ways. All of my math classes were taught the same way from grade seven to grade twelve. I am started to understand why some students never understand math in they are in high school. Armstrong also expressed the necessity of including the assessment strategies in our lesson plans and try to differentiate our classrooms at the same time. Armstrong urges to be different; not give standard tests but utilize assessments that work the students multiple intelligences. This all goes back to knowing your students multiple intelligences and applying them into your lessons. It is vital to keep track of student’s individual intelligences. This chapter sounds all too familiar, compared to other two books we are reading. As a teacher, I would make sure to capitalize on all of my students different multiple intelligences. My lesson plans will be modified accordingly. I know I will not be perfect and meet everyone’s styles at first, but over time I truly believe I can make everyone in the classroom become successful learners.