B2+MI+Chapter+10

Abstract
This chapter was about learning to assess students through the use of MI. Obviously, this cannot be done with something as generalized as standardized testing, but when given an assignment specific to the class, it becomes much easier to assess students and find out if they are learning the content area. The author gives us several examples of how to assess students through their specific MIs. Before you can assess the students' MIs, however, you need to determine exactly what their MIs are. The easiest way to do this, as many of us noted, is to simply observe the student and note how they conduct themselves in class to get an idea of what kind of MI they may have. Once their MI type is established, it is recommended to assign an in-class assignment or project that is appropriate for the students' MIs. The author then strongly recommends using MI [|portfolios] for the students for a few different reasons. It allows students and parents alike to view the students' work, it allows you as the teacher to track the students' progress, and it allows you to help students expand all eight of their MIs, not just their strongest one.

Synthesis
It seems as though our class strongly identifies with the author's need for MI portfolios, and for good reason. They give us as teachers the ability to plan students' future assessments based on their MI-centered work, as well as help them expand their MIs that need work. As Nicole noted, "Portfolios incorporate so many of the learning styles, and can even be fitted to the others with a little creativity. They really are the perfect assessment to incorporate the multiple intelligences into." Another theme that appears over and over in our posts is observation. It's amazing how something as simple as watching your students can make such an important difference in the way you teach them. We all seem to be centering around the idea that MI-based assessment is the best way to see if your students are learning, as opposed to the more conventional, multiple-choice, standardized testing.

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**Andrew C**
Chapter 10 present a lot of great ways one could assess their students in a different way other then standardized tests. I had seen a lot of the ideas in the chapters from UbD but there were some new ones that I would definitely like to try out in my classroom. I want to use work samples, and student interviews in my class room for assessment. I will obviously do other things too but out of the list those are the two from this list I really want to use. I like how the chapter talked about all of the different schools that are testing MI assessment projects. I wish the chapter had provided information on how it was going. It didn’t really give any information on it other then briefly outlining it. I think the idea of a MI theory is perfect for assessing students fairly. It is a great way to see good pieces of work that covers such a broad range of information. I have used many portfolios in my recent history in high school but they were not nearly as broad as this one. I know that the MI portfolio covers a much wider range of knowledge and it covers all types of learners and thinkers. This is the true way to be differentiated and fair to all students. I definitely plan on having my students create these types of portfolios when I am a teacher. This chapter gave me a lot of great information on how to assess my students in all of their intelligences equally.

**Ali P**
This chapter made me realize how much assessing you can do as a teacher by just observing your class. The chapter mentioned using journals, records, maps and many more ways to record this. It is very important to document all of your students accomplishments and struggles in the class. Being informed of these will help teachers to teach the students in the future. This chapter was very against standardized testing and felt that is would be more effective if it included more intelligences in it. It is important for teachers to use all eight of the intelligences when assessing, weather it is in a test or a project. In a test you can have multiple questions offered to the students, one in each intelligence. When assigning projects, you can give your students eight different project choices, one in each intelligence. Students really appreciate choice and freedom. Having these options in assessment will create comfort. I have always felt hesitant about using tests in my class. I think a lot of them are useless. But the examples I saw in this chapter and the ideas I read made me rethink my hesitation. I thought the idea of using the intelligences to answer the questions created clarity for the tests and could make the students feel more comfortable. I think students would enjoy these types of tests much more. Students would have a chance to use creativity with these tests and relate them to what they love.

Emily H.
The focus of this chapter is incorporating the MI Theory and assessments. Instead of having an assessment just be a question and answer exam, the MI Theory can be part of those answers. The examples in the book uses questions about a book and connects them to each MI. To connect with the nature MI, a student could be asked to compare the main character to an animal and have them explain why they came up with this animal. This is a way to connect a not so common MI for those who have a strong naturalist mind. Not only does it give the nature MI attention, but it also give a chance for other students to develop that MI more. As a teacher I could use the assessment in eight ways. It’s not only connecting the unit topic to MIs, but to the real world. Making connections like that strengthen and develop student’s MIs. This is something I want to achieve as a teacher. If students leave my class at the end of the year feeling like they grew in more ways then one then I will feel successful. Portfolios are something that I liked doing as a student. As a teacher I think it is an effective way for both the student and I too look back at the __#|work__ from the unit. Personally I would do this as an end of unit project so I can see how their work in each of the MI areas developed throughout the union. By having it at the end of the unit I will know what worked for my students and what didn’t for the next unit.

Brittany R.
This chapter focused on different ideas on how to assess students when they all excel in different MI learning categories. They ranged from journals to pictures to portfolios. The idea of have students create a portfolio was a large part of the chapter. There were diagrams and rubrics but the book also went on to explain the benefits to having individual students keep track of their work. There were five different benefits for this activity but my favorite of the five that stuck out in my mind was for the communication aspect. When I was in school, no matter how old I was, it always meant a lot to me when my teachers would go out of their way to contact my parents for an accomplishment I had. Parents don’t see how their children are at school and this way they can form positive relationships with them. I liked the idea of sharing the portfolio with other teachers as well. To relate back to previous chapters we have read as a class, students may excel in other classes more than others and this will allow other teachers and administrators to see how the student learns and what works for them as an individual. I would like to be able to make students feel valuable and have their peers and superiors be proud of the work they have done throughout the semester. I also like the idea of allowing students to chose the work they wish to do in order to show they have mastered the information. There was a "contract" in the chapter that students would fill out and say what they would like to do as far as their evaluation. I would like to do something like this in my classroom.

Cameron B.
This chapter shows how important it is to test students using assessments. But, not just one type of assessment. Traditionally an assessment is given and they are usually structured in a way that favors students who are linguistic. This is not fair to those students who struggle with this form of assessment. They may not be able to show that they have mastered the content simply because they don’t show the same understanding of the book that the assessment may be on. Assessments need to show variation. Some being presentations or drawings so that each student can show their stronger intelligence area. The chapter shows examples of assessments teachers could give their students and it is something that I would like to do in my classroom. A very cool part of the chapter was figure 10.3 which shows a worksheet a teacher would pass to their students for projects. The paper has a list of roughly twenty project ideas for the students. The student can simply pick the type of project they want to prove to the teacher that they have mastered the content area. I find this awesome. This allows for more flexibility in the classroom and allows students to show their strengths that some classwork may mask. Not only will be this more exciting for the students but as a teacher standpoint I feel as if I would have fun with this too. Not only do I get to see students enjoying doing their work but I would be able to see various project types like presentations and songs written by the students! As a whole the experience would be great for both the students and teachers. This is something I feel like each classroom should do at least once per year.

Jackie B.
In this chapter we read about the importance of assessment but not just one assessment, multiple. The author emphasizes how important it is that we test our students in multiple ways, because if we just test them with standardized testing we’re not really getting a fair assessment of how much they’ve grown and learned. We’d be seeing their linguistic skills and their mathematical skills but none of the other important skills that they have. In a section under ‘Key Learning Community” the reader learns about an Indianapolis public school system that tapes their kids twice a year throughout the years. I think this is a really good idea and I’ll tell you why. This lets them see how they’ve progressed and it’s real. They can go back and look at themselves, hear themselves, observe and ponder. I know if I personally had they done with me I’d laugh about it but it would also be really neat to see where I started out, to see what was important to me and then just watch myself develop over the years and change in personality, looks, wisdom, and to watch myself really grow up. That would be kinds of a neat idea to do with my classes. Record my students at the end of the year, ask them a few questions and then at the end of the year ask them the same questions and see what they say. On page 138 they have this really neat chart with all the different ways(all eight) that a student can be tested. I definitely think this could be a super useful chart to have and I plan to consult it when I have my own classrooms. They also showed this nifty sign up sheet that is a super great way to let the students pick what kind of assessment they want, and to have diversity in the class!

**Jackson F.**
Assessments are not always a way to see how well a child can score on an exam, but instead they test students’ knowledge in a way so that they can prove to the teachers they have mastered the material. Standardized test do not prove much; sure for some students it may be a good measure of knowledge but for many students it restricts them from showing how intelligent they are. MI assessments can be done in many ways; teachers can use work samples, videos, photography, journals, etc. to see the progress of the student. Just like MI teaching, MI assessments can be categorized in eight different ways to ensure that all students can use strengths to prove they have mastered the material. A great way to see the growth of students is by making a MI portfolio to see in which categories they are improving at. In the book it talks about using the five “C’s” in order to keep the student motivated to improve his/her weaknesses. I have had many teachers who give their students the choice of how they want to do a project. This is always a relief as a student because then you do not feel restricted to one thing. However at times I feel like being told what to do for an assessment was beneficial for me. As a teacher I see myself incorporating MI assessments in the classroom. Having the content area of health may make it easier for me to come up with MI assessments.

Joe S.
This chapter discusses assessing students while incorporating multiple intelligence theory. The author argues that standardized testing fails to meet students’ needs because it assesses only one of the intelligences. “It would certainly be the height of hypocrisy to ask students to participate in a wide range of multispectrum experiences in all eight intelligences and then require them to show what they’ve learned through standardized tests that focus narrowly on linguistic or logical-mathematical intelligences.” The chapter reminds readers that authentic work is invaluable when it comes to assessing student understanding. Implementing this method of assessment can be as easy as giving students options for how they would like to present what they have learned. A great example of this is the “Celebration of Learning” Student Sign-Up Sheet, which gives students a variety of options they choose from and commit to. Also, as a teacher, it is important to recognize and interpret strengths and weaknesses in different intelligence areas of one’s students. To do this, the author recommends “observing,” which can be applied in numerous different ways. My favorite examples are informal assessments, informal use of standardized tests, and student interviews. These methods of documenting student thought-processes are a good way to assess growth in the classroom, and could have a good impact on individualizing instruction. Finally, the chapter discusses MI Portfolios, which are a method of documenting a student’s growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, or even from year to year. If used collaboratively by teachers, these portfolios can offer insight into the inner working of the student and influence the way lessons are developed.

Clayton P.
This chapter deals with MI theory and assessment. We’ve already seen how MI requires for differentiated instruction, so naturally, differentiated assessment is also required to accommodate this. Rather than base assessment of a student’s performance on standards or guidelines, differentiated assessment should focus more on the student’s past performances in comparison with his or her current performance. The author mentions authentic assessment, meaning that the form of assessment would examine a student’s knowledge in context. This would apply that knowledge into a practical purpose, therefore truly assessing a student’s knowledge of the subject, rather than offering a multiple choice standardized test that tests how well students can guess and/or fill in bubbles. However, authentic assessment requires the instructor to observe a student to determine their MI before building an assessment around that. The author then lists various options, including keeping a journal with brief observations noted about each student, keeping a file with student work samples, and having the students keep a journal of their school life. The author then mentions several projects that have been established nationwide that go along with the theme of MI, including a preschool program in Massachusetts, a K-12 program in Indianapolis, and a Pittsburgh high school arts project. Each of these programs help students enable their MIs and use them in ways that are almost impossible in normal school environments. I found this chapter to be very interesting and informative. It not only introduced ways to identify MIs, but also ways to assess those MIs in practical ways that benefit the entire classroom.

Nicole C.
The main focus of this chapter is incorporating the MI theory into assessments. Since standardized tests completely leave MI out of the picture, it is easy to see why many teachers want to find other methods of assessing students. MI theory’s most important aspect is that it provides a huge variety of ways you can assess students: “By linking [what they’ve learned] to pictures, physical actions, musical phrases, scientific formulas, social connections, personal feelings, or animals, students have more opportunities to use their multiple intelligences to help articulate their understanding” (137). This helps students communicate what they have mastered in class in ways that are familiar to them. After all, if you asked a visual learner who had no proclivity for the linguistic intelligence to write a summary of what he learned over the course of the semester, it probably wouldn’t seem like he had learned a whole lot. However, if you let him create a cartoon storyboard that explains what he learned step by step, he would be able to show his understanding perfectly. Of course, it might be hard to constantly provide eight different assessment options. That is why the chapter suggests using MI portfolios. Portfolios incorporate so many of the learning styles, and can even be fitted to the others with a little creativity. They really are the perfect assessment to incorporate the multiple intelligences into. I particularly liked the suggestion of the “5 C’s of Portfolio Development”: celebration, cognition, communication, cooperation, and competency (143). These can all be reasons to have a student complete a portfolio, and can even be the basis of grading it. I will certainly try to incorporate MI theory into the portfolios I have my future students do.

Meng H.
This chapter is about MI theory and assessment. Basically the author suggests that when the content materials are presented to students based on MI theory, then it only makes sense that the assessments are following MI model to best measure students’ learning. Observation and documentation are the two most important parts in implementing authentic assessment. There are a lot of ways to document students’ growth. I have a couple of questions about some of the documenting methods though. I believe in observation and documentation, but how is possible for a teacher to see, hear, remember and write down everything that concerns MI assessment while carrying out a lesson plan and managing a classroom at the same time? What is the use of “classroom maps” or “calendar records”? Also, I found that “informal assessments” and “criterion-referenced assessments” are a little contradicting each other.

I would like to use assessment based MI theory in my classroom because I am hoping to teach my content base on students’ MIs to ensure the content delivery.

 In reality, I can’t imagine having every assessment being so flexible and full of choices. If then, which of the assignments, projects, quizzes, or tests should I follow MI theory more than others? I think I totally understand the MI theory and assessment needed, but how to implement those in a classroom with just one teacher is a totally different story.

Mathematics is most of the time pure logical or spatial, I surely need some creative ways to meet the other six of MIs for the students.

Phillip C.
This chapter had a lot to do with what we talked about today in class. When we were first told to come up with assessments that were not on the list we came up with my first thought was, “that’s impossible.” But that is most likely because I was thinking of standardized testing and assessments. I have to agree with the author though that authentic assessments will be more valuable in the real world. This combines book smart and street smart elements for kids, and can teach them real world skills. The thing that impacted me the most in this chapter was the “Celebration of Learning,” sheet that students could fill out for assignments. I thought this was such a great idea. The concept of having kids be able to choose how they show their mastery of a subject is spectacular. The use of different programs or tools can be taught in lessons. When it comes down to test day though, students should be able to show what they know in the way that is most comfortable for them and is in their strongest MI. Some students might want to take the normal linguistics focused test and that is okay. Others however, could sign up to write a song if they are musical, build a model if they’re kinesthetic, or any number of things. The teacher would have to make many rubrics to make sure the material that needs to be understood is involved in every choice. For me, as a teacher, that extra work to make those rubrics would be well worth it for the kid’s sake.

Tyler R.
One thing that I learned from this chapter is that the most effective and important prerequisite for authentic assessments is simple observation. When a teacher is observing their classroom and their students within the classroom, the teacher will be able to pick out key symbols of Multiple Intelligences. Some of these symbols are extremely subtle as we learned from the other chapters, so being able to observe well and be on the look out for these key symbols is very important. This was somewhat covered in a previous chapter of either MI or UbD, but this again refreshed my memory. As a future teacher, I will be sure to observe my classroom. I believe observation does many things; keeps students on task, allows students to ask question more often, and to be able to view symbols of multiple intelligences that I can use to my students advantages as well. Secondly, I learned that the next most important component of authentic assessment is to have documentation on how students problem-solve and of their products. According to the chapter, there are a wide variety of ways that a teacher can document these products and problem solving. Since documenting has so many options, it will be easy for me as a future teacher in my classroom to be able to do this. In a more broad sense, every teacher should be able to find a way to implement documentation into their classroom, not only because there are so many ways to do so, but also because of its extreme importance as well.