MI+B2+Chapter+8

Synthesis


Everyone of us seemed to understand the main point of this chapter was to show ways of using the [|MI theory] for [|classroom management]. There were three major ways that our class pointed out as effective. First, Many of us like the idea of using MI theory to know how to respond to misbehavior from students. MI theory can also be used to split students up into various groups for activities. Finally, MI theory can be used to identify different times in the day for students. Overall, just about everyone agreed that MI theory can be used in a large range of ways. MI theory allows students to learn academic facts easier, but it can also teach social responsibilities. It seems like all of us will be using the MI theory during lessons and in other situations.

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Megan Millette
In this chapter, Armstrong talks about how educators can incorporate MI theory into their classroom management aspects. For instance, in order to get the students attention to let them know that class is starting when they are all talking do something besides talking to get their attention. Play noises or raise your hand to see if something will catch their eye and make them pay attention. MI theory offers many strategies for classroom management that can keep class in order and ensure class will run smoothly. I found it interesting to use MI theory to help get their attentions. MI theory is a trouble-free way to get students to pay attention as well as teach them class rules in a way they will remember. As a future educator, I think it is vital to get student input on issues such as rules and how to include the intelligences to go along with the rules. MI theory could be a great tool in choosing groups because it will help pair students with people of diverse or similar intelligences, as well as provide the students with opportunities “for internalizing classroom routines” (Pg. 117). Another thing MI theory is effective in helping with would be giving background for looking at a range of disciplines. Armstrong tells of a good punishment form when students break the rules and that is by enhancing there weak intelligences by making them do work in those areas. I see myself using these methods brought forward to help my students in addition to using it to get their attention in many ways. The MI theory can be something I can use in my classroom, such as classroom management, getting my students to master concepts, getting my students involved in lessons, etc.

Lauren Breton
This chapter addressed the issues of classroom management from a multiple intelligences perspective. This is something that I had never really given a thought to; how to enforce school and classroom rules through all of the intelligences. The idea makes sense, however, because if students are conversing loudly amongst one another, the easiest way to get their attention wouldn’t be by speaking to them, although it is what my teachers have consistently done throughout the years. By incorporating multiple different approaches to regain students’ attention that appeal to a variety of intelligences, it stands to reason that students would be more responsive. Although I like the majority of ideas that have been presented for different ways to gain attention, form groups, and enforce class rules that have been presented in this chapter, I found the chart of multiple intelligence strategies for managing individual behaviors to be most helpful. It makes complete sense to me to teach students with behavior problems how to manage their behavior issues through their multiple intelligences. For example, a student with a well-developed naturalist intelligence who is withdrawn from the other students in the class could read a book that focuses on nature but involves friendship, or could try to make friends by going on an outdoor walk with a trusted student during recess. Although many of these ideas wouldn’t be practical at the high school level, some of the MI approach to classroom management would be (including playing music for transitions, involving each student in the process of forming classroom rules, and signaling the class in a bodily-kinesthetic way to grab their attention). I hope to incorporate some of these behaviors into my classroom for a more practical approach to classroom management.

Lauren Scheidegger
In chapter eight of __Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom__ by Thomas Armstrong is all about managing a classroom. The chapter goes over numerous ways to gain students attention, make smooth transitions, communicate class rules, make groups, and deal with individuals when they misbehave. For each situation they give examples for each of the intelligences. While many seem to be oriented towards a very young age group or are impractical (such as bringing an animal into the classroom), they are good starting points for teachers. For example clapping a rhythm to a class of high-schoolers may not be effective, but one could play music or a song to gather the attention of those with a high musical inclination. Most of the techniques can easily be transferred to a higher level of students with just a bit of creativity and thinking. One of the issues brought up in this chapter that I fear facing as a future teacher is how to transition when students get back from a lunch period. Having a class that is interrupted by the long awaited lunch break seems tough to work with. Knowing how to keep students involved in class instead of counting down the minutes until they get to eat seems challenging, then once students return how to get them to become motivated again. Another common issue that teachers must face is how to deal with misbehaving students. Managing behavior is not a one-style-fits all. This means not ever strategy works from every student or even every teacher. The more a teacher knows about the learning style of the student the easier it is to determine an appropriate response to misbehavior.

T.J. Hebert
There are many strategies to try and gain the attention of a class and it may depend on what kind of learners and intelligences comprise a particular class. In one class simply telling everyone to quit down may work while in another that is full of linguistic intelligence students, writing it on the board might work. There are several techniques listed for each of the eight intelligences. The next step is to prepare students for transitions, which can also vary for each of the intelligences. For example, prior to going to lunch showing a picture or video of kids eating can help the transition. The same applies to explaining class rules, such as displaying an animal next to each of the rules to appeal to the naturalistic intelligent students. Nearly anything that happens in a classroom can be improved by learning and understanding the eight intelligences and differentiating in order to better serve the students. I like the examples the book gives for the potential issues that may arise in a classroom in relation to different aspects of the day. A majority of my classes in high school, we either scrambled to finish what we were doing and rushed out, or we had been doing nothing and just waiting for the bell to ring so we could get out of there. MI theory can clearly be applied to much more than just instruction or curriculum development and it seems foolish not to take it into consideration in a classroom. There is absolutely no doubt that I will use MI theory and differentiation in every aspect of my curriculum, instruction, and classroom management.

Kevin Lind
This chapter covers different ways for covering classroom management using the multiple intelligences. I personally feel that some of these ideas will not work. For example, the idea of using multiple ways of presenting class rules just seems ridiculous to me. These just seem like unnecessary things to do. The musical intelligence is one of the less effective ideas mentioned. Setting the rules to a song should not be necessary. Students should be able to clearly understand rules without having multiple aids reminding them.

Transitions are another part mentioned that don’t need many ways to remind students of their existence. A ringing school bell should be enough of a reminder to students that class is over. While I was in high school, most students could count down the seconds until we left each class. I’m sure there are students across the country that do the same thing. If students are anticipating transitions so, much they shouldn’t need help remembering the time.

Also, since we are dealing with middle and high school students, they shouldn’t need to have special signals indicating that they need to pay attention. At this age, they should be able to know how to act in school. Regardless, I believe that if I stand silently until the class becomes quiet, they should quiet down rather quickly. This is the method many of my teachers used and it was much more effective than hand signals or clapping. It is a little similar to the idea suggested for intrapersonal students, since it requires students to take responsibility for themselves.

**Samy Tracy **
Classroom management might seem like a weird subject to go along with MI theory. It does actually relate pretty well and gives teachers a wide range on how to handle their classroom in ways that will be beneficial to students rather than them rejecting the ideas. When trying to get students to quiet down, most will just yell, “SILENCE!!” but there are more approaches than that. Armstrong gave examples such as, writing, “Silence, please!” on the board, create a short rhythmic clap to get students to mirror that clap back and show that you have their attention, and so forth. One of my favorite parts of this chapter was how Armstrong talked about splitting students up into groups. That seems like a difficult task because many run right to their best friend in the class, or get stuck with someone they barely know. Having students think of a vowel sound and then say it aloud and whichever students pick the same one will be paired shows how those students are thinking alike, they already have something in common! The author stresses that you do not need to use all of these intelligences but they are useful because you are not just doing the same old boring thing that students do not find interesting whatsoever so they continue to not pay attention to you. Many times, the classroom behavior and acting out is caused by the fact that students are bored or just do not think that the teacher is catering to their needs. To help with this, try to figure out which learning style that child possesses and be sure to help them become the best student they can be.

Emily McGee
Armstrong describes the importance of establishing elements of order in the classroom infrastructure. He describes elements of order as “rules, regulations, and procedures.” He describes how MI Theory can be used in getting student’s attention, cues for transition, communicating classroom rules, forming groups, and managing individual behaviors. He also exemplifies the importance of using MI for classroom management and its ability to help all students grow.

I think this is a very interesting way to look at MI Theory and really supports the range of applications it has in the classroom. I enjoy reading all the ways intelligences can be used in various aspects of classroom management. The examples are so important because they show how less used intelligences can be integrated into the classroom. Otherwise I may struggle with how to apply them. I think it is important for me to understand the wide range of applications for MI Theory as a basis for developing my classroom management, instructions, and assessment plan.

Alyssa Amari
MI Theory is a useful technique for differentiating activities, teaching, and even classroom environments, but what many people do not think about, is using MI Theory in classroom management. Chapter eight of //Multiple Intelligence// discusses several ways to integrate MI Theory into managing your classroom. It can be used to gain students attention; instead of just yelling at the class to shut up, you can use a clap for a musical approach or even whisper in a student’s ear that class is starting and ask them to telephone it to the rest of the class. MI Theory can be used to preparing transitions into recess, lunch, or dismissal; using music to cue transitions or images that display it. MI Theory can be used to communicate class rules, rules can be displayed in different forms for each intelligence; written for the verbal intelligence, written with pictures for the spatial intelligence, or asking students to create their own rule for the class rules. It can be used to form class groups; using first name matching vowels to find partners or hopping on one foot and finding people hoping on the same foot. It can also be used to manage individual behaviors; talking individually with a linguistic student, providing peer group counseling for the interpersonal students, or telling animal stories to teach about behavior for naturalistic students. I like these techniques; I feel as if they will really help me in my own classroom. I have watched many teachers use the same classroom management techniques over and over again even when they do not work. I think differentiating the way I manage my classroom will make for a more smoothly run classroom. This will make for a better learning environment for my students.

Rachel Joiner
This chapter was extremely helpful on how to incorporate the MI theory into various places in the classroom. I found this chapter to be very interesting and helpful as a teacher. I thought it was great when the book mentioned using the MI Theory as a way to get students attention. By using various methods, using the multiple intelligences it will grab student’s attention, because it applies to their way of learning. I thought this was great information to use in a classroom. I loved the many examples that the book provided for each. These are great ideas that I could use in my classroom. I thought the idea of teaching the students transitions was interesting too. It is something that I would like to try within my own classroom. One thing that I learned from this chapter was that by asking students to create classroom rules they will be more likely to support the rules. I would have never thought about it in this way. After reading this, it is something that would be good to try in a classroom. I also enjoyed the idea of using the multiple intelligences to group students. I think this is a fun and exciting way to group students, but it will also bring students who share similar intelligences together. This way students can work with someone who thinks in a similar way and they can help each other as well as perform better. I thought this was a great idea for a classroom. I also found the ideas of how to use the multiple intelligences for students with behavior, or hyperactive disorders interesting. I think this would be helpful and interesting to try.

Mike Kahler
Chapter 8 tells us about incorporating MI theory into our classroom management plans. The first thing it tells us is how to incorporate MI into our strategy to get our students attention. One example of this is to bring an animal into the classroom to get the attention of the naturalist intelligence students (and most likely everyone else because animals rule). Tricks such as the ones outlined in the chapter offer a way to get the class’ attention while appealing to the different intelligences. This same strategy applies to transitions. Teaching students different cues to transition with makes transition times drop. One example of this could be playing different music samples to signal students that it’s time to move on to a different activity. Class rules can also be through this method, but you probably see the pattern here so I won’t offer any example. This strategy also applies to teaching individuals how to behave if they don’t figure it out with the rest of the group. One on one strategies can be used in the multiple intelligences to teach them proper behavior. This is an interesting chapter because managing a classroom could be very difficult if students don’t understand the rules, or get distracted during transitions. My classroom will have a set plan for these situations to keep my students focus, but I’m not sure which intelligences to use when doing this. Is it better to use only one when trying to appeal to students for the sake of the student’s memories, or should I rotate through the intelligences daily. The strategies outlined are good, but I still need to decide how to utilize them.

Patrick Hurley
Chapter 8 is all about using the multiple intelligences in managing your classroom. It suggests you use the student’s strengths to manage the classroom. So if a group of students are kinesthetic learners, do an activity that involves getting up and moving around the classroom. These kinds of activities are good ways to get the students engaged in the class. Group projects, transitions, and class rules are also discussed in this chapter. Getting the attention of your students can be a difficult task, but it is very important. If the students aren’t engaged and staying involved in class then they will not pay attention and possibly disturb the classroom. Having a set of rules helps avoid these types of disruptions. I am slightly nervous about classroom management. I worry that my students will just not pay attention, even if I try different types of intelligences and activities. I just don’t want to be upright ignored. I have had some experience using management techniques from my summer job. I had to always be watch the 50 some odd kids that were at the park I was a councilor at. I had to make sure all the kids were doing the right things, and during sports time I had to make sure my group of kids were playing the game and not fighting with each other (which was difficult because I had the 12 and 13 year old boys)

Matt Roy
In Chapter 8 of Multiple Intelligences, Thomas Armstrong focuses heavily on the always hot-topic issue of classroom management. Classroom management is a problem for teachers at every level and can take up almost half of an elementary school teacher’s overall class time if done ineffectively. In the chapter, Armstrong suggests that many of the factors that contribute the most to classroom management nightmares can be dealt with in an effective manner by simply applying the Multiple Intelligences theory instead of always communicating verbally to the classroom. Armstrong focused on five major issues of classroom management. First, he focused on the difficult issue of gaining your students attention, whether it is at the beginning of a class or immediately following a transition or distraction, gaining the attention of our students is vital to delivering our material. Armstrong suggests that, instead of asking students to quite down maybe it would be more effective to write the time being wasted on the board or put a finger to your lips or hand in the air to signal silence (both ways to engage other intelligences). Next was preparing for transitions, the knowledge of impending transitions can always distract a classroom and Armstrong suggests that we can develop Intelligence specific cues to better prepare them. Communicating class rules can always be difficult in a class so Armstrong suggests that making numbered charts or have the students present them in small groups could help us more effectively deliver the message. Next, the issue of forming groups was discussed, Armstrong suggests that maybe we could group based off of favorite song or how many fingers students put up when prompted to arbitrarily group students. Finally, probably the biggest issue, was managing individual behaviors.

Morgan Ware
In Chapter 8, we learn about how to incorporate the MI Theory into classroom management and how to apply it. MI Theory complements the “elements of order” mention in the chapter, rules, routines, regulations, and procedures. Teachers should use the intelligences to get students attention before class or an activity. Teachers could use music cues for the students with the musical intelligence for when they need to be quiet or when the activity is done. Teachers could also use visual cues like writing on the board for linguistic students when it is time to be quiet. Teachers could also use cues like these for transitioning between activities or between class periods like lunch. Teachers can use the intelligences for class rules like writing them down and posting them around the classroom. Teachers can use the intelligences fro creating groups, for example finding other students with the same color clothes. Teachers can also use the intelligences for discipline, like talking with students and provide books for them to read to calm them down (linguistic). I agree with these techniques and I will use them in my classroom. I really like the idea of grouping students by the color of their shirts. I think that it is an easy way for students to choose their own groups but also incorporating the spatial intelligence.

Simone Thiry
By using knowledge of the multiple intelligences, teachers can tap into these intelligences in order to help their classrooms run more smoothly and minimize behavior problems. MI theory can be used to communicate rules, prepare the class for transitions and form groups, but most importantly to help address individual behavior problems. We already know that students tend to act out in terms of the needs they have that are not being met (a kinesthetic student will be fidgety, a visual student will be doodling, etc.), and the best way to modify these behaviors when they become disruptive is to provide opportunities for the students to express themselves in the ways that they need to. I learned that there are ways to tap into each of the eight intelligences for different types of inappropriate individual behaviors, students who are aggressive, withdrawn or hyperactive may need different things in different Intelligence areas. As a future teacher, I can implement these ideas to help alleviate stress and disruption in my classroom while giving students the things they need in class. Another method I am eager to use is the formation of groups. I have always had trouble looking for creative ways to group the class, and I like the idea of addressing multiple intelligences through grouping. It can be a great way for them to get out of their seats for a bit, or even just take a break from thinking about math for a minute while they sing a song in order to find their groups.