MI Chapter 7

Activity centers were the focus of this chapter, arguing in favor of using them to enhance the multiple intelligences in the classroom.  Four types of activity centers were presented—Permanent Open-Ended, Temporary Open-Ended, Temporary Topic-Specific, and Permanent Topic-Specific.  Each center serves a different function, but they all relate to the intelligences.  I feel like this type of activity center would be more beneficial in an elementary classroom, where you would have the students for the entire day and could therefore coordinate time spent in the activity centers more easily, but I do think there are applications for a secondary classroom. Instead of having multiple activity centers, one for each intelligence, it might be more possible to combine a few of the intelligences and make an activity center or two based on those intelligences.  I like the idea of devoting a corner of the classroom to a reading and/or writing center, where students would have a different atmosphere for working and could potentially be more productive. The size of the classroom can also have an impact on how possible it is to have activity centers. Elementary classrooms have more room because the desks for elementary students do not need to be as big as desks for high school students do, so there is more space left in an elementary classroom.  I think it will just take a lot of creativity to find ways to incorporate activity centers into the secondary classroom.

MI Chapter 8

This chapter contained many different strategies on classroom management using the multiple intelligences to more effectively interact with students. Some examples that were provided in the chapter were using different techniques to get the students’ attention, such as writing something on the board for linguistic students or using hand motions for physical/kinesthetic students.  It also gives suggestions on how to work with students who have behavior problems and how the multiple intelligences can be used to address the problems in a more personalized manner.  I think the suggestions will be helpful for my classroom, though some of them might need to be modified for an older group of students.  In my experience, several of these strategies have worked well for classrooms of all dynamics, so I feel comfortable incorporating them into my classroom.  I also think that using approaches based on the multiple intelligences will be beneficial to all of my students.

MI Chapter 6

This chapter expanded on the ideas presented in chapter 5 and provided many different examples of how to use the various intelligences in the classroom. The chapter was broken down into the 8 intelligences, and for each intelligence there were five different examples of concepts that could be used to address and incorporate the intelligences into the classroom.  For instance, one of the examples given for spatial intelligence is color-coding, which helps students to connect like things together and distinguish between different things.  This is an activity that I am particularly interested in because there are so many options for color-coding in an English class. Other subject areas can benefit from an activity like this as well, and it could even be an ongoing activity that students refer back to throughout the year, building a database of terms or opinions or whatever it might be that they color code. That’s only one of the options for special intelligence, and there are four more for that particular intelligence alone.  The other seven intelligences have five examples for each, which when compiled in the format that this chapter has them, creates an outstanding database of sorts of MI activities.

MI Chapter 5

This chapter makes the argument that standing in front of the classroom lecturing students isn’t the best way to teach for all students.  Because each student has different strengths in different intelligence areas, lectures are not the most effective teaching method for all students.  They can still be used and be purposeful for some students, but other students need other strategies to meet their intelligences.  This chapter lists various other teaching approaches that will meet their intelligences, such as kinesthetic or logical methods.  It also suggested a good way for brainstorming activities that meet each of the intelligences for a unit.  This brainstorming idea seems really simple but really powerful, and I definitely think that I will use it in my classroom to vary the intelligences that my lessons meet. The chapter provides a sort of database for different activities and it will be helpful to refer back to it when I am planning my lessons in the future.

UbD/DI Chapter 7

The WHERETO model organizes teachers’ lessons by posing various questions that ask the teacher to think more about the learner. Some of it deals with engaging and hooking students at the beginning of the lesson, and some of it deals with helping the learner with the material.  I have seen this model only briefly before, but I have a feeling that I will see it more very soon.  It will be a good model to help guide my planning and my instruction because the questions it poses ask me to focus on the students more than the material.

UbD/DI Chapter 6

This chapter focused on being a responsive teacher and responding to the various elements of the classroom that affect learning and how that is considered part of differentiated instruction. Responding to students in ways other than just answering questions can lead to lesson plans changing on the spot or in the future or it can result in clarifying something for a confused student.  It could also mean changing the lesson from class to class depending on the situation and the students in each group.  I liked the analogy between the classroom teacher and the jazz musician because both incorporate practiced/ rehearsed material into their “performance,” while large pieces of it are left for improvisation, depending on the situation.  I think this will mostly help me to begin thinking about various ways to respond to students.

MI Chapter 10

This chapter focused on how the MI theory relates to assessment in the classroom.  Armstrong posed the idea that there should be a variety of assessments given, one option for each intelligence, so that students can complete the assessment in the intelligence they are strongest in.  This idea of having multiple assessments creates options for students, which can connect to tiering the instruction.  I particularly like that Armstrong believes “assessment experiences and instructional experiences should begin to appear virtually indistinguishable,” (148), which I think a lot of teachers would have a problem with.  They want to teach their lessons and then they want to administer the test, but then they are only catering to one or two intelligences. When they are indistinguishable, it means that both are learning experiences for the students.  I will definitely try to create assessment options that fit each of the multiple intelligences so that each student can do their personal best.