MI Chapter 4

The fourth chapter of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom gives ways for teachers to introduce the idea of multiple intelligences in the classroom. It explains that it is a very simple concept, probably the easiest of all of the intelligence theories, to understand, as it is not overly technical in it's word use or full of confusing acronyms. Because of this, it can be effectively explain to children in 1st grade, and well understood by older children. Understanding the theory is important as research suggests that children benefit greatly from learning about and reflecting on their own learning processes. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses also gives them the ability to be their own advocates when they find themselves in new learning environments.
Knowing their intelligences is really important for these reasons, obviously, as students that know themselves and their learning styles can help teachers understand what they need in a learning environment. But, for me, the biggest issue of a student not understanding this concept is that, in their experience, their strengths may have been overlooked, or not celebrated as intelligence. The book says that the younger the grade levels, the more hands shoot up when a question is posed as to who believes they are intelligent. As somebody that wants to teacher secondary children, I think this really sad, as every student should understand that they are intelligent in their way, and that they are always capable of growing in whatever area that they want to. I believe that knowing this will give students confidence and aid in their success.

MI Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom focuses on the student rather than the teacher. Once a teacher understands their own multiple intelligence strengths and weaknesses, they can be implemented on the classroom. The chapter mostly gives ways to access student multiple intelligences. It tells us that these "proclivities" begin at a very early age, so early that they've probably already gain some primary form of learning before they even begin their schooling careers. The chapter also makes it clear that there is no  "megatest" for multiple intelligences to tell you with absolutely certainty where your student will excel, or where their weaknesses lie. Some of the ways it suggests observing them for their intelligences, however is to watch the way that they misbehaves (as these are usually associated to their intelligence strengths), to know how they spend their free time, to look at school record, talk to other teachers and parents, and ask the student.
Knowing this information about a student drastically changes the way that you teach them, so finding them out as quickly as possible is really very important to the classroom. The chapter was very helpful giving such inventive ways to find out, outside of just giving them a test. Searching their past and their records, and observing them closely gives you and even more in depth view of the student. Finding these out also lets you be aware of what you can do as a teacher to accommodate them, and, if you are weak in that area, seek help from other teachers and students.

IDI/UBD Chapter 4

The fourth chapter of Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design further discusses issues of content. This more focuses on clarity of content, however. The chapter focuses on how an educator needs to establish clear understanding goals for content and give both quality curriculum and instruction. Though most teachers believe this and that variety is necessary in the classroom, research suggests that this is an ideal that most instructors are not currently meeting. Therefore, they are falling short of the sort of responsive classroom that they would like to have. Differentiated instruction is a big part of this, as, in many classrooms, students who are struggle tend to be given smaller goals and less work while students who tend to over-achieve tend to be given more goals and extra work. In an ideally functioning classroom, the same goals belong to everybody, but they may be reached in different ways to accommodate different learners.
Also central to this is the idea that every student in a classroom understand the similarities and differences between themselves and their fellow learners. Acceptance and appreciation of these creates a more respectful and comfortable environment for learning, and discourages supporting each others learning efforts as opposed to competing with them. This is important to any classroom, as academic stress, embarrassment, and discomfort are not helpful to any learner, and a classroom that provides that would be less effective for it. I also really appreciated learning about situating lessons so that no student is being over or under extended, as I think that it is really important to supporting a students learning that neither of these things occur.

IDI/UBD Chapter 3

The third chapter of Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design discussed content, and specifically the way that guiding standards in content can overload both teacher and student. Though the standards are "intended to focus teaching and learning, guide curriculum development, and provide a basis for accountability systems" (p. 24) they are still too many, according to the book, we would have to add about nine more years of school in order to teach each benchmark for only thirty minutes each. The textbooks, and the extent of information in them, progress the problem.
This is where the backward design method would be useful, as teaching this much information tends to lead educators to push information in order to meet standards, and not focus on actual student understanding. The proposal is that teachers start with an explanation of the big ideas, and work back, deciding on acceptable evidence and integrating learning experiences. Knowing this method and how to facilitate actual content understanding in the classroom is really important, as there is nothing more frustrating to a student than just having information thrown at them. Exploration and creative learning is so important in the classroom, as it not only helps students really learn, but it keeps them interested in a way that lecturing, or textbook teaching at them absolutely does not. This chapter made me think about how to tackle those standards that I will be facing in a new and pretty exciting way, as backward design is a much more inventive and creative method than some of the alternatives.

Team 1 Chapter synthesis: MI2

The second chapter of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom explains how crucial a teacher understanding their own intelligences is to their ability to instruct a classroom full of diverse learners. The chapter mentions that these intelligences are influenced by uncontrollable factors, such as your biological and cultural history, but also that, despite these unavoidable factors, and your personal intelligence strengths and weaknesses, you never stop growing as a learner; anybody can hone and develop any intelligence at any point in life. It also explains external factors of intelligences, which are separated into crystallizing and paralyzing experiences. These experiences steer us to or away from different subjects that become our varied intelligences. All of these factors are very important for educators to understand, as we need to be fluent in the idea of multiple intelligences in order to effectively use them in our classrooms.

Understanding how multiple intelligences work and utilizing them in the classroom very much changes how one's classroom operates. Knowing your own multiple intelligence strengths and weaknesses allows you to find ways to teach to the entire room. For this reason, a teacher needs to be well versed in the intricacies of each intelligence, as it is key to using them with students, even when the areas in question are the educators personal weaknesses. It also gives you an idea of what areas of intelligence you should seek advice for in, in order to use them appropriately. The book suggests that this can be done by asking for this advice from colleagues and your students. This kind of collaboration with colleagues creates opportunities for professional teamwork, and with students creates a more involved classroom that gives students of all intelligence areas a chance to demonstrate inventiveness and leadership.This chapter also makes you even more aware of how capable students are of growth. Even a senior in high school has the capacity to gain skill in any area of weakness, which is a pretty powerful concept for the classroom. It's also nice to remember as an educator, as it reminds one that despite our weaknesses, with time, we can gain strength in teaching those areas. Another section that is hugely important to the classroom is crystallizing and paralyzing experiences. Knowing that you as a teacher, or your students peers, can easily create an experience negative enough to paralyze a sector of a person's intelligence is very impactful. Having a classroom to facilitate crystallizing experiences instead is necessary to having a healthy, comfortable, and encouraging environment, which is an atmosphere for which all teachers should always strive. 

http://www.literacyworks.org/mi/intro/index.html

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UBD/DI Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design delves deeper into understanding you students and creating relationships with them conducive to teaching them the content effectively. It speaks of understanding both the variety and and the vast differences in the classroom, citing particular stories about personal problems deterring the successes of different students; problems at home, an undiagnosed learning disability, and a misunderstood learning style.

The one that particularly struck me was the first, Elise, who was a great student, but became progressively less successful following her parents divorce. Knowing things like this about your students is so important to teaching responsively, because the idea that her failure could bring her parents back together to fix her is all that kept her from doing well. She had parents that were perfectly willing to do everything they could to help her, but that wasn’t what she wanted.

A teacher knowing their students well is really important to me, as every really wonderful teacher I’ve known has done so. It creates an environment of comfort, where the student can trust coming to you for whatever they need. It also allows the teacher to find ways to meld lessons to match their different learning needs, and to make important connections to the content. Using differentiated instruction, such as using group work and discussion, giving the option to work independently or with peers, and allowing students to explore the content in question are just some of the really interesting ways to differentiate instruction mentioned in this chapter.

UBD/DI Chapter 1

The first chapter of Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design gives a really clear definition of the concepts mentioned in the title. It also explains to us the significance of these two methods of educating, as they are both currently being widely discussed, and are seen as practical and logical in the classroom. These methods are seemingly an effective way to combat the learning standards and accountability tests that teachers feel are “impoverishing” (p.1) their students. Understanding by Design (UbD) is set up to not only give students the information that they need, but also allowing them to use their minds and actually understand the information complexly. Differentiated Instruction (DI) plays into it by having the teachers using understanding by design to alter bits of the lesson to cater to the diverse learners in their classes. 

These together address a huge challenge to today’s teacher, which is, they say, “crafting a powerful curriculum in a standards-dominated era and ensuring success for the full spectrum of learners.) (p.2). The two techniques are reliant upon each other, because each of them attend to one of the four elements of teaching: “whom they teach (students), where they teach (learning environment), what they teach (content), and how they teach (instruction)” (p.2). UbD, of course, addresses what we’re teaching and how it is done, as it is used to effectively deliver both information and understanding, while DI is about the whom and where, as it is about knowing your students and instructing to their individual needs. These two tactics seem incredibly necessary to deal with these problems of teaching to tests, and of teaching to a diverse classroom of learners. They also encourage student exploration, and relevant assessments that also to gauge a real comprehension, rather than just empty memorization.

Chapter 2 MI

The second chapter of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom discusses implementing the multiple intelligences (MIs) in your own life in order to accurately use them in the classroom.  It explains that this is a necessity of commitment, as knowing it works for educators and adult learners will strengthen the dedication to using it on students. It also helps gain fluency in each of the individual intelligences, which will help to use them in the classroom. Another way that identifying your own MIs is to understand where your areas of weakness are, they use the example that, as an educator, you could have very limited spatial abilities, which makes you prone to avoiding drawing diagrams and pictures, and using graphics. However, there will be spatial learners in your classroom, meaning that you have to develop this skill more to properly instruct them.

Understanding this and how the MIs are developed (the three main ways being biological endowment, personal life history, and cultural and historical background) are crucial to teaching a diverse classroom effectively. Also important are the activators and deactivators, “crystallizing and paralyzing experiences.” These are factors that will either suppress or feed the development in a certain MI. In seventh grade I had a crystallizing experience with English, having been told by my teacher that I was a strong academic and creative writer. This is the kind of moment that I would love to be able to create for students, while dashing any possible paralyzing experiences in my classroom. Encouragement to develop intelligences and playing to a students is is important for a teacher to do, as certain moments can really affect you students’ future.

Chapter 1 MI

The first chapter of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom is very heavily focused on what the multiple intelligences are and from where they derive. They were developed to challenge intelligence tests, that were felt to too narrowly define intelligence. These tests were first created by French psychologist Alfred Binet, who was as by the minister of public instruction in Paris to find a way to determine which primary school students were at risk for failure. The testing moved to the United States years later, with the idea that intelligence could be “objectively measured and reduced to a single number or “IQ” score.” (p.1).

It was a Harvard psychologist that began to seriously challenge this, proposing in his his book, Frame of Mind, that there were, bare minimum, seven basic intelligences. Recently, an eighth has been added, a ninth in discussion. His eight types are linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, interpersonal, and natural. Different people match different types, but Gardner, and the book, make it clear that everyone develops some semblance of each intelligence, and can strengthen that area at any point of life, also that even within the categories there are many ways to be intelligent. 

These intelligences are extremely important to the classroom, as teachers need to understand how each of their individual students learn, and even in what areas they could use help. It’s also important because it does debunk the idea that there is only on definition of intelligence, which is an important guiding idea in a classroom. It’s also important because Gardner is adamant about our standardized testing is not the right way to test a student’s knowledge. He suggests that tests that span a wider range of the intelligences would be more effective, though he does use standardized tests to assess multiple intelligences.