| Falling in Love with Learning Using Multiple Intelligence in the Classroom
The application of the theory of Multiple Intelligence in the classroom enables teachers to tap into the hidden potentials of students that have never been tapped into before. It gives us a totally different picture of what our students can do. In the process of requiring students to use all their intelligence capacities we are seeing some students succeed who have never succeeded before, simply because we approach learning in different ways. Not only does it stretch our students, but it also stretches us, their teachers to new levels of performance and learning that we would never have reached before. What we have learned is that it is possible within a given period of time each week to provide students with time to zero-in on the development of the full range of capacities for targeted intelligences in any unit of instruction. The assumption behind this approach is two-fold:
The Thinking Classroom: Throughlines and Generative Topics One of the goals of applying the theory of Multiple Intelligence in the classroom is to encourage students to think more deeply about what they are studying and learning in school. At the beginning of the year, the teacher starts out by giving students a list of questions called throughlines. They are the first thing students see when they come into the classroom. This is because the teacher wants students to think about and respond to big questions about what they are learning and why during the year. While students sometimes find the questions confusing at the beginning of the year, in the long run they find them helpful to keeping the year connected in some way. The teacher uses the questions throughout the year until they are clear and actually usable. One student summed it up when she said, "The throughlines made me think harder and so I became a better person in English." These are the throughlines used by a 7th grade teacher:
The class talks about the questions a lot during the first class of the year. And the teacher asks them to answer the questions as their first assignment. So, that’s the first thing they do and they know right away that whatever they do is always going to be connected to these throughlines. Here is an example of what one student wrote in September in response to question 1 and again in June.
Initially to get students to think more deeply about English, the teacher and the class may brainstorm Generative Topics by creating an idea web. The discussion that follows becomes a collaborative planning session between the teacher and the class. The teacher encourages the students to approach the topic from different perspectives, looking for specific connections and relationships among their ideas. They are asked to think about their own experiences around a topic, considering what they already know and what interests them. To illustrate an example of this type of brain storming session, I’ll use the example of 9 year old students who were learning English through a unit that used Jazz as a Generative Topic. The teacher asked the class to create an idea web around the topic. About half way through the brainstorming session, the teacher played a recording of “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck. The idea webs generated from the discussion were invaluable for gathering information about the individual interests, questions, the level of understanding students had, and more importantly what they would be interested in learning. This activity served as a hook to bring students into the topic at a level that was comfortable for them. Because they were involved in the planning stage and felt that their expertise and knowledge was valued they were much more motivated to work on the unit. For the teacher it provided opportunities to make important observations as she listened in on some very active conversations in English and individual questions and comments that were raised during the brainstorming session. The Classroom Environment The environment we create in the classroom is a powerful stimulus for successful learning. One teacher I know arranged the tables with their ends facing towards the front so that no one will have their back to the front of the room. Teachers say they like having the tables arranged like this because the kids do a lot of talking together and collaborative work on projects and so they need a room that encourages that kind of work. Teachers have the throughlines posted in the front of the room from the first day of the school year until the last. Students use the questions during the year in papers, projects and exams. Teachers also try to make the walls exciting places where students can learn and also keep track of what they have finished and what they still need to do. It creates a little friendly competition and they work to get a check by their name to show that they have finished an assignment. One student had this to say about her classroom, "Mrs. Handlin’s classroom is great..We do lots of projects and sit around tables to work with each other. I like that I can ask advise or for help from friends during class. Usually we just end up talking about the work….believe it or not." Example of Activities using the different intelligences as entry points Interpersonal: Students working in small groups build a self-standing structure with “cuisinaire rods” or whatever material the teacher has available. Give each student a certain number of rods to add to the structure. By working together to build the structure students learn about working together to create something. Students can then explain to students in other groups how they built their structure. Assessment: Students discuss their role in building the structure. How did they decide what to do? Who solved problems? Extensions using the other intelligences Intrapersonal: In their English journals they write about the kind of room they would like to have. They might also want to draw a picture to illustrate it. Bodily-Kinesthetic: They follow instructions from the teacher or another student and build a structure with their bodies Linguistic: Write or read a story about an animal building its home. Logical-Mathematical: Each student has a drawing done to scale with a written description of a house or a room. Working in pairs, one person questions the other in order to draw it. Musical: Students compose a song or jazz chant about building a house. Spatial: Design the house of their dreams. Naturalist: Name the different natural materials used to build a house. eg. Wood While obviously the core of the work done in an English classroom is linguistically based the other intelligences can serve as entry points to empower students who are not naturally talented linguistically to find a means to participate and be successful learners. There are however many creative things we can do in the classroom using the linguistic intelligence no matter what subject we are teaching. Verbal Linguistic Intelligence tools
Bonnie Tsai December 5, 2003 |