B1+MI+Chapter+2


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Paul Santamore (Synthesis)
Abstract: Across the board, chapter two was taken as fairly straightforward in block one. The author stated that there is a variety of determinants in terms of what MI may suit any individual student best. Along with having a dominant MI, students and teachers alike should strive to strengthen and use other means of learning to become a well-rounded person. Basically the chapter is a foundation from which teachers should create their lessons, because before they begin planning they must pay close attention to how they and their students learn best and use these findings to[| diversify] that lesson accordingly. Intelligence comes in many forms and it is the teacher’s responsibility to take the initiative on discovering how to best aid their students in the evolution of their brains and character alike. I think that our block was on point with their analysis of the chapter. The message was fairly straightforward, but we as a class seem to really have a good grasp on the meanings of each MI as well as how to use those MIs together to create the best learning environment possible. The responsibility of the teacher is to ultimately assess the information that is passing by them and put it to the best use in the classroom the next day. Our block seemed to agree that students will not grow at the rate that we would like them to if we as teachers do not do an effective job of working in multiple MIs into each lesson; therefore we paid close attention to how we might use the suggestion in chapter two in our own classroom.

Synthesis: The implications taken from this chapter by our block have the possibility of having a huge impact within the classrooms that we will enter this semester. Encouraging each MI to be displayed in the classroom was a common theme among the blogs as well as the fact that each student along with their teacher should learn something new and interesting each day. We, as a class, will aim to create crystallizing experiences among our pupils while attempting to never paralyze their untapped abilities in other areas where they may not be overtly comfortable. To create these crystallizing experiences we agree that we must attempt to relate all of what we want to teach to something tangible and enduring for the student. On the other hand, we cannot paralyze students by making them feel unwelcome in class, singling them out on subjects they may not understand, or pushing them to hard in an unwanted direction. Finally, we as teachers would like to see our kids participate actively in determining ways that we can [|incorporate] all eight MIs into our lessons and units. By doing these things, our block hopes to positively impact all of our students by helping them to grow in areas that they never thought possible. These areas will benefit our students in ways that they may have never believed possible and that is something that is profound and important to teachers. By always attempting to help the student first we will certainly pursue the use of multiple MIs as well as a continued attentiveness to all learning needs.

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 * These source were taken from Ubd/DI (57)

Carinne Haigis
This chapter was particularly interesting to me. I found it especially interesting that such a wide variety of factors have the capacity to effect whether or not a person forms certain intelligences. It is a little disconcerting to think biology, personal life, culture, and history can all have a say as to who a person will one day become. If a person simply isn’t born into a household where certain traits or aptitudes are encouraged, that individual may never learn that they are gifted in a particular area. This same idea goes for the time during which an individual is born. As the chapter states, Mozart was born at a time when music was especially appreciated. If he had been born at an earlier time or to a different family, he may never have discovered this side of himself. The ideas brought up in this chapter emphasize how important it is for people to be well-rounded and willing to try new and different things. In a classroom, this truth becomes extremely important. It is crucial for a teacher to encourage students in all areas because if a student believes that he or she simply cannot do a certain thing, they may never learn that they really are quite good at it after all. As a teacher, it is important not only to learn what students are interested in, but also to introduce students to new and different things in order to hopefully pique their interest in other areas as well.

Leigh W.
The second chapter takes the Multiple Intelligences a step further and tells you to figure out how proficient you, as a teacher and learner, are with these intelligences. Only after you figure out your personal intelligences can you figure out how to teach to all of these intelligences. In class we discovered our first and second intelligences, which was really helpful when I was trying to think of different ways to focus classes. The chapter also talks about how you can teach to all intelligences. One of the ways to do that is ask the students to come up with ideas, or draw pictures of what your talking about on the board. Another way is to ask colleagues that are highly proficient in some aspects you are not. I told my roommate to do the same test we took on the first day, just to see what her number one and two intelligences were and it turned out that we had the exact same ones. I wanted to do this to see if I could go to her when I needed ideas to reach out to the other intelligences, but I guess we would be on the same page. I thought it was really interesting that she had other boxes filled in that I didn’t, but when it came down to the forced choice, we chose almost the exact same ones. I think that I also need to keep in mind that when trying to teach to all the intelligences there are going to be people that might be proficient in more than one area, it is not always one really good and the others are underdeveloped.

Paul Santamore
Directly from the start, this chapter made an impact on my thoughts about teaching. The first sentence displays the type of view that I wish to carry forward as I become a full time classroom teacher. Basically the author’s point is that we, as teachers, should always become familiar with something and somewhat understand its meaning before we push it upon our students. We must continuously work to understand the needs of our students by walking in their shoes so to speak. Chapter two also taught me some ways to find my own MIs, but it also provided strategies and ideas in terms of working with the other MIs in the classroom. This was a wonderful piece of information because I had previously been worried about how I would get all eight of these across to my students through lesson when I have almost zero exposure to them myself. According to the book I can tap into other colleagues expertise, ask students to help, or use the technology available to me in order further enhance my lessons through the use of multiple MIs in each. While thinking about how I will take these suggestions into my classroom I continued to think back to my foundational theory that there is no such thing as a closed system, at least in terms of the brain of an individual. By telling this to my students early I will hopefully promote constant improvement and everlasting intellectual enhancement. I hope to provide my students with many different approaches to each lesson; therefore giving them the opportunity to discover something that is important on any given day. Through these ideas I will work my hardest to provide my students with “crystallizing moments” that they will never forget.

Jason B
When I read this chapter, the first thing that I thought of was standardized testing. Standardized testing looks at only one set of skills and intelligences rather than a variety. There is not way to accurately determine the nature or quality of a person’s intelligence. This is why standardized testing is being questioned in the classroom. Standardized tests are used to look at how well a student has mastered particular material. However, because they are standardized, they do not look at the student as a whole. The idea of Multiple Intelligences says that there is more than one way to look at a student’s intelligence. Therefore, the idea of that a standardized test can provide accurate results is false.

Megan Hoffman
This chapter started with an analysis of our own intelligences in the MI theory. I, for example, thrive in the linguistic, spatial and musical categories while I lack in logical-mathematical and naturalist intelligence. Along with this analysis of our own intelligence, it also explained the effects of nature and nurture with regards to the MI theory. An example the author gave was Mozart who was talented at age four, but without his father’s devotion and the societal acknowledgement of musical talent at that point in history, his genius probably wouldn’t have flourished in the way that it did. The author also explained the idea of “crystallizing experiences” that promote the growth of an intelligence, as well as “paralyzing experiences” that shut down the growth of an intelligence. The nature and nurture explanation is one that I personally resonate with in regards to teaching. I believe that all children are born “smart” in their own way, it just takes the right combination of family support and support from educators to help their intelligence blossom. To me, I relate my students to flowers. They all start the same way but if one doesn’t receive nourishment, they fail. In the same way, if a student doesn’t receive nourishment from a teacher or their family, they are bound to fail. I personally deal with children like this on a daily basis. I work for an after school program that services many low-income families and children that come from broken homes. Many of them display the traits of improper intellectual nourishment and many of them think they are “stupid”. I have made it my resolve to isolate each one’s own talent and help it grow in order to boost their confidence and show them that they are smart in their own way.

Chris Whitney

 * Chapter two** of the MI book was helping in answering a few questions I had after reading so much about the basics of what the eight multiple intelligences are, and what the characteristics of them are. This chapter helped to explain why some people are proficient in some types of intelligence rather than others. Whereas some factors were easy to guess such as geography, family, culture and the time in which people were born. But it was interesting to find out that some people are more proficient in some intelligence rather than others because of paralyzing experiences. It is earth shattering to believe that someone stops learning in a certain way because of a few past experiences in that field. One can only wonder how different a person might end up if had those small incidents not happened. This was an important lesson about how important it is that the classroom environment be a safe place for students to voice their opinions without worrying about being humiliated or ridiculed for their ideas. After reading this chapters on intelligence and all the factors that surround it, I feel like I have really grown as a student. I am now more aware of not only how I learn best, but why I learn that way and I feel as though that by knowing my strengths and weaknesses I can be more confident in class.

Bianca Stoutamyer
In chapter 2 I would never have thought to use a student to help me tap into my own lacking intelligences. I am not an artistic person and doing visuals to help my students understand a scientific concept could become difficult, this chapter showed me the solution to this problem could be as simple as having one of my students who has a strong artistic intelligence to help me communicate artistically with the class. I also liked the multiple intelligence inventory given by the book. Though it says it is for adults the inventory or one similar to it could help me learn about my students abilities both inside and outside the classroom. Though this isn’t a learning style it gives me a way to relate to my students and to ensure that I can help them develop intelligences. The three main factors for developing intelligences is also important for me to know as a teacher, I personally never want to find that I am stunting my students growth in my class. I want my students to be able to flourish in all areas of intelligence not only the one that most pertains to my subject. Though I do not have the power to overcome geographic factors or familial factors I can also introduce my students to a broad range of opportunities and devices to help them grow and continue to grow after leaving my classroom. Most importantly however if I am going to use multiple intelligences in my classroom I also must know my own strong and weak point and be seen by my students trying to improve my own to inspire them to improve as well.

Mel Christensen
While reading Chapter 2 I noticed the importance of looking at the intelligences in a wide range of contexts. For instance, I have never been an athlete and often felt uncomfortable participating in movement related activities in school and had a score of zero in the bodily/ kinesthetic category in class, but checked six out of ten of the statements in the Chapter 2 checklist. Even within each specialized intelligence it is not a simple “one-size-fits-all” category. Some students, like me, may assume that since they were never good at sports they cannot access understanding through hands on practice or engaging in movement related learning activities, but there is a range of ways that the kinesthetic intelligence can materialize. Overall, I think I enjoy learning through methods that cover almost all of the different intelligences. The intelligences can almost be used as a checklist when teaching something, and when students have experienced the material through several different channels they really begin to absorb the concept. One reason I think science is especially exciting to teach is because it can be accessed through so many of the intelligences: students can get outside, make observations through all of their senses, spatially visualize things from the planets to cells, compile graphs and diagrams, read, and tell the story of natural processes and cycles.

**Kellie S.**
This chapter focused mainly on the necessity of knowing your own strengths and weaknesses as a teacher in order to teach your students in the best way possible for their learning styles and intelligences. This chapter seemed to answer the majority of my questions left from the first chapter. I really appreciate that the book gives specific examples of ideas for helping students. I learned in the in-class activity that my most well-developed forms of intelligence are Logical/Mathematical, Bodily/Kinesthetic, and Interpersonal, so I know that I will be able to effectively help students who are also best-developed in these areas from my own learning abilities. When it comes to the areas of Naturalist, Musical/Rhythmic, and Intrapersonal intelligence, however, I am not so well-developed. In the case of these types of students, I will need to find help elsewhere in order to teach these students to the best of my ability. So if, for example, I have a student who is highly developed in Musical/Rhythmic intelligence, but not as highly developed in other areas, I could ask the school’s music teacher for help in planning a lesson which uses music to explain the content area. This chapter also discussed the possibility of further developing intelligence types which are lacking in an individual. I took this to mean that since I am not advanced in Intrapersonal intelligence, perhaps I should spend more time building on this intelligence by spending time alone getting to know myself and pondering ideas alone that I would normally ponder aloud with others.

Allison Reynolds
This chapter seemed to influence me as a person more than me as teacher as I read it. After the activity in class and reading the first section, I was worried that my intelligences were not even enough and thus I would not be able to help students who had a more developed intelligence. I took a lot away from look for other resources, especially asking the students to help. Many students just assume that teachers know everything, but I am still learning too. That is something I will bring in the classroom in order to get a better sense of working together as a unit and a class. I also found the crystallizing and paralyzing experiences to be very important and very interesting. I knew that students could shut down if they had a bad experience in a subject, but I didn’t know it could actually stop them for developing that certain intelligence. That is why so many students probably “hate” math, because they didn’t have someone or a situation that would allow that intelligence to grow. Just knowing that makes me as a person more aware of what I need to get involved in in order to work on building my other intelligences. I, as a person, need to break into areas I may not be comfortable with in order to grow. Then, as a teacher, I need to have those experiences for my students as well as being the support they need to feel affirmed. I really had to think about what I need to do for myself as a person and teacher before I work with students. This section inspired me to be a better person for my students.

Kaite Bukauskas
As previously mentioned in chapter one, understanding the multiple intelligences can help a teacher learn to identify the ways in which a student has a stronger chance of learning and retaining information. It can also serve as a way to identify the areas in which a student may need improvement. Many resources are available to identify and research the multiple intelligences. One way that was mentioned both in the book as well as in EDU 221 class was through the use of a questionnaire. A questionnaire can list many questions pertaining to each of the areas of intelligence. A student can check off the areas in which apply to his or her self to result in a description of the interests, focus, and strengths of the student. The areas of intelligences are not set amounts which are continuous throughout one’s lifespan. The multiple intelligences are ever changing and can be influenced by our actions. Certain aspects are not within the individual’s control, such as biological factors. Other factors that may effect MI are personal life history, and cultural and historical background. However, the areas of intelligence can activate or deactivate based upon exposure to the elements involved.

Ashton Carmichael
As teachers, we need to be able to identify which intelligence we feel most comfortable teaching with. This makes sense in that we do not want teachers trying to teach using a musical intelligence if they are not developed in that intelligence. This will cause confusion for the students and the teacher and the whole situation will be more harmful than helpful. Bringing in other teachers and resources to help integrate the other intelligences into a classroom is a good idea. I would like to be able to get other ideas from across the school and into other departments about ways to incorporate these multiple intelligences. I would like to get the input from a music or science faculty to incorporate musical and natural intelligences into my English class. By doing this, I would be able to help the students develop their intelligences while teaching them the course matter that is required. Perhaps the teacher developed in music intelligence could help me by putting the major plot line of the novel we are reading to the tune of a well known song. I would be more than willing to help other teachers in this fashion and would like to explore opportunities where this is possible to carry out. As educators I think it is important to crystallize experience in students. It does not make sense to degrade a student for making an attempt at something. If a teacher paralyze an experience, it could be detrimental to the development of the student in that they will give up on trying anything else in relation to that intelligence. I want to offer an array of options to students for projects that encompass the different intelligences so that they can choose and are not forced to focus on one specific intelligence with each project or assignment.