MI+B2+Chapter+6

Synthesis - Justin C.
toc Chapter 6 of //Multiple Intelligences// talks mostly about ways in which teachers can [|incorporate all of the intelligences] into their classroom regardless of their content area. As teachers, it will be our job to not only teach our content, but it is necessary for us to implement various ways of teaching so that all students are able to get the most out of their learning experience. It has been stated before and it's worth stating again, the most important piece of teaching is the students. If the students fail, then we fail as teachers. If we are not helping our students to get the most out of their education, then it is just wasting time.
 * Abstract**

After reading through the reactions below, it came to my attention that we all yearn to have all of the intelligences touched on in our classrooms. We all want to be able to differentiate our instruction in order to keep the attention of all of our students. We all have our preferences to learning styles and that is ok. We can use our personal intelligences in the classroom, but we need to keep in mind that all of the [|other intelligences] need to be addressed as well if we want all of our students to be successful.
 * Synthesis Reflection**

Tiarra
Chapter 6 of //Multiple Intelligences// presents different teaching strategies for each of the eight intelligences. Armstrong presents 5 strategies for each intelligence, accumulating in 40 different strategies that I know I will be referring back to in the near future. Each strategy gives specific examples and describes in depth how to implement each tactic in the classroom. I enjoyed reading about the strategies in my own intelligence areas and have seen many of these strategies in practice so I know their effectiveness. It was comforting to think that the strategies listed under intelligences relatively foreign to myself such as music and special would be just as helpful to those students as the more familiar ones are to me. I hope to implement many of these strategies within my own curriculum and feel that I can easily incorporate each intelligence into my subject area.

Will L.
Chapter six was just about the same as chapter five. The examples that chapter six featured were much more detailed, rather than being in list form in the previous chapter. It was a great follow up to the idea listings. I enjoyed reading about the various lesson ideas featured in my specific intelligence, under the linguistic section. I found that journal writing and storytelling were the two best examples in that section. I think that it’s important to know all the ins and outs of the various intelligences, as students will fall under any of the intelligences at any given time.

Dan B.
The thing that I really liked about chapter 6 in the MI book was the fact that it had 40 different teaching strategies that you could use; 5 teaching strategies for each of the 8 multiple intelligences. I had wondered previously how I could teach in a way that would ensure that everybody was able to learn the material in a way that helped them really learn the material. I hadn't thought of all the ways that I could teach to really hit all 8 of the multiple intelligences, but after reading this chapter I saw that there are a lot of ways to teach that will address the 8 multiple intelligences. As a teacher I will implement these tactics to make sure that I can teach all kinds of students in my classroom.

Grace K.
Chapter 6 of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom was filled with ideas about how teachers can utilize MI theory in the classroom. Armstrong presented 40 ideas for this purpose, outlining why each related to a certain intelligence and how it might expand a student’s understanding of a topic. Again, the main idea of this chapter was that being flexible and creating varied instruction is the key to successfully utilizing the multiple intelligences. Some of the teaching strategies that I felt jumped out to me as a history concentration were: publishing (a goal of most history majors, so I immediately related to this one); storytelling (both as an instruction strategy and as a primary document resource – the slave narratives collected during the Great Depression are a great example of the power of this tool); Socratic questioning lends itself perfectly to history. Additionally, musical resources for history are easy to come by, and interpersonal intelligence is naturally involved because of the discussions that occur in an effective history classroom. I think the intelligence I am mostly likely to neglect as a history teacher is intrapersonal, and it is because of what I find most valuable about history: the discussions it can result it. I will have to make a conscious effort to offer reflection time in my classroom, whether that translates to quiet one-minute reflection periods or in allowing for more expression of how a history topic relates to students’ personal lives.

Justin C.
The sixth chapter of //Multiple Intelligences// was all about teaching styles made to cater to specific learning styles. It is important that we, as teachers, are able to incorporate all different styles of learning so that all of our students are involved. Some ways that I felt I could incorporate different styles could be through the use of a journal. I would have my students keep track of their thoughts on what was being taught and what they still may need some help with. I could read these and see where I would need to adjust. With some mathematical concepts, visual aids are usually a big help too. I could use pictures for certain math problems so that students who need visuals would be better able to answer and understand the question. One other method that I could incorporate would be peer sharing. I could have students work with their peers at attempting a new math concept and see if they can work well at teaching each other. Also, it is another great way to get help if the teacher is unable to get over to them because of them helping other students.

Danny K.
This chapter gave multiple teaching strategies for the eight different types of multiple intelligences. Not only did this chapter give examples, the chapter went into detail on their examples. Some of the strategies for linguistic intelligences included storytelling, brainstorming, tape recording, journal writing, and publishing. In my health classes I will use many of these strategies. For example, I will have my students keep a personal journal where they can write what’s on their mind and ask questions that they have about class. Just like chapter six, chapter seven was about being flexible as a teacher and teaching to the different learning styles of your students.

Jen R.
Chapter six of Multiple Intelligences went hand-in-hand with the fifth chapter. They addressed very similar topics and mainly dealt incorporating all MI and catering to the needs of the student. Chapter six went into greater detail on how to involve all MI into the classroom and provided many useful examples for each individual MI. When considering how to develop lesson plans for my health classroom, it is important to engage all students and get them genuinely interested in the topic of concern. To do so efficiently, it is crucial to implement all MI into my classroom and develop a broad spectrum of learning methods into the material.

Chris D.
Chapter 6 of Multiple Intelligences is all about giving ideas on how to teach to each of the eight different learning styles. It may not seem it, but linguistic intelligence is rather easy to target with math. I see linguistic learners and logical-mathematical learners as opposites. Word problems are a great way then for linguistic learners to better grasp mathematical concepts. Spatial intelligence learners are also easy to accommodate to as each function looks different on a graph, so I can demonstrate this by drawing many pictures of graphs on a board. Bodily-Kinesthetic learners are a bit harder to target though. It’s rather difficult to touch numbers or act out a concrete answer. My best idea for targeting bodily kinesthetic learners would be to have them go up to the board and solve a solution or have the entire class get up, move around, and work with others in group work (which also targets interpersonal learners). Musical learners also pose a challenge for me. I have had teachers in the past that would allow students to listen to music while working on homework in class, but that does me no good if they’re not paying attention while I’m teaching. An idea that occurred to me was to have the class maybe come up with a chant or some cleaver rhyme for formulas that would help in their memorization. Interpersonal and intrapersonal are probably the two easiest areas to target as it’s all based around their own peer relationships. If I allow debate and educational communication between the entire class then this is satisfying the need of interpersonal learners. If I allow students to think alone about a problem or have them solve an example problem alone, then this satisfies the intrapersonal learners. Naturalistic learners might be my toughest learning style to target. A certain way I might be able to attract their attention is to create a math problem that uses nature or the outside world in its scenario. Obviously logical-mathematical learners I won’t have a problem with in my classroom as math is concentrated heavily for that intelligence area. That doesn’t mean that I still don’t have to target it. I will need to make sure that I find other ways than just writing numbers on the board to target their needs as well.

Jonathan B.
Chapter six is an extensive and involved chapter regarding teaching strategies for the multiple intelligences. I found the in-depth explanation of the various MI-based tasks to be helpful. Sometimes, it can be hard to see the utility of an activity if it does not correspond with a multiple intelligence in which you have a lot of strength. I really like the socratic-questioning method, even if it is related to a “traditional” intelligence—this method is important because it develops critical-thinking, a skill included in many educational standards today. As a social studies teacher, I would also employ assignments where students are to act out scenarios in history or other social studies. I would also like to employ the concept of idea sketching. This strategy seems to really fit well with helping to describe concepts in politics, or geography, or culture, or other complex theories.

Grady B.
Upon reading the first page of this chapter, I was reminded of one of the difficulties in being an effective MI instructor: one great instruction idea will likely only benefit one group of students. It seems a little daunting to think of how much a teacher must consider in regards to ensuring that as many learning groups are learning as effectively as possible during a given time. However, I can imagine that the more that a teacher strives toward this goal, the easier it will be to achieve it over time. When looking at the specific methods of reaching all students described in the last section of the chapter, I found that even within my own educational preference (linguistic), there were ideas that I had never considered as effective teaching tools, such as employing storytelling. The section on Socratic questioning, as described on page 78, also speaks to me as a very effective means of engaging students, where the teacher creates a running dialog with students, in order to facilitate a deep discussion of a given topic. All-in-all, each of the numerous ideas described in this chapter can lead to a classroom that welcomes all types of learners.

Tyler S
After looking at all the different techniques you could potentially use to hit different types of intelligences, I have decided that it is nearly impossible to please everyone on each assignment in one go. Lessons will have to be stretched out to include various different teaching methods, or some students will get left out. I think just as important as teaching all these different ways, we need to teach students to learn in different ways. At the very least, try to get everyone to a point where they can all listen to a short lecture and take something away from it, or work in a group activity and not feel it is a waste of time. I know how some students can become tied up with learning just one way, and this can seriously hinder them in the long run.

Kaitlin T.
I found chapter six of Multiple Intelligences to be one of the most helpful so far. Armstrong offers numerous suggestions for teaching to the different intelligences. Efficiency is key in today’s economy; as educators we need to be efficient with our instruction. Understanding how to teach a diverse group of students simultaneously is important. As an educator my first priority will be my students and how well they learning. If a student learns best spatially, I need to be able to teach spatially. The concept is simple, but the actual completion of that task is easier said than done. My goal should also be to teach focusing on my students’ intelligences, but to also help them develop intelligences that they are not as comfortable with.