MI+B1+Chapter+4

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**Abstract**
Teachers need to teach the multiple intelligence theory to their students and students need to learn where their strengths are. The method of standing up and lecturing to students and then giving them a test at the end of a certain amount of time is no longer going to work. Students need to be engaged while they are learning and that means teaching to them in the method they learn best in. It is not enough to just teach students about the multiple intelligences, teachers must also show students how this theory is used outside of the school as well. If students can see what skills they need to develop for them to become whatever they wish to become after graduation than they need to see what they have to do in order to accomplish that goal.

Over all the common consensus was that the multiple intelligences should be taught to students. Not only did we say that the [|MI theory] should be taught but that student should know which intelligences they are strongest in and which they might need to work on. One of the ways that the students can engage in the multiple intelligences is to do a "Human Intelligence Hunt" with their classmates. This would allow them to find others in the class who demonstration proficiency in the different intelligences. Finally, the last big thing we took from this chapter is giving the students the opportunity to observe how the MI theory is used in everyday life. The students would be able to do this through field trips or through a [|career day] where adults would show the students which of the multiple intelligences they use in their jobs.
 * Synthesis**



Brody
The fourth chapter of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom shows the reader how vital it is for teachers to explain the MI theory to their students. Students can only act as advocates for themselves in the classroom when they understand which of their intelligences is most developed. One method of doing this that I will incorporate in the classroom is displaying students’ work that utilized an array of intelligences to make. Labeling each project with that intelligence will force all students who view the display to internalize what that intelligence is and provide a high quality example of that intelligence. This changes my own thinking because I have only experienced teachers displaying more artistic work such as drawings and posters. If a student has not developed their spatial intelligence then their work won’t be displayed on the wall and they’ll lose confidence in their abilities. This answers Thomas Armstrong’s question on page 45 asking “what do we do in the interviewing years to convince children that they’re not intelligent?” When students are not aware of the MI theory, they feel that there’s only one type of intelligence, and one way to be successful.

Brittany
One of the most awful statements I have ever heard came out of this chapter of the book. It went, “children go into school as question marks and leave school as periods” (pg. 45). Another way to put this is that when kids come to school for the first time they want to know everything and they believe that they can learn whatever is given to them; but by the time they graduate high school that belief and drive to know has somehow disappeared. Somewhere in their education students are convinced that they are not intelligent or that they are not smart enough to complete a certain task. The good news is that this process is not permanent and can be reversed as long as someone takes the time to reconvene a student that they are “smart.” True this might mean having to redefine what the word smart means but if a student does not believe they can learn it will just make your job as a teacher that much harder.

**Mike**
During this chapter, I learned about different activities when teaching the MI Theory. For example, I never realized how much of an impact fields trip had on student's intelligence. As a young student, I always thought field trips were just for fun, but when reflecting on past experiences now I can understand how beneficial they were since we all practiced our level of thinking without even knowing it. The Human Intelligence hunt was also fascinating to me because the metaphor of each of us having a "treasure chest" is good life lesson to teach to students.(pg. 51) I would use the Human Intelligence hunt if my classroom because it is a great way for my students to learn from what another what we all have to offer. Fields trips will also benefit my health class because a real-life experience of what I am teaching in the classroom might not only have more of an effect on my students, but it may also change some of their attitudes or opinions if they are living a unhealthy lifestyle.

Jasmyn
I love the ideas in this chapter about teaching the MI theory. I think that it would be great to have a classroom where students have adopted the “smarts” vocabulary. I believe that verbalizing this eight different “smarts” throughout the day can really boost a child’s self esteem. Some days I could display a student’s work and explain his/her use of and then on other days comment on activities or assignments that identifies other intelligences. After I have spent a significant amount of time acknowledging these things the children themselves will become their own best identifiers of their strong and weak “smarts”.

Max
A good strategy to use for the students is to teach them the Multiple Intelligence Theory. I totally makes sense because I learned what type of intelligence I had and it will help me learn because the things I don’t understand I can get help with. If my students know what intelligence they are, then they will know when something is not making sense, they can come to get help and I can show them in a way they will get. This will also be good for the students who always get perfect grades to show they have weaknesses and the kids who struggle can show how they can be smart when it comes to art or music. It will give them a chance to show off their skills when really, they don’t get much chance to show it through their writing or reading ability.

Leighlan
Students learn better when they know they can and know how they learn. Part of implementing MI therefore, is teaching students about MI theory. One should give examples for the different intelligences and teach in a way that honors and takes advantage of different intelligences. If students know about their own intelligences they can help one make sure it is used. Calling on students to say what kind of intelligences were addressed in a lesson not only helps teach the student about multiple intelligences, but could provide a way for students to give feed back to the teacher. The teacher then knows better what works and what dose not.

Seth
What immediately struck me was the Proverb at the beginning of the chapter. “Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime” (44). This is very true and can be related to knowledge. If we simply give someone knowledge it will wear off in a short period of time, but if we //teach// them to be knowledgeable they are set for life. Like many things, the best way to introduce the MI theory is to simply teach it (45). I liked the idea of asking the students question that pertained to all eight intelligences because few students would be left out. Also, field trips and career days seem like a great way to show students how others have put their particular intelligence to use outside of the classroom. By exposing students to these “real world experiences” it may give them something to strive for and even plant career ideas in their head.

Jen
I found it really interesting that in this chapter the teachers actually took the time to explain the MI theory to students. To me this showed how much the teachers cared about the students because they took the time to explain the theory rather then assuming the students wouldn't understand or that they didn't need to know about it. I also found it remarkable how the teachers asked questions in such a way that made the students really feel more confident in themselves and not feel "less intelligent" then other students. To me this chapter illustrated what it really meant to be a teacher and how much teachers actually care about the students and how much knowledge the students gain and the personal growth rather then worrying about test scores and assessments. I really thought it was unique and surprising how many different ways teachers could creatively incorporate the different learning styles. I also felt so impressed that teachers put in this much effort to connect with their students because in today's world teachers are conveyed as "not caring" and that they are constantly blamed for the faults in the education system. I feel like this really had an impact on how I run my classroom because I understand how important it is for students to feel comfortable with the methods and techniques they use to learn and that if they are more comfortable maybe they won't be so reluctant to learn new information. I definitely feel like some of these options that were mentioned are potential choices for my future students that can engage them in the learning process in a fun and interactive way.

Kim
In this chapter I learned about different ways to introduce the MI theory to a wide variety of students in a variety of ways. There were ways to teach it to students in first grade and ways to teach it to students in high school without changing any of the concepts. I particularly liked the idea of the MI “Pizza” that the author suggested, but I would use it with students of all ages, while I think most people would tend to equate it with students in elementary school. Sometimes the most basic explanations are needed to help even the most advanced students, and this way of introducing it also includes using a visual to portray the eight intelligences. I also liked the activities that involved having each student spend a certain amount of time at a station or working on an activity related to one of the intelligences as a way to begin to understand the purpose of the eight intelligences. My favorite example was the Human Intelligence Hunt. I think this would be an excellent activity to do with students on the first day of class as a way to get to know each other, then again halfway during the year but with different questions or activities, and again at the end of the year, to see how students progressed through the intelligences during the course of the year.

Kaitlyn Bartlett
In chapter 4 of Multiple Intelligences, I really liked the idea about the hunt in a way to introduce/ teach about the multiple intelligences. This activity not only teaches them about the 8 intelligences without students realizing it but it also allows student to get to know each other. I feel like out of the whole chapter this is actually one of the ways of teaching the intelligence that I could use in my classroom. I feel like it would be a very good icebreaker and help me learn a lot about my students in a short amount of time. Another idea I thought that I could build off was the readings section. In high school I had a math teacher that used a book centered around math used in a variety of applications; she randomly chose a topic, from a theorem to a famous mathematician and allowed the kids to reflect on what they read in anyway they wanted. It really helped to learn about the student by the way they responded.

Casey Mull
Chapter 4 focused on how a teacher goes about teaching their own students about the eight multiple intelligences. The first way the chapter said to go about defining it was by just directly stating what it exactly meant. Another way was to visually show them using a pie chart. For example instead of saying someone could be an interpersonal learner, they said "people smart." This is more comprehensible to students. The chapter also gave many activities for teaching the MI theory. One that I found interesting was the "Career Day" activity. This allowed students to see how different people used the different intelligences for their jobs.

Lillian Barry
Chapter 4 is about teaching students about the MI theory. Everyone is intelligent and in eight different ways, it goes over the five-minute introduction to MI theory and what I find is odd but I completely agree is the saying students start school at question marks but leave as periods, or that the older you get the less hands go up for who thinks their intelligent. The example of how to explain MI uses a pizza and then ask students broad questions that do not exclude a lot of students like "how many of you can talk" then you are all linguistic and you are all smart. This is a great way to cover the basics of the theory. More activities are covered in explaining MI such as career day, field trips, biographies, lesson plans, experiments, wall displays, displays, readings, MI tables and human intelligence hunt. Having it broken down this way makes it so that all different learners are able to understand the process and how valuable MI is. There are so many more ways that I could do this, and it incorporate it into my lesson plan. Not only will this be useful for my students but it will also take away any dullness that could occur when teaching the same way for every subject all the time.