MI+B1+Chapter+12

**By Lizz Theriault: ****Abstract ** Chapter 12 of Multiple Intelligence was about the MI theory and cognitive skills. It went into detail about memory, problem solving, and Bloom’s taxonomy. When it comes to memory, the book said that teachers have a hard time understanding when their students know something one day but the next it is like they never heard it before. It also says that [|memory] is trainable because it does not include all eight of the multiple intelligences. The example of memory that the book brought up was spelling. Spelling is completely based on memory. Teachers are very narrow minded when it come to MI theory and spelling. Different ways that the subject of spelling can be handled in each of the intelligences are musical- spelling words can be sung. Kinesthetic- spelling words can be translated in whole body movements. The last example would be naturalist and you can have the students spell the words using natural materials such as leaves or twigs. Spelling can be fun without having the students just memorizes the material. When it comes to problem solving U.S., students’ abilities have been regarded as in need of significant improvement. Some different MI problem solving strategies that students can use are Linguistic- self-talk or thinking aloud, kinethetic- using hands, fingers, or whole body to solve problems. Interpersonal would be to bounce of ideas off other people and naturalists would use analogies from nature to envision problems and solutions. **Synthesis: **  Quoting Ally who quotes the book “educators have become increasingly interested in helping students develop thinking strategies. How students think has become almost more important than what they think about.” A lot of us wrote about this in different ways but we all tied to memorization and how we all had an experience where in school we were given things to memorize and would not remember them again after the test. Memorizing effects all of us as teachers because we want to teach our kids and have them retain the information not just know it for the rest or project then forget the information until its taught to them again. Every subject has a piece that can be memorized, whether it is spelling words, math formulas, historical dates, or nutritional facts. If we used the different intelligence our students will be able to learn the way they want to instead of the way we learned when we were younger. As teachers, we said that we want to challenge our students to think more deeply. Almost all of us mentioned or talk in depth about [|Bloom’s taxonomy]. Bloom’s taxonomy consists of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Some of thought it was pretty interesting to see how MI theory and Bloom’s taxonomy fit together and actually work.

toc

Abby
Chapter 12 addresses the idea of skills. Armstrong points out that MI should not just be considered a fun way of teaching but rather a way to help students dive deeper and have a in depth understanding. A lot of teachers are beginning to think about how students think and not just what they think about. How students think is an important consideration because our learning heavily impacts our thinking. If a students simply learns the surface information of a topic by memorizing the facts presented and regurgitating them back, but does not know how to connect these facts to real life situations or expand upon them then that are not really learning. Gardner insists that there is no good or bad memory until intelligence is involved. For example someone might be good at memorizing faces, but not names meaning that their visual memory is very good it is only their verbal memory that is lacking. Armstrong stressed that we take this idea into consideration when teaching because a lot of the memorization done in school is verbal and this could be the cause of so many students forgetting the information.

I think that this is a very important concept because I always wondered why we were simply memorizing things like the state capitols but never doing anything with them and now I could only name a few of the state capitols if you asked me however I had another teacher who put the presidents to a tune as well as talked about their most significant achievements and failures and I can still tell you them today. Because the teacher went more in depth as well as moved away from verbal memorization alone I was better able to grasp the information. I want to challenge my students to think more deeply as well as show them many different memorization techniques.

Ally
The book begins with “educators have become increasingly interested in helping students develop thinking strategies. How students think has become almost more important than what they think about.” This states that teachers are not focused on strictly content anymore it is also how you analyze something. I found it interesting the growing teacher frustration about memorization and the idea of students constantly forgetting what they learned the other day. Spelling is a major subject in which memorization is key to success, however, teachers are very narrow-minded about the approach to learn spelling. They focus on strictly getting the letters in the correct order by memorizing them. Multiple intelligence allows for different ways to learn about spelling different words whether it is singing them or e just visualizing the word in the student’s head. By using multiple intelligence to learn content students are more apt to learn and remember if they learn the material with the intelligence they are most comfortable with. If they are just given notes and expected to memorize them it will not be helpful to someone who learns by using their hands or being in nature. I have had teachers teach strictly in note form and I would then have to rewrite the notes in a visual manner so I could learn the material. I learn by visuals so a bunch of words on paper doesn’t help me with my learning at all. I think this will help me as a teacher because it is stressing how we need to be more flexible about our lesson plans. We need to be able to teach for all the students to learn the material otherwise we are not helping students grow. I think this will help my classroom because this allows them to learn, if they can’t memorize words have them draw out pictures so they can remember it. It is helping them learn which is what part of the job of a teacher is.

Jake
This chapter discussed what Armstrong calls “Cognitive skills”. Essentially he is talking about different thinking skill s like memory y and problem solving. He suggests that in order to develop kids cognitive skills that teachers should use their knowledge of MI in order to help them dig deeper.

In the area of memory Armostong suggest utilizing the different MI skills to help student remember key ideas. He specifically uses the example of spelling, and suggests different approaches utilizing the multiple intelligence theory. For example: a student could make a song to help him remember the order of the letters through his musical intelligence, or he could spell the word out with play dough in order to utilize his bodily kinesthetic intelligence.

For problem solving Armstrong discusses differing methods of brainstorming that may help students better establish ideas. He talks about how getting into different ways of thinking may better help students to get creative and really grab hold of the solutions.

Throughout the entire chapter, there were veins that I agreed and disagreed with. In one instance Armstrong illudes to the idea that kids will one day be able to effectively switch their thinking from one intelligence to another. That’s irrational. These things that Armstrong and Gardner call “intelligences” are so deeply meshed together I feel as though it may be doing harm if students ever were able to switch about. There is a certain aspect of human physiology that I firmly believe we’re not meant to understand, and I genuinely think Armstrong may be taking it a bit too far.

Armstrong does not really discuss any new ideas in this chapter and therefor none of what he said profoundly speaks to me, nor would I incorporate it into the classroom.

Tyler
Chapter twelve is about integrating cognitive skills with MI theory. The two cognitive skills that this chapter first focuses on are memory and problem solving. Like the rest of the chapters, it is all about applying each intelligence to a specific topic. With memory, musical students could sing out how to spell a word, spatial students could visualize spelling the word in their head, logical/mathematical students can create a code to spell by(assigning each letter a number based on where it is in the alphabet), kinesthetic students could learn sign-language, interpersonal students could spell words in a group, intrapersonal students could spell words phonetically, and a naturalist student could spell words using natural materials.

The same process can be applied to problem solving. A linguistic student could talk it out think out loud, logical/mathematical students could use logical heuristics (experienced based problem solving), a spatial student could make sketches or visualize the problem, a kinesthetic student may benefit by moving around, a musical student could sense the “rhythm” of the problem, an interpersonal student could bounce ideas off of other people, an intrapersonal student might identify with the problem, and a naturalist may use analogies from nature. Bloom’s six levels of cognitive complexity could easily be applied to MI theory. Bloom’s six levels of cognitive complexity are knowledge (rote learning), comprehension (ability to interpret material), application (transfer knowledge from one setting to another), analysis (find and interpret parts of the whole), synthesis (bringing it all together), and evaluation (judging the value based on standards.) Bloom’s levels of cognitive complexity allows teachers to evaluate how much students are thinking about the topic while MI theory makes it engaging enough to keep the students thinking.

Katie
In chapter 12 of the MI book the main idea is that teachers should be giving students the opportunity to look more in depth in the different multiple intelligences and can then make real world connections to them. The author also mentions how MI can help students to remember certain things such as to memorize the spelling of words. If the student was strong in musical intelligence, then the teacher could teach spelling through the use of songs. Just as memory was mentioned, the author also says that students can learn how to solve problems using different intelligences and how they attack the problems.

I found this chapter to be interesting and helpful for me and my teaching methods because I find that a lot of people even at the college level have a hard time with things as spelling. When I am a teacher, I plan to find different ways to teach such things as spelling and problem solving. I want all my students who have different intelligences to experience learning at the best of their ability and that means teaching using the different intelligences. I also liked how the chapter mentioned that how a naturalist could think more in depth about their intelligence was by, “challenging students to critically examine the evidence supporting the theory of evolution versus the idea that the earth was created 6,000 years ago” (168). I feel like this would be a very good topic to get students thinking about what their intelligence is really about and how they can incorporate it into the real world. It is also a good topic for a classroom debate and every week, there could be a different posing question that had to do with a different type of intelligence.

Caleb
I believe last chapter I talked about making Superheroes. Well, I’m going to continue that theme and talk about that more in-depth. As I’m reading along all I can picture is a little caped crusader ready to burst out of the student’s soul and all that one has to do to let it out is give them a chance to be themselves. That’s what I feel like this chapter is getting at. Everybody ahs a different way they think, thank goodness for that, thus people remember differently, problem solve differently, and push themselves differently. A students mind is a superpower ready to be untapped; you just have to find the right tick. For instance, Hal Jordan would have been an absolute nobody until a Green Lantern ring. Why can’t we be that ring? Why can’t we take every aspect of a student and make it shine? An answer to this would be that the real world tends to put us down for thinking such thoughts. “Won’t that take too much time out of my schedule?”, “Won’t I get to stressed to care about myself?” and to all those questions I shake my head. Yes, you will but that’s what teaching is all about. I don’t know about the rest of the educators out there, but I rather be an Alfred then a Batman any day. Training a student to unlock his full potential and then push it so he can grow to be a superpower. Be the key that unlocks power, push their minds and let them thrive. After all, we get to have the greatest role of all time watching them ship out to change the world forever.

Jasmine
Cognitive skills are involved with multiple intelligences for multiple reasons. Memory is claimed to be trainable because it usually pertains to linguistic and logical intelligences but if that is where students struggle with memory, they can just focus and train the “good” memories through other intelligences such as musical, special and kinesthetic. This was a very interesting thought. I was never aware that memory could be trained. An example of this is spelling. In younger grades, students are taught to speak and spell the words over and over to learn them. They are not taught any other ways to learn them like by using other intelligences. Some ways that it could be appealing to other learners are: musical – singing the letters. Interpersonal – words can be spelled letter by letter by a group of people. The involvement of peers would be very effective to interpersonal learners. Naturalists can use nature items such as twigs to spell out the words. There are options for every learner if the teachers would take the time to discuss the options for different learning styles. As a teacher, this will impact me because dealing with mathematical formulas, memorization comes into play sometimes so I would like to provide students with the opportunities to be successful in remembering what they need to. Howard Gardner suggests that a students’ mind can be expanded through use of Christopherian encounters. This was a new term for me but I think it is an interesting idea that utilizes multiple intelligences, which I definitely think could be used successfully in any classrooms today.

Dan
After reading more and more of these chapters, my skeptical outlook on the theory of multiple intelligences is slowly fading away. Even if this theory is disproven in the future, it still holds a lot of valuable insight of the student process as well as development. The usage of the multiple intelligences theory seems endless, as now it can be used for cognitive skills. Using the MI theory can help students develop a better memory if teachers focus on their preferred intelligence. For example, if a student is a naturalist, they can use natural objects like twigs or leaves to spell out the words to memorize them for a test. When I am a teacher, I will incorporate many memorizing strategies to help students remember material. After all, it is my job as an educator to set examples and guide my students. The theory of multiple intelligences can also be used to expand the minds of students to grow their understanding and competence. For instance, if a student is intrapersonal, teachers can deepen their understanding of their own self by having them relate themselves to characters in novels such as Huck Finn. It is very important that students somehow deepen and explore their understandings of everything around them, because that is when true knowledge is gained. It’s funny how Bloom’s taxonomy and MI fit so well together, as it is possible to address all eight intelligences and the six parts of Bloom’s taxonomy together (though I still prefer the six facets of understanding).

Alex Slack
MI Chapter 12 – This chapter had many diverse ways of mixing multiple intelligences with the idea of promoting and increasing cognitive skills. These skills can be increased and manipulated through the use of multiple intelligence’s theory. This theory seems to be able to manipulate itself into any part of the classroom that includes the student and they way that they learn, which just goes to prove that it is an effective theory that works in many situations and deserves they studying it is getting. The section of this chapter that really jumped out at me was the section about problem solving. The reason why this jumped out at me so much was that problem solving is a huge part of high school, and if this theory can be used to better heighten this ability in my high school students then it is a magnificent tool. This theory can indeed be used to help problem solving it simply just takes the eight learning styles and goes through a step process that allows you to use your strengths in any situation that you have a problem. If I can translate this knowledge to my kids then I can not only help them develop appropriate learning techniques for dealing with school, but I can teach them techniques with how to deal with problems in real life. That is the real key to school anyway to have to kids learn things in school that they can translate to the real world that isn’t just social studies… even though it is the best subject

Brittany
This chapter gave suggestions for new ways to approach common skills such as memory and problem solving in ways that connect the MI. Allowing students to sing a vocabulary word or to bounce ideas off of other people show the students intelligence in a way that is best for them. By allowing students to choose the way in which they present the information you are no longer holding them back from expressing their knowledge. Students would now be able to capitalize on their strengths, rather than being forced into a cookie cutter solution that may not work for them. The chapter also suggests really having students challenge the norm about their interests, such as having a musically inclined student explore the possibility that there may be music that is very good, but not harmonious. Overall this chapter did not seem to enlighten me on any new ideas. Although the information it presented was very important, and it did elaborate on some basic ideas I already had. I think the only thing I really found useful was the chart that showed Bloom's Taxonomy and the MI theory and how they correlate. Most of the ideas in this chapter were in some form or another that I already planned to implement into my classroom. =

=

Jenn
Chapter 12 in the MI book talks about memory, problem solving and cognitive skills in general. This chapter was helpful, in a new way, of stating how to use MI theory to build, not just comprehension, but learning techniques that will ultimately allow each student to be able to process information in the future more easily. Tailoring MI theory to ways of promoting memory is only the beginning to the benefits of this model. Of course students are more likely to remember something if they learned it in a way that interests them or connects to their interests. But what can they do with all this information? That’s where problem solving comes in. With a closer look, teachers can understand that much of the problem solving process relates to forming essential questions, like in differentiated instruction, it just works best when the questions are made to target specific intelligences. Overall, I really like this idea, simply because it’s something that every teacher should use and recognize with their students. If a teacher is unaware to the strengths of each student, especially in problem solving, it becomes almost impossible to give them the resources they need to make strong connections to the material. I also really appreciated how this chapter encouraged teachers to push the limits of their students by going beyond tailoring lessons and focusing on how students could use their strengths to dive into material deeper and in a more challenging way. This too relates to differentiated instruction. Overall I thought this chapter did a good job of explaining how to tie MI theory concretely into other methods we’ve been learning, and just promote important life skills in the classroom.

Lizz
How students think has become almost more important then what they think about. Chapter 12 is about the MI theory and cognitive skills and how MI theory applies to the areas those educators emphasized the most. These areas include memorizing, problem solving, and other forms of higher-order thinking. Under the section of memory, it says that teachers have a hard time understanding when their students know something one day but the next it is like they never heard it before. It also says that memory is trainable because it does not include all eight of the multiple intelligences. Different ways that the subject of spelling can be handled in each of the intelligences are musical- spelling words can be sung. Kinesthetic- spelling words can be translated in whole body movements. The last example would be naturalist and you can have the students spell the words using natural materials such as leaves or twigs. I wish when I was doing spelling that I could’ve done something different instead of writing the same word five or more times. Chapter 12 also talked about problem solving and how U.S. students’ problem solving abilities are not quite up to par and need some significant improvement. I agree with this because in high school I didn’t know what problem solving was except in math but even then I wasn’t very good at it. The last point the chapter 12 talked about was Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. It consists of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. I think bloom taxonomy will help me be a better teacher because if my students can hit all of these levels then I think I will have achieve some success.

Roger
The twelfth chapter of MI is about relating to cognitive skills. The chapter starts with the memory aspect, where students might not be able to remember something that had been reviewed in the classroom the day before. The MI theory is related to this by stating that the student may not be remembering things because they were presented in the wrong intelligence. With the eight aspects of intelligence, there will also be the eight subdivisions of memory. A student will be much more likely to remember something that was presented in their stronger intelligence than if it was presented in a weaker one. Another large part of the chapter focused on problem solving. The chapter starts by relating American problem solving skills to the same skills of those in other countries – America rated very poorly. The author theorizes that this is due to the limited way in which students are taught to think critically – usually through either very visual or logical methods. The author goes to point out how various intelligences can be used to solve high-level problems, making a point for each intelligence. He does this by stating some famous thinkers in history, and how they creatively solved the problems they had to face. Some used music, some visualized, and some combined intelligences. The chapter as a whole showed that the multiple intelligences can be used to allow students to successfully think and achieve, as has been shown in most of the other chapters. The application of the MI theory to problems such as memory and problem solving is interesting, and furthers the point of MI being a good thing quite a bit.