Education Investigation

Wham! The 2008 year has kicked off.

I decided that with my new Yr 6 (Grade 5) class this year I wanted to help develop their thinking. One way to do this was to begin the year with an investigation into Multiple Intelligences. Why? I wanted my students to:

1. Think smarter.
2. Understand how they learn best so they can be involved in choreographing their learning.

Of course it also meant that I could gain an insight into my dynamic bunch of students and look for ways to connect with individuals.

Please note - I do not agree with everything Gardner has suggested. This exercise was meant to open the students eyes to our different ways of learning and give a chance to acknowledge their strengths/gifts and weaknesses. This activity was not meant to put my students in “boxes” and I explained this to them.

I performed an inquiry into online and off line resources and after sifting through some came up with the following:

• Online Diagnostic Survey: This survey was the best I could find because it:
  1. Gave 40 easy to read questions that allowed you to select a dot on a continuum line acknowledging your stance on the question. This was better than those tests in which you can only answer “yes” or “no”.
  2. Produced an excellent graph at the end acknowledging up to 8 intelligences/smarts you may have. Other tests just give you one smart at the conclusion of the test and placed you in a “box”.
  3. Showed a colourful and easy to read graph that was a hit with the students.

  My 10 year olds completed the questionnaire in 8 minutes.

• Teacher Resource Book: The book is entitled “Multiple Intelligences Activities” from Teacher Created Materials, Inc. This book is full of activities for Teachers who wish to develop the students understanding of each intelligence. It is designed for Grades 5-8. Some of the chapter titles are as listed below:
  • 7 Intelligences (”Nature Smart” is missing from the 8 mentioned in the above survey.)
  • How they can be identified.
  • What about assessment?
  • Ways to teach and assess the Multiple Intelligences.

  (Note: the book displayed on the right is the updated version of the 1996 edition I obtained.)

• A Fellow Teacher’s Resources: It was great to be shown this wee beauty of a resource (Thanks Amanda). If you scroll down you will see the following in Laura Candler’s “The File Cabinet”:
  • Multiple Intelligence Survey
  • Multiple Intelligence Lesson Ideas (Directions, 8 Kinds of Smart, Ways People are Smart Sorting Clips and the Smart Song.)

  These ideas provided some good resources that aided me in introducing M.Is to my students.

Well the journey has begun and my students are responding well to coming up with new ways to learn using their smarts. It was a good move to begin here.

Has anyone else come across good resources on Multiple Intelligences?
What lessons on this topic have you found to be successful in your class?