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Synthesis and Abstract
MI Chapter 7 As I read through some of our analyses, I found that most of us liked the idea of having Multiple Intelligence focused "centers" in the room or parts of the room, but a few of us did not find the ideas very practical. If you have anywhere from 15-25 (or even 30) students in your classroom, you can't have time or space to have these centers. toc

Alex Randall
MI Chapter 7 This chapter discusses the impact that Multiple Intelligence Theory may have on the classroom environment. The chapter is broken up in to the eight different multiple intelligences and each intelligences' role in the classroom is discussed. How often do bodily/kinesthetic learners spend sitting down or moving around? Where do most of the disturbing noises come from and how can you deal with them? How are linguistic learners exposed to words? Even the layout of the room can affect certain students. The chapter even goes as far as to talk about organizing the room in accordance with the multiple intelligences. The ideas of having book nooks, writing centers, math labs, science centers, etc. in a classroom can seem a little over the top, but they might actually have a positive impact on the students with varying intelligences. This makes me think of ways to rearrange my future classrooms. Theresa also briefly mentioned the set up of her room, but not with multiple intelligences in mind, only efficient room set ups to help keep kids engaged. Some of these ideas seem a little unrealistic to me, especially in a high school classroom where anywhere from 15-25 kids can be stuff into a single room. In that kind of environment, there's no room to have a book nook or writing center. But, sometimes, simply trying to address student's individual learning styles might not be enough. Taking the room into account is something that I never would have really thought of.

Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Multiple Intelligences: Chapter 7.

This chapter is about creating the //feel// of an MI classroom. A classroom that makes students comfortable with being there by appealing to things that innately capture their interest; that is, the multiple intelligences they specialize in. It is a place that captures the student’s interest with the variety, in a way eerily like a rainbow catching the attention of an infant. There should be posters on the wall with little juicy factoids. There should be a variety in color. They shouldn’t feel crammed in, and should be able to get up and walk around, or have activities that involve these things. Music and sound should be a part of the classroom beyond the teachers’ droll voice. There are routines that the logical-mathematically oriented person can depend on, and times for independent work where the loners can reflect and think internally. And for those natural naturalists, there should be the occasional trip outside the classroom.

Finally, setting up activity centers maybe a way to ever more systemize how you appeal to different kinds of learners, with quadrants being set up with axis of temporary, permanent, open-ended and topic specific.

Sam Leal
Chapter 7: MI Theory and the Classroom Environment

Chapter 7 of MI talks about where teachers get to be really creative and think about something that often gets overlooked, classroom seating and the environment. The chapter reviews the eight intelligences and draws up questions that pertain to how the class “ecology” or environments make a student of that intelligence strength feel. For example, logical mathematical intelligence, how is time structured in the classroom? Is there consistency to students’ school days? These kind of questions are for the teacher to think about, because these maybe some things to think about to help students who are logical-mathematical thinkers. Another example is bodily kinesthetic, do students remain in there seat most of class? This is important to think about because these students will lose you in a second if they have to just sit there all class, they’ll leave the room to go walk around and begin to be disruptive. The chapter brings up many ideas that are very important to think about. I was always a logical-mathematical thinker and also very bodily kinesthetic. I strive in routine and being able to move around otherwise I just start tapping my pencil and keep rearranging how I’m sitting just so that I can move around a bit.

The chapter also talks about a really cool idea of having MI activity centers in the school. Where there are good places for these kinds of learners to do their work. The ideas are very cool and things I believe would help so much in schools if they did more of it. Like a social area for interpersonal learners and study rooms for intrapersonal learners I think all would be very beneficial.

Cidney
Chapter 7 encourages teachers and educators to use MI Theory in all aspects of their classroom, especially the classroom environment. This chapter redefines and restructures the desks-in-rows model of classrooms by giving an example of a quadrant classroom, whose sections relate to different intelligences. The book poses questions that help the teacher decide if each intelligence is being appropriately accommodated for. Some of these questions are as follows: “Is there some consistency to students‘ school days?” “. . . Do they have frequent opportunities to get up and move around?”, and “Does an atmosphere of belonging and trust permeate the classroom...?” (100-102). Armstrong then describes the quadrant classroom and the concept of activity centers that target each intelligence, like book nooks, music labs, study carrels, and art areas.

Personally, I love the idea of MI activity centers and giving students the freedom choose which centers they would like to use. However, I have a couple of concerns about making this work realistically. Spatially, it would require a lot of room to have these types of stations in a classroom, especially with certain stations like book nooks, lofts, and study carrels. Also, class time is extremely limited, so would students have sufficient time to use these stations effectively? Also, these stations seem like they would be extremely beneficial to younger grades, but not so much high schoolers. For example, at Mt. Blue there are separate spaces for different intelligences, such as the technical classes, computer labs, the library, ect. Though they are not all in one classroom, they do exist and multiple intelligences are addressed, though not all in one central space.

Colby Hill
Reading this chapter really made me think about my experiences already in middle school practicum. For instance, under the **//Linguistic//** category, it mentions the idea of how exactly //are// the words spoken in the classroom. A few times I honestly believe I have lost the children because I was using language that was too far out of their range. A few asked me what a word meant, but not all students are that outgoing. Besides the linguistic category, though, are the other facets. Each bullet raises a good question, and it seems it would be difficult to reach each bullet consistently. The time of day, how long students are spent sitting, how much noise pollution there is, the colors in the room, and the room atmosphere are many of the various points brought up.

As far as the activity centers go, I think it could work, but it could be possibly to lose students in it as well. For instance: the board games. It would be great to relax every once in a while to play intelligent specific board games, but it’s possible you may never get the attention back that class, or students will beg to play for the rest of the year. But one thing I really do like is the activity cards. As the example Armstrong used on page 108, the summer vacation cards. Each child will be able to use their intelligence on something that they adore: vacation. This means that the students will be interacting and possibly learning without realizing it.

Elizabeth Sargent
This chapter focused on the ecology or environment in the classroom. How the classroom is structured, the accommodations, and intelligence incorporation, are all a part of a bigger scheme of things in organizing your classroom for optimal learning. This chapter focuses on the eight multiple intelligences and how they can be incorporated into teacher planning of seating charts, and other important spaces in the classroom.

A classroom should be a positive working environment for students right from the starts. If a student walks into a classroom and are feeling down because they just got dumped, the classroom should have the characteristics to stimulate that student to learn even under the circumstances. I find choice activities to be a good use of activity centers, while they give students the choice to choose what they want to do in their free time; they are fun and help to develop the student’s individual intelligences. Directed activity centers should also be a choice, even if they have rules, but I think having students rotate to all activity centers using all eight intelligences is a great idea. Having this is the classroom would ensure that students were experiencing all intelligences, and are not bored just sitting at their desks. They are rotating, they are up and moving around from station to station. Working collaboratively and individually.

Karina Sprague
This chapter focused on the effect that environment has on the intelligences. This always seemed like common sense to me because students in my school were always allowed to study in the library, the student lounge, the computer lab, or the art room. Students typically chose rooms based on their interests and learning styles. I was an intrapersonal learner throughout high school, so I chose to be in the library where it was quiet and I could have my own spaces. However, I never really thought about how the general classrooms can have an effect. I suppose I never realized how important this was because my teachers never really changed the classroom environments. The idea of the impact of the classroom really stood out to me. It was interesting to learn more about it and reflect on my past experiences. I think it would be fair to say that my teachers stopped having interactive classrooms when I was in middle school. All throughout primary school, however, all of my classrooms had centers. I tutor a first grade class at Mallet, and they also have centers. Although I am now an elementary education major, I can see how easy it would be to incorporate this classroom style in my future classroom. However, I think this style could get chaotic and confusing in the high school level, which is probably why I never experienced it much past the sixth grade. I think it would be easy to incorporate it if you knew what you were doing, but I think it would take a lot of knowledge and practice.

Jordan Hale
The classroom environment is a catalyst to stronger MI learning experiences. Certain questions arise for teachers with, for example spatial learners such as, "is your classroom attractive to the eye"(101). Making sure there is a schedule every day would help linguistic learners and considering having living things in the classroom, like plants or a hamster, would help naturalists feel more comfortable and therefore learn better. Arranging your room to accommodate an MI activity center would help most students. This is when you align your classroom in "such a way that areas of the room are dedicated to specific intelligences"(103). For instance one corner could have more plants and a class animal to help the naturalists feel more at home. Having a library would help linguistic learners. Creating a classroom //vibe// is what I think will be a strong suit of mine. Accommodating students interests as well as making them feel comfortable in my classroom is a very important thing for me. Getting students to relax right when they walk into the classroom will help them feel more comfortable to maybe speak out in class or step our of their learning comfort zone. Including MI activity centers is a great idea I'm glad i read about. Including a study area or math lab in the a corner of my classroom would be a positive way to support student peer-support as well as help me get to know my students. = =

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Emily Haskell
Chapter 7: MI Theory and the Classroom Environment

I believe that one of the most important things we can take away from this chapter is the importance of considering the multiple intelligences when organizing a classroom. The room needs to accommodate all the needs of every kind of learner. Ideally there should be tables where students can talk amongst themselves in down time or during group activities. There should also be spaces all over the room that suit the needs of every kind of learner.

For example, there might be some chairs by themselves or study desks to accommodate the intrapersonal learners. There might be some kind of animal in the room, a goldfish or gerbil, for those who are naturalistically inclined. There may be a station with clay or music to help those who learn in a kinesthetic or musical manner. In this chapter the author suggests that perhaps in teaching the students about Multiple Intelligences the teacher should set up eight stations, one to represent each of the intelligences. Then, as an activity, send the students around to each of the tables to not only learn about the intelligence, but to experience it as well. There was a list of simple games that could show the students how they use their intelligences. These were simple things such as Monopoly and scrabble that could be found quite easily.

This chapter also touched shortly on some of the things that may promote or interfere with learning. For example, having the blinds may prohibit some students from learning. Things that are outside may distract them and they may end up not paying attention.

Spencer Hodge
Chapter 7 of Multiple Intelligences talked about the use of MI in a classroom environment. The idea talks about setting up a variety of different “centers” where students get to explore the content in ways that they are comfortable with. What stood out to me were the temporary open-ended activity centers. Here students play games for a certain amount of time to introduce them to the multiple intelligences based on playing these games. In high school my history teacher had us play jeopardy games before tests, so doing something of that extent might be something I would consider doing in my classroom as well. I don’t really know how I would justify using the other intelligence based games in my classroom, though it wouldn’t hurt to explore the idea at least.