Chapter Four: Teaching Students About MI Theory

This chapter largely introduced us all to the concept of teaching the multiple intelligences in the classroom to the students themselves. Joel said it best when he described the author using the proverb, “Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime,” as this chapter shows that this is a skill that instructors will be teaching students to last a lifetime. The chapter started off by stating that a classroom of second graders could be taught this theory of multiple intelligences in about five minutes if it is taught right. They suggest starting off by stating the eight intelligences using the Type I technology of drawing an MI pizza on a white board. It also suggests that in order to effectively explain what they mean the instructor should simplify the language. An few examples are: linguistic would be word smart, logical would be number smart, or interpersonal being people smart. After explaining the different intelligences the instructor should then apply them to the student themselves by asking questions that will elicit responses from the different intelligences. After all of this is done the student should be able to determine the different intelligences and should have learned about their different intelligences but there is more. There are many suggestions for the different intelligences and ways to back them up. The majority of the class wrote about taking a field trip. It is one of the few suggestions that applies to all the intelligences because you can design any field trip to tailor to one or many of the multiple intelligences. There were many other ways to integrate multiple intelligences in the classroom and reinforce them through activities. Some included, doing board games about MI, wall displays and shelf displays on the MI, or even designing a unit to go more in depth on the MI theory.

Most of the class believed that this chapter would be effective but also that it could not be effective for the grades that we will be teaching for those who want to teach high school. However, it was enlighten also to know at what age students can actually start to learn about how they learn. The MI pizza was a big hit also with it being an effective tool and also simplifying the terminology would also help. It is also not cool that a second grader could understand the MI theory quicker than the practicum block. The proverb to start the chapter also was very enlightening and also very good way of foreshadowing the chapter. It is very important that this theory is implemented at a young age for the students and also for the students to understand what it is about so they understand how they learn and are able to use it to their advantage and gain everything they need for success from their education. It is also a good way for them to appreciate the education they are receiving. Overall this application of teaching the multiple intelligences and this approach should be used in the lower levels and does not have much merit in the high/middle school setting except to show if the student had learned it in lower grades and recognize their learning styles.