MI+Chapter+4+Block+1

Abstract
Chapter 4, Teaching Students about MI Theory, of the book __Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom__ written by Thomas Armstrong goes into great detail of unique ways and ideas to teach the multiple intelligences to students. This chapter is all about introducing new [|activities] to teach MI theory and ways it can be taught to [|any age or grade level of students].

Synthesis
One thing I really liked from reading this chapter and reading through each persons reflections is that as future teachers we're learning ways to teach this to all students. It's important to teach this to students and that students of all ages and abilities can learn this. This is key to a students success because it gives students confidence that they are smart and have many gifted intelligences. From reading everyone's reflections I like that people pointed out activities that they will like to use in their classroom's. One other thing I love from the chapter is providing students with models of each different intelligence. For example a sports star as a bodily-kinesthetiic learner. Many of us in our reflections pointed this out because especially for young students it will give them a chance to say, "I'm learn like David Ortiz!" And that can be great motivation for them, I'm a big believer in the importance of having role models and aspirations.

Synthesized by Sam Leal

Sam Leal
Chapter 4: Teaching Students about MI Theory

In chapter 4 I learned about how the MI theory shouldn’t be a mystery to anyone. It’s easily taught to any age level. Even at the younger ages if you teach them this and how to understand what their intelligences are, they’ll get excited in the classroom when the teacher teaches a lesson devoted to their intelligences. Making them more focused than ever and having more confidence to continue to learn for content. In the chapter it talks about ways to present the MI theory to students. There are many cool ideas and I liked this a lot because its interesting and exciting. Some of the presentation ideas are thing I want to learn and carry with me. There are also many suggested activities to look at and try. One that really caught my eye (maybe because of its name) is called the human intelligences hunt. This would be a great icebreaker activity for the first day of class as well as a great way to learn the multiple intelligences.

Looking through all the activities there are definitely many I want to keep track of and be able to use in the classroom. I think teaching MI theory to students is very important, because it motivates students to wind ways in which they really are super smart and everyone is successful in this, because everyone has things they’re gifted at. Learning multiple intelligences will give every confidence that they can really learn well.

Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Multiple Intelligences: Chapter 4 toc This chapter mostly focuses on getting kids introduced to the idea of multiple intelligences and helping them understand in ways they can understand. Mostly, it seems targeted at elementary school kids. I do not quite see middle school or high school students being very enthusiastic about the games listed. Asking to identify a favorite famous person of theirs however, would work for kid of almost any age. It is just a plain good way to get to know your kids.

Field trips can be another observational experience. Just sit and watch what the kids gravitate to. Take note of that. The human intelligence hunt, I think, would be great for middle school kids. They are very social creatures.

I am especially enthusiastic about the Career Day. I always want to bring community members into the classroom, so that the gap between the two is as small as possible, and so that parents have a reason to support the school and what it wants to accomplish. When kids get an idea about where their life could go and what kind of learning and working is possible, it may help them make a decision and energize them. It also gives the multiple intelligences a degree of concreteness. After all, if these people are being successful with these different intelligences, there has to be something to it, right?

A great point of the chapter is that in order to explain the theory, you have to put in a form the kids understand, which evolves mediums such as games and language that is not too convoluted.

Emily Haskell
MI Chapter 4 The idea of teaching MI Theory to students is a magnificent one. Not only will this help the teacher to do their job more efficiently, but it will also help the students as well. If students know about MI theory they will then be able to decide which intelligence is their strongest. From there the student will be able to do things like find appropriate study techniques to help them learn more effectively. This way, if a teacher is not addressing (or teaching to) that child’s specifically strong intelligence, the student will still feel as though they have the ability to learn the material in a simple way. As a future teacher I hope to teach lesson plans that address and target as many of the eight intelligences as possible. One of the reasons this is important to me is because (as was said in chapter 3) there are many people who think they are not smart because they re not gifted in some specific areas or subjects. By presenting the students with the idea of multiple intelligences you are also presenting them with the idea that they have the ability and the potential to be moderately proficient in each of the eight intelligences. I find that this kind of knowledge is also very useful to students in a world so driven by formal testing and grading.

Karina Sprague
This chapter was mostly about teaching students about the eight multiple intelligences. It was really cool to see how teachers can adjust the terminology to suit the age level of their students. I was really drawn to the ideas for younger students because I am a tutor for a first grade class and I thought it would be very hard to teach them about multiple intelligences, but the book makes it look easy. I especially liked the various examples of how to teach your class about multiple intelligences. I really liked the idea about having eight tables set up with an activity on each table. Since I want to teach middle school, I think that this activity would be fun for them, and I could increase the difficulty of the activities to fit each class. I think this activity might be too immature for high school students, but I do think it would work very well in a middle school class and I look forward to testing it out some day. Another thing that really stood out to me was the suggestions to play the board game, Cranium to teach your students about multiple intelligences. I used to play Cranium all the time and I never connected it to multiple intelligences or learning styles, but now that I think about it, it is a very good game to show intelligences. I am realizing how much I am starting to think like a teacher.

Spencer Hodge
In chapter four of Multiple Intelligences the author discusses the importance of teachers teaching the Multiple Intelligence Theory to their students, and students needing to learn what their strengths are. The teaching style of lecturing to students and testing them based on the notes they should have taking is quite frankly out of date. Students need to be engaged while they are learning; in order to do so, their learning styles and intelligences need to be taken into account. Teaching students about the multiple intelligences is crucial; however, teachers must demonstrate how this theory is used outside of the school as well. Students need to have a full understanding about what skills they have and what might need improving. This is important for students to understand at an age where they can see what skills they need to develop for whatever their hopes, dreams, and aspirations may be. From there they can figure out what they have to do in order to accomplish those goals.

Simply, as a teacher, multiple intelligences will be taught to my students. Not only will I teach MI theory, I will help facilitate students in finding their intelligences; what they are strongest in and what they might need to work on. One of the ways that I can engage my students in the multiple intelligences is for them to do a "Human Intelligence Hunt" with their classmates. I want to give the students the opportunity to observe how the MI theory is used in everyday life. This can be done through field trips or through a career day where adults would show the students which of the multiple intelligences they use in their jobs.

Colby Hill
MI Chapter 4 The first thing I noticed about this chapter was not its content, but the students the book was hypothetically teaching too. Many ideas might be great if you were teaching K-5, but as students from high school? The “treasure chest” idea may be insulting, the various career day ideas, other activities (like singing ‘row your boat’), and even the lingo (word smart) seems to be pointed towards younger students. It could even be offensive. Sure, this could be adapted to an older age base, but it just seems to disregard older students in this chapter. With that said, I’d also like to answer a question Armstrong poses. He asks: “What do we do o convince children that they’re not intelligent?” Although I would imagine the hands would drop as the students get older, I do not believe it has to do with the teaching. Volunteering yourself as intelligent and telling everyone that you think you are intelligent can send the wrong messages to people. A student may not raise his hand because he or she thinks it’s too cocky. A different student may not because he or she does not want his or her peers to get the wrong message. I believe that in later school years many of the choices a student makes are based upon peers. Some ideas in the chapter I did like, however, even despite the target age. The wall display idea I may follow, and MI tables. The table setups will hopefully allow students to both be enlightened to their own intelligences, as well as discover why their peers think differently.

Cidney Mayes
Teaching students about the Multiple Intelligences will help them better understand and reflect upon their own learning processes, and therefore contribute to their success in the classroom. When students know how they learn best, they can choose their own strategies and methods for learning, and will accelerate their potential. It can take as little as five minutes to describe to a classroom what the eight multiple intelligences are, and focuses on celebrating students’ potential for learning, not excluding or segregating students based on their intelligences. The rest of the chapter gives many examples of activities for students exploring the intelligences. In my classroom, I would be most inclined to use assigned readings in the first week of class as part of a unit so that students could explore more about their multiple intelligences. I would like to find a way to incorporate MI theory into a unit, and it would make the most sense if that unit were the first one, so that I could gauge what intelligences each student has developed. = =

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Jordan Hale
MI Chapter 4: Teaching Students About MI Theory Chapter 4 is exactly what the title suggests. The authors explain how and why to give a 5-minute talk explaining the MI Theory. The way to explain it is to use a pie chart by drawing a circle on the whiteboard and dividing into 8 sections, one for each intelligence. The lecture is based around getting students to think about ways in which they are strong in each individual intelligences. I think the best way for high school students to learn about the MI theory is to take an MI test, so to speak, and show them which intelligence is stronger. It gave me a better idea of how to study and learn so maybe it will do the same for other students. One example they used that I did not think of to promote the MI theory was to have a career day. Each career could tell which intelligence is focused to them. For instance, an accountant would be a logical learner and an athlete would be a kinesthetic leaner. This idea could give the students some drive to be one of those careers, or see that there are many careers for every learner. The human intelligence hunt was another good idea to give students awareness about the MI theory. It would also be a good first day game to get to know everyone. The gist of the game is students have to find other students that can demonstrate certain skills that show the intelligences. For instance, someone who can hum a song would be music smart (MI p51).

Elizabeth Sargent
MI Chapter 4: Teaching Students about MI Theory

Teaching students about the Multiple Intelligence Theory is the main idea of chapter four from my Multiple Intelligence textbook. Having multiply ways to teach MI is just as good as having multiple ways to teach a lesson. If someone doesn’t get the concept one way than try it another way, and another, until you are reciprocated with understanding. Knowing that everyone is intelligent in his or her own way is a good rule to go by. Otherwise, you are degrading and undermining your student’s progress before you even begin. If you do not believe in them, then how will they be able to believe in themselves? Doing a project about the inspiring people your students look up to is probably one of the best ideas I got from this chapter that lets students realize their potential. When children are young they aspire to be movie stars, astronauts, athletes, musicians, and veterinarians. Showing students that these famous people from the past who they look up to are just like them. This experience is not only enlightening but also rewarding. For one, they are learning about people they have a connection too. Two, they start to believe anything is possible if a guys like Einstein and Michelangelo can make it. Both these things are important to do in the classroom. Teaching students about MI is something they need to know because then they can understand why we teach in so many different ways. They can start to understand why we do the things we do. With that understanding comes some respect for what we are trying to do, and with respect comes a successful learning experience.

Alex Randall
MI Chapter 4 Chapter four talks mostly about how to teach students about the Multiple Intelligence Theory; what it is, how it works, and why it applies to all of them. The whole chapter helps educators brainstorm ideas on how to work well with the Multiple Intelligence Theory in a classroom setting, but most of it seems to apply to elementary and middle schools. I believe that, by the time students have made it to high school, they’ve become used to learning in auditory or visual ways, so it’s harder to incorporate the MI Theory. However, the idea of explaining the theory is a good idea because it helps the students know what the teacher is trying to achieve and that the teacher really does want to address as many of the intelligences as possible.