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Abstract:
Every student possesses some, all, none of the eight different intelligences. How does an educator teach every student effectively if he or she does not know the students’ predominant intelligence(s)? The simplest way for a teacher to accomplish this task is to observe his or her students. By watching how a child misbehaves in class or what the student enjoys doing outside of class, a teacher can ultimately find the major intelligence or intelligences of his or her student. Another way an educator can establish this information is to ask the student and the student’s parents what they believe this strongest learning style is. After discovering all this information, the teacher can record it all in a journal so that he or she has it for future reference.

[|Synthesis Mykayla]
Teachers are worried about finding out ways to discover the students’ learning styles. One decent way of becoming aware of the students’ intelligences is to conduct a  [|multiple intelligence test or survey]in the class. This information will also tell the teacher if a student has more than one of the eight intelligences that dominates. Other concerns teachers may have is how to  [|incorporate different intelligences] than those that they are familiar with into their classroom. Asking students and colleagues is a way, but also using books and websites can help as well.

Sarah
Chapter Three introduced and developed the importance of identification of individual student’s personal Intelligences. Primarily, the chapter discussed ways to assess the Intelligences of a student through fairly indirect methods, most capitalizing on observation. I believe it is very important to understand what array of Intelligences are contained within one classroom. In order to make appropriate decisions for my class as a teacher, I appreciate learning new ways to identify the dynamics of my students. This knowledge will, in turn, allow me to create the most effective lesson approach that meets the needs of my students.

**Leah**
We have previously found out what are our inclinations when it comes to multiple intelligences, this chapter shows us how to pick out our student's proclivities. Through observing, collecting documents and talking with both parents and students, teachers can get a better idea of what way their students learn best. I also think this chapter inadvertently show the importance of communicating with students previous teachers to glean information and to work collaboratively to meet student's needs. It also encourages a positive relationship between parents and teachers, because parents have witnessed much more of their children's learning styles than teachers. Essentially communication and and good observation skills will be key components in my future classrooms.

Corinne
This chapter provides background on Multiple Intelligences in students and gives advice as to how to understand and observe which learning style individual students possess. What struck me was that children develop their dominant intelligences at an early age. Also, that individuals can have two or three dominant intelligences, which could make teaching to their learning styles very complicated. Discovering all of this at first made me nervous, because what if I can not figure a student out, and as a result they are not succeeding in my class. The chapter provided some helpful tips for this fear. It stated that colleagues and parents are useful resources. If a student is failing in your class, they may be succeeding in another class. Knowing students strong points and weaknesses are what give away their learning styles, and its nice to know that their are resources to draw on.

Ryan
Something that was interesting and that I learned in chapter three is that the only way to diagnose students multiple intelligences is through observation. Also I thought the idea of keeping documentation or articles of homework and projects that students did that showed an intelligence, was very smart. As a student this will impact me to look at myself and see what I do best and how it reflects my multiple intelligences. As a teacher this will impact me to take the time and observe my students in order to help them with their learning.

Ryan Snowman
This chapter discusses ways to observe and obtain information on multiple intelligences that our students possess. The best tool for assessing our students multiple intelligences is through observation. Some ways to gather information include observing how students misbehave in class and observe what they do in their free time. Other ways to gather information include collecting documents of what students do well in, look at prior grades and talking with other teachers. Perhaps the most obvious and effective way to gather information on students is to talk to their parents and talk to the students themselves. Talking to the parents and students works two ways in the sense that you do gather vital information, and at the same time, show students and parents that you care. These strategies will impact my classroom enormously because I would try to incorporate a lot of them, so that I can gather evidence that will benefit my students. It is very important to know your students and how they learn.

Scott
For most students, by the time they begin school they have developed "inclinations of preferences for learning styles. Two great ways to identify a student's proclivity are to observe how the student misbehaves and what he or she does during their free time. It is important to develop a sort of profile of each of my students. I can do this be looking through school records, pay special attention to reports by kindergarten teachers. Some of the best ways to find out more about a student's different intelligence inclinations is to talk to our colleagues. Parents are one of the best sources for information about the children. It is a good idea to introduce my students to the idea of multiple intelligences and for them to recognize some of their own preferences.

Mykayla
Who knew it could be so easy to discover a student’s predominate multiple intelligences simply by observing him or her? It seems so easy to watch my students and see what technique they respond to more effectively. I think that talking with the students themselves is a better approach for the level that I want to be teaching. If a teacher would have asked me how I learned better I could have easily told them that I learn better from reading and then writing the information down. When I become a teacher I would use this technique, especially if a student was struggling in my class. It is easier to ask them then to assume.

Jennie
I never thought about observing students' misbehavior as a way to figure out what their strong multiple intelligence is. But after thinking about it, I realized that this //is// a good way to figure it out. I didn't really misbehave in grade school, but when I had free time, I would typically write or read, and my strong intelligence is verbal. Having the different documents or taking notes during class is a really good way to figure this out too. Armstrong talks about collecting pictures, course work, and other things that seem to point to any one of the intelligences, rather than just giving the test. If the students are observed then the information that is collected is unobstructed. Its a really good way of getting to know the true person the students are.

Brittany
Observation is a very important skill for the teacher to develop in his/her classroom. Just observing students can reveal so many different characteristics about their multiple intelligences. Strengths in multiple intelligences are indicated in students by what each student does with his/her free time or how he/she misbehaves in class. When teachers are perceptive to the actions of each of the students in class, he/she can deduce how to better instruct the class to teach to the different intelligences in the class. I hope to develop my observational skills upon becoming a teacher so that I can better instruct my class. Ideas such as keeping observation journals, utilizing multiple intelligence tests, and having students do self-exploration are all ideas that I plan to incorporate into my future classroom. By using these tools, I feel that I will be better prepared to communicate effectively with my students.

Tim
Chapter three begins with the authors briefly talking about kids beginning to show signs of specific intelligences at a young age and by the time they begin school, have already started to use some intelligences more than others. The rest of the chapter was devoted to telling future teachers ways to discover these specific intelligences in young students at an early age. The authors even recommended keeping an observation journal of students and writing two lines a week for each student. I did learn a plethora of new ways to help identify specific intelligences in students and different sources I could use (such as parents and colleagues) to help me sort through the sea of learning styles. This chapter impacts my classroom because, it gives me a bunch of new strategies I could use in the classroom to figure out the students’ different learning styles which will in turn increase my ability to be a phenomenal teacher. The chapter impacts me specifically because it further presses upon me the importance of unearthing every student’s different learning style.

Drew
This chapter provides a lot of fresh yet logical information concerning the discovery of the multiple intelligences in the students in your classroom. Looking into misbehaviors, free-time, keeping a journal, documents, and looking at records are all great resources. I personally find these to be the most important steps to take. Sometimes the records and the way someone acts in life can tell you more about them than they could dictate to you or on a standardized evaluation. The “Eight Ways of Learning” chart on page 22 is very self-explanatory and simple, yet very useful in that it provides information on the needs of the many multiple intelligences.

My first question after reading the first two chapters was: Okay, this is a GREAT idea, but how on earth do I figure out which intelligence goes with each of my students? Well, thankfully there was chapter three. I quickly learned that there are several ways in which a teacher can start to uncover what her students' "proclivities" are. I liked the idea of keeping notes on students, especially those who seem to be having a difficult time. I feel like, for me, anyway, the act of writing something down allows me to think about what's going on, and then reapproaching it later allows for other angles to appear. Keeping a journal on your students allows for that and also provides a record for future teachers. I also thought the student version of the inventory was handy to have available. However, I think the greatest suggestions were those saying we ought to talk to the students. To me, it was the most obvious suggestion, but I think in a teacher's eagerness to learn all about her students, she sometimes forgets that they're perhaps the best resource on them. My only real complaint about the suggestions given on how to approach the whole MI thing with your students. The MI pizza is far too childish for middle/secondary students. And I understand that we will have to cater to special ed. students and may use strategies that seem "young", but there's a difference in adjusting something for easier comprehension and making something little kid-ish. I know my brother, who's a special needs student, would think "MI pizza" is silly. But all this means is the teacher (me, I guess) has to get a little more creative.

Jordan
“Describing Intelligences in Students” was a very informative chapter in which describes how to indicate the intelligences of students in a classroom. As strange as it may sound, how a child misbehaves helps identify a student’s most highly developed intelligence. Logically, this method truly makes sense: if a student is not stimulated by an activity, his or her actions demonstrate a lot about how he or she learns. A more formal approach would be observing the student over a long period of time to see which environment a student works best in. The way a student handles a project, lecture, a homework assignment, and free time is very telling of which intelligences are most developed. Personally, I found myself constantly doing work in my free time because if I completed it now, there was less to do when I got home. I also enjoyed solving problems and would spend my of my free time asking teachers about math questions we had not covered in the class. Looking back, it was quite obvious that my Logical/Mathematical intelligence shone through. I feel that with Armstrong’s suggested methods though, my student’s own multiple intelligences are going to become prominent. As a teacher, I feel that the best way for me to learn my students is through observation and coming straight out and asking them about themselves. Unfortunately, I feel that I am going to struggle as a teacher because of my few highly developed intelligences and other malnourished intelligences, however, I see my students as a way to develop my Musical and Spatial intelligences just as I am going to develop their Logical/Mathematical intelligence.

Cara
I feel like I have read this chapter already, because it was basically giving suggestions for assessing the multiple intelligences of the students. I like the idea of looking at school records, but I’m a little nervous that students may find that a little too intrusive. Personally, I think that the best way of finding out this information would be to pay attention to the students, talk to the students, and hold activities which will show a little bit more about the individual students. Talking to the parents, again, may upset a student. The inventory pages were great! Overall, I feel that this chapter was a little repetitive, but it still had some useful advice.

Rachel
As stated in the previous chapter, students (and all people) show inclinations toward some multiple intelligences. Chapter 3 presents ideas on analyzing students’ multiple intelligences to determine how they learn best. Simple observation is an obvious answer, but other resources can be used as well, such as collecting documents and talking to previous teachers, parents, and the students themselves. This book continually emphasizes identifying the individuality of each student. As a student myself, I have started to look back on past teachers I’ve had and I do not think that they analyzed my learning styles or compared them to other students’. I feel that I would have been more successful if my teachers had practiced this technique.