MI+B1+Chapter+5

= = toc

Abstract
Teachers need to use more tools, techniques, and strategies that are outside the confines of the typical “traditional” linguistic and logical ones. A traditional teacher will stand at the front of the class and lecture, have students work from texts books, and take notes from the board. An “MI Teacher” continually shifts her method of presenting the information and the tools she uses when having students do assignments. The chapter lists techniques and methods teachers could use for each intelligence to present the curriculum and material students can use to learn. The chapter also goes into detail about creating an MI lesson plan. The MI theory helps teachers create daily lesson plans, weekly units, or month/year long programs where all the students’ intelligences can be used. There is a seven step procedure that teachers can use to help them create these types of lessons with key questions that will help them plan activities that will utilize each intelligence. When using the MI theory, teachers will be providing a background for forming [|thematic] curriculum. Students will find the lessons more relevant and practical when learning in ways that are best for them.

Jennifer's Synthesis
Teaching using the MI theory is going beyond the textbooks and writing prompts and beyond the blackboard. It is making students experience what they are learning. As stated in one of the reflections, “The teachers that made us stand up, act things out, dress up as historical figures, just make us do something different, those are the teachers we remember, and continue to understand what they taught us.” The list of ideas for lessons was a great resource for strategies and methods of teaching to the different intelligences. The seven step procedure to creating [|MI lesson plans] was also very helpful. A few of my classmates thought that this chapter was repetitive and contained information that they already knew. Everyone agreed that the best way to teach a lesson was to address the topic using all of the eight intelligences. Using a variety of tools and strategies that will engage the students and transitioning from one intelligence to the other is going help students be successful in your classroom.

**Amy**
= = CH. 5The basis of a quality education stems from the ability to incorporate multiple intelligences into the already set-in-stone curriculum. The sole purpose for doing this is to, “go beyond the text and the blackboard to awaken students’ minds” (UBD/DI p.38). The combination of multiple intelligences and curriculum provides teachers with a way of reflecting on what they have done well, and why they did it well. The most important aspect of a MI teacher is her ability to transition from one intelligence to the next without skipping a beat. Doing so enables all students to learn using the style that is most plausible in a specific circumstance. From the incorporation of hands-on experiences with musical, spatial, and linguistic motivation techniques a MI teacher is able to create a successful learning experience for all of her students. Teaching materials are also key for success in the classroom. Providing students with the materials necessary for learning based on their individual intelligence also allows success in the classroom. When students have access to quality tools for engaged learning the sky is the limit. Even simple tools such as calculators and tape recorders can have significant effects in terms in learning capabilities.

Jennifer
Chapter 5 MI

I agree that teaching should not just be the teacher at the front of the room talking and being to one to lead the discussions and expect students to learn from that. Based on the other chapters we know that people have many different intelligences and learning methods, and that I will have a variety of these learning styles in my class. Using many different techniques and tools in the classroom will assure that my students will learn and they will all have a chance at understanding the material. There were many different ideas of techniques to use when teaching students with that specific intelligence which I found very interesting and I actually wrote down a few from each category that would work for teaching English since that is my major. Though I do not believe that for every lesson I will have enough time to teach using each of the intelligences, which means I will need to find out dominant and sub intelligences of my students. Students do not just have one type of intelligence, they have many that they use, and the others they should be developing.

Darren
For me, this chapter was nothing new. It actually felt unnecessary. There were bits of information that were useful, and I will say that I really loved the listing of activities according to the eight intelligences. However, besides this chart, there was nothing new in terms of content in this chapter. Many of the points were refreshments on former points; there was a lot of emphasis on how the MI model was not meant to entirely take over, but that there is a spectrum on which MI lessons rest. Sometimes, classrooms can teach themselves through different stations and differentiated activities, but the teacher can also use these activities and ideas as breaks from their own traditional style. I would like my classroom to resemble the former, and I would prefer that the students were able to make their own decisions and create their own learning environments.

George
I think a more appropriate title for this chapter would have been “Beating a Dead Horse”. There was not much new to be learned. Basically, you need to incorporate MI into the classroom to better reach all of the students in class. There were a few bright spots of new info. I was intrigued by the idea that Plato had himself thought on the idea of people learning different ways. I was also pleased to see a list of ideas for lessons that could be implemented by a teacher to help touch all of the intelligences you are trying to teach. Other then that it was a lot of the same old fluff.

Dan
One thing that will most definitely be used in this book when I become a teacher is the lists of activities a teacher can do to hit upon the said intelligence. However, it wasn't the biggest thing from the chapter that stood out to me. I think the seven steps to setting up a MI lesson plan would be more helpful. The list of activities are just things that I can use and put in them. Step one is to make sure you pick a specific lesson objective. The second step is to ask yourself the MI questions that correspond with the different intelligences. The third step asks the teacher to think of appropriate things you can use in lesson or some of the techniques for teaching the different intelligences that you want to use. Step four you need to Brainstorm. Make a chart for ways you can tailor your lesson to the many intelligences. Use specific key words that focus on each intelligence. Step five you need to select the ideas you brainstormed from before that you are sure you want in your lesson. Now you set up your day-by-day lesson plans using all the intelligences for each day. In the example they used in the book you don't cross over days with intelligences. However I feel like that could be dangerous to losing student interest. The final step is to implement the plan. Finally you can go to work and use the materials and knowledge u have used in the first six steps.

Andy
The basis of this chapter suggests the acquisition of a more diverse repertoire of techniques, tools, and strategies when it comes to teaching their students. In the tradition classroom the teacher stands in the front and lectures to the students. With the MI theory you may do part of the class up front but instead of lecturing the whole time you are allowing students to come and help take notes on the board, or allowing them to work in groups. The MI teacher also gives the students more hands on activities and has them interacting with each other in many different ways. With MI the teacher should be able to translate each one of their lessons from one intelligence to another. That way every student will benefit the most out of every lesson.

Sean
So this chapter is all about taking your classroom and doing more than just stand in front of a room of bored students and lecture for an hour. Like we've covered, students learn in different ways and need different methods for them to learn. So by differentiating your classroom, a student can gain more from you, from your lesson, from each other even. I've had teachers just lecture for a solid 80 minutes nonstop, and all I remember from those classes is how nice it always looked outside, how I'd rather be outdoors doing something fun. The teachers that made us stand up, act things out, dress up as historical figures, just make us do something different, those are the teachers we remember, and continue to understand what they taught us.

Damian
Teach to the intelligences as our patron saint Gardiner has outlined. If we hammer on a concept in only one way are we maximizing the information presented? Are we showing our students that the information is limited or limitless in its applicability? By teaching the same lesson multiple ways, not only are more students likely to understand it, but more time on the task will invariably aid in memorization. Many of my former teachers would only dedicate a small portion of time to a critical fundamental component. If you got it, then you would be successful, but to get it you better hope that you understand it the way it was presented. Perhaps a side note, but something that stuck out was Maslow’s quote: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, then everything around you looks like a nail.” I get it, if we are only teaching with one method (i.e. we only have a hammer for a tool) then all of our students will become nails. I see only one fault with this analogy. What about the teachers who saw that their hammering was ineffective? I thought that necessity was the mother of invention…

Zack
Sitting and listening is not always the best way to teach students, when I teach I must make sure the students are interacting with the enviornment. Students need to be engaged in the learning that they a particpating in. Students will have no will to learn if I just sit there all day and lecture to them telling them why they need to know things. As we learned in Dr. Theresa's class students need to particpate in "Meaningful Engaged Learning" without this they will in the end not learn anything new to what they already had known. Once I bring the outside in the students will be much more willing to learn what they need. Once a student realizes that there is outside material to the stuff they are learning that has practical uses.

Ethan
This chapter gives us some ideas about how to become a better MI teacher. The thing I found most interesting was the ideas given to help in developing a MI lesson plan. In order to better reach all students, you must ask yourself as a teacher how can I relate this subject to all the different aspects of MI. As a math teacher, it is especially interesting to me how to create a lesson that will deal with math but also reach the other intelligences. This chapter gives me the tools I need to create a lesson plan that will allow me to get the most out of my students. The seven step process I found very helpful and it is defiantly something that I will use in my classroom when I sit down to come up with a lesson plan.

Cassandra
There are a lot of ideas in this chapter on reaching all the different intelligences; they are further explained in Chapter 6. One I found useful are playing music for those who have strong musical intelligences. However, I remember once when a teacher did this and way to many problems came up: students needing silence, students wanting to play their own music, and ipods were protested for (which is a problem since the teacher can't control that music). Others were acting out the plays, using graphic organizers, supporting personal connections, and having a lot of group work. Since there are formulas for how sentences are set up, I could use those formulas to reach the students who are logical.

Brian
As educators we need to realize the best way to teach a successful lesson for all students is to encompass all of the eight Multiple Intelligences. By integrating lessons that both incorporate many, if not all, of the intelligences, with the curriculum that we must abide by, we can teach the most productive lessons. Using all eight intelligences is very key in successful assessments, not only for our students but for how we teachers are doing as well. By assessing our lessons on the eight intelligences we can then see what went well, and what went awry. As educators though we must also be constant learners, everyday is new, and every student is different. This means that every lesson plan can, and will need to be, altered and improved for different classes, different students, or maybe just because it’s a different day.

Chapter five outlined different tools and ideas for teaching to multiple intelligences. I took note that some of these ideas fit more easily into a classroom, in that they were basic ways of teaching, while others required more creativity. This made me wonder if my past teachers had all of this knowledge about multiple intelligences. I can't help but think that if my teachers had known and been more creative about incorporating different methods into their teaching that I would have been able to grasp some of the lessons I did not understand and never learned. The chapter begins by stating that children learn through experiences. In terms of myself as a learner, I find this to be true. In classes where I found meaning and was allowed to experience through projects or field trips I had more success. In other classes were teachers did not make an effort to create an experience for me I had difficulty. I aspire to be the teacher who creates experience and meaning for students.

Liz
This chapter really goes in depth into how a teacher should include MI teaching in their lessons. It also details how a teacher should think. Two main things gathered from this chapter are that the problem is not what is being taught but HOW it is being taught and the other being that this chapter about making teachers figure out what qualifies as part of MI teaching. For the majority of this chapter it is about how a teacher should think about lessons and what to incorporate. I can understand where this could be helpful to me when I become a teacher.