Chapters 6,7 UbD DI and 5,6 MI

Chapters Five, Six MI; Six, Seven UbD DI Synthesis

It is important, in the multiple intelligences classroom, that the teacher keeps the educational objective firmly in mind, and continually shifts methods of presentation between all of the intelligences to capture all of the students’ learning styles. Creatively combining these intelligences in the lesson is a great way to “kill two birds with one stone” and get every student involved in the class. A great way to integrate all of them in is to draw pictures, show video clips, play music periodically, use hands-on experiences, makes hand gestures, gives students time to think, asks group questions, and reference nature. It would not be too difficult to nonchalantly add these into my lecture, and accommodate for all student learning types. This multiple intelligence theory, however, suggests that no one set of teaching strategies will work best for all students at all times. There are practically an unlimited amount of strategies for teaching students based on their intelligences, although, some will be more effective than others.

In my classroom I will use a variety of strategies for teaching my students, and some great ideas were given in chapter six of MI. I was always a big fan of my teachers telling stories in the classroom, so I think it would be very powerful to incorporate a good story that relates to the lesson into the class. Students always think that they are getting the teacher to waist class time when they “trick” the teacher into telling a story but if I can make it fit into the lesson it will be great. Brainstorming activities are also a good idea, and can work well for a variety of intelligences depending on how you chose to go about it. If you have the student reflect for a bit and then share, you’re targeting the intrapersonal student, and by sharing in class you are targeting the interpersonal student. During any of the strategies, however, it is important that we keep in mind we need to talk with students, not at them. By doing these strategies we are also differentiating our classroom, which is a necessity today.

Differentiated classrooms are developed to ensure all students have access to high-quality, meaning-focused curriculum. This is very important, because the student people would think of as “not intelligent” can be in a differentiated classroom and have their individual intelligences come alive. Differentiation also reminds us that there will be times when a strategy can be used effectively with the entire class, work effectively throughout the whole class, and work effectively only with specific students or groups. We need students to be receptive to these strategies, and we can do that by establishing “orderly and enabling” learning environments which are mostly likely to teach for meaning and understanding.

For a student to come to an understanding of big ideas, it requires them to construct meaning for themselves. Teaching for understanding is huge, and is what separates the good teachers from the great teachers. It takes time to be able to figure out how a student will understand something by discovery, however, once they do so it is the best way that they can learn. Teachers can do this by uncovering the content. An iceberg is a good analogy, as only a small portion of it is visible, although there is an unbelievable mass unseen beneath the water.