MI+B1+Chapter+7

Olivia Wandelear - Abstract & Synthesis
toc //ecology// is just as important as the content being taught. The chapter suggests considering how we speak to our students, and what other noises can be heard. Some of these noises can be distracting to students with sensitive hearing. Likewise, are they places for students to move around and be active with their bodies? Too often, classrooms are structured and planned out only for linguistic and logical students, much like everything else in education. Ways to solve these problems include creating MI Activity centers for each of the eight intelligences. Quadrant 1 activities are permanent and open-ended, like book nooks, math labs, art areas, and plant centers. Because they are open ended, students pretty much do whatever they want in these centers outside of the content of the classroom, and because they are permanent, students have plenty of time to explore them all throughout the school year. Quadrant 2 are temporary open-ended activities like games, Quadrant 3 are temporary topic-specific activities that focus on a theme or subject, and Quadrant 4 are permanent topic-specific activities for long-term projects and goals. If teachers [|create spots in the room] for all students to explore all eight intelligences, students have the “opportunity to engage in ‘active’ learning,” (109) as opposed to boring worksheets completed sitting at desks in a row.
 * Abstract****:** Chapter seven essentially promotes using MI Theory as a way to structure your classroom in order to appeal to all students. The classroom
 * Synthesis:** We all felt that creating these centers for students was a fantastic idea because they allow students to choose how they go about their learning, and creates well-rounded students that can do more than just read, write, and solve. However, many of us were concerned about the amount of space we would actually have to give students enough room to explore. Perhaps in the classrooms of tomorrow, teachers will have a huge amount of space to use to dedicate to all eight intelligences, but in today’s classrooms, teachers are[| limited] to rows of desks, perhaps a few back tables, and some filing cabinets for materials. Another concern we had was the effectiveness of these centers at the high school level. Some felt that we would be babying out students by implementing these strategies in the [|middle] or secondary classroom, and wonder if our students would even take them seriously.

Courtney Burns
As important as teaching strategies are to the MI theory, the atmosphere and environment of the classroom is just as vital. As the chapter states, the classroom must be “intelligence friendly” and in order to achieve this goal the authors suggest a classroom map which organizes the classroom into four quadrants. Two of the quadrants are used for “open-ended” activities (one that is temporary and one that is permanent) and the remaining two quadrants are used for “topic-specific” activities (one which is permanent and the other that is not). At each of these “stations” of the room, resources would be provided which would benefit each of the eight intelligences. For example in a temporary open-end activity center games could set up, including scrabble for those with high linguistic intelligence, monopoly for highly logical-mathematical intelligent, Pictionary for the spatially intelligent, twister for the bodily kinesthetic intelligent and so on. Although I am not sure how useful this particular set up would be for a high school classroom, it would work great for an elementary or even a middle school classroom. If I am a high school teacher it would be useful to create an alternate “map” for the classroom that would work better for student moving in and out of the room

Ben Villeneuve
Chapter 7 of //Multiple Intelligences// talks about designing a classroom environment to appeal to all of the intelligences. The most interesting part of the chapter to me was the section that went over different “permanent open-ended activity centers” for each of the intelligences. Reading this list and thinking about the average size of the classrooms I’ve been in, it seems like it would be impossible to have one of these for every intelligence and still maintain a reasonable depth for each one. I feel it might make more sense to have each subject area be dedicated to developing several of the intelligences; for instance, we could say that English class focuses on developing Linguistic, Interpersonal, and Naturalist skills, and design the classroom accordingly. I feel like the goal should be to develop all of the student’s intelligences rather than gearing curriculum to appeal to the student’s most developed intelligence.

Kay Sue Collins
This chapter describes ways to set up and run a classroom to maximize learning for all learning needs. There is a list of things to consider when setting up the classroom that focus on each of the intelligences. Depending on the subject and the students you can set up activity centers around the room on a temporary or permanent basis to support various intelligences. These are all really great ideas. I can see that logistically there might be some problems with space. Most classrooms and the furnishings in them are dictated by what is already there. Fortunate is the teacher who can design the layout of the room from scratch. This means that I will need to be creative with the space and furnishings available to create an efficient and welcoming classroom for all of my students.

Shila Cook
Chapter 7, //MI Theory and the Classroom Environment//, talks about how to make the classroom the most compatible to each of the eight intelligence types. There were two ideas in this section that I never considered before. One was under the Musical intelligence, and it asks the reader if the auditory environment promote learning. I had never even considered that little noises would bother someone, but thinking about it someone who is extremely sensitive to noise would be bothered. The other idea was under the Natural section. It asked “are students given an opportunity to do some of their learning outside of the school building in natural settings..”? Because this book brought this to my attention as something that natural learners need I will always be thinking about ways to incorporate the outdoors into lessons.

Tim Grivois
This chapter conjures up the misconceptions that most people perceive about a classroom, and also introduces the idealized concept of an MI concept. A classroom should be considered to be a dynamic organism, not a cookie-cutter concept. Every aspect of MI theory should be taken into consideration when the image of my classroom is considered. Each one of the intelligences has a direct correlation with a real-world aspect of the classroom that may be easily overlooked. The way I speak, classroom structure, time spent moving around, etc, these all relate to a different intelligence and may be such an important factor in the maintenance of a helpful and conducive learning environment. By keeping my classroom static I am limiting both myself and the potential of my students to learn. Instead the class should be malleable, and not just potentially; I should advocate change. By placing throughout the school environment centers of MI activity, I can give students different opportunities to find safe havens for their particular strengths. In the same mold, students whose strengths lie in other areas will be able to improve them by focusing their attention on them. By allowing students the potential to choose their paths at point, teachers enable them to adopt a system of self-evaluation that will assist them in continued learning.

Erika Tingley
The focus of this chapter was on how the surroundings of the classroom can be arranged to enhance the learning of the students with various intelligences. One of the ideas presented that I found interesting was the concept of having various activity centers in the classroom. The centers could be focused on various intelligences with options for students to do work in the ways they learn best. While I am not sure I would use the idea in the way presented in this book, I do believe that the concepts of having various activities set up at different parts of the classroom is something I think I will use. I would like to have my students rotate through various activities that focus on the intelligences so that every student has experience with each of the intelligences and also learns to recognize the intelligence he or she is geared toward. However, there will be times where I would let my students chose which intelligence they want to work with in accomplishing a given task.

Olivia Wandelear
Chapter seven discusses how the classroom environment can be influenced by the multiple intelligences in order to satisfy every student’s comfort levels. I learned that activity centers in the permanent Quadrant 1 like a book nook, math lab, art area, or plant center with the proper labels will reinforce students’ learning and understanding of the MI theory because they get to put it into practice. I can see myself using all of the Quadrants in my classroom, especially Quadrants 1 and 2, which encourage open-ended exploration and time for students to explore their intelligences in a relaxed setting. These are not topic specific, and allow students to make choices and use their free time wisely in order to further benefit their learning, even if they do not realize it at the same. I really like the idea of a mini-trampoline in the classroom for bodily-kinesthetic learners, although this one seems like it would be difficult to monitor students on while trying to observe the rest of the class.

Andy Shorey
In this chapter the book talks about how a classroom should be set up. I found it to be an interesting concept of having activity centers to help the needs of students multiple intelligences. It seemed that having activity centers would work well for an elementary classroom or perhaps even a middle school classroom but I don't necessarily see how it would work at the high school level. I do like however giving student the opportunity to work on the same activity just in a different way as was depicted in the last part of the chapter. I do also think that while students have free time giving them options for things to do would be a good idea. I am not sure I would use this set up of a classroom except for the final part about students working on an activity in different ways.

Josh
This chapter addresses how important it is to have your room set up to be warm to all the types of intelligences. Just as a poor setting can hurt the learning process a good setting can enhance the learning experience. I like the idea of having areas set up for certain types of learners. There would probably be a way to rotate the types of stations also since a lot of kids will fall into many types of intelligence categories. In my class the only thing I know for sure is that I want tables instead of desks. I think the open space of the table lends itself nicely to a math class so you have room for your calculator, notebook, book, ruler, or anything else that is being used in that days lesson. Other than that I will try to make my room inviting to all students and try to change it up depending on the material we are covering.

Heath
Addressing all categories of MI with a single room is a difficult task. This chapter has some suggestions for accomplishing this. I was drawn into the ideas behind activity centers. The combination of permanent vs. temporary and open-ended vs. topic specific centers provide some choices and variety to the day to day activities within the classroom while continuing to develop student’s learning within the content area. In addition, these centers provide predetermined activities for times when there are other distractions from the day’s planned activities, such as students that need extra help.

Dan Horne
This chapter talks about how you should set up your classroom to cater to all of the intelligences. It talks about having learning stations around your room to cater to each of the intelligences specifically so that all the students have a fair chance at learning. I really enjoy this idea not only because it could be very helpful but also very interesting because it could convince students to try new things and new styles of learning. I believe that if one of my students had the availability of eight different stations he or she would eventually try out most to al of them giving them a more rounded learning experience

Dylan Stefani
The intelligences provide a “context for asking questions” about things in the class that can be beneficial to learning and shine a light on things in the classroom that are not working. If no one in the classroom is a visual learner, a teacher must be able to recognize that and alter their lesson to suit the needs of the students. This chapter then goes on and lists questions that correspond with the intelligences and how they effect the classroom. An idea that is presented in the chapter that can help a classroom that is divided up into different style learners is to follow the “types of activity centers” that is displayed in table 7.1. Different sections of a room can be used as a learning tool for students with needs. Have the students chose which “centers” there should be in the classroom for the week. This gets them motivated to learn by that specific intelligence. = =

Kasey Darnell
This chapter discussed how a teacher can structure the classroom environment around MI theory. By making the environment compatible with the students multiple intelligences, they are more likely to be engaged in what they are doing. The central topic of this chapter was MI activity centers, where students focus on an activity that incorporates one of the intelligences. Several examples were given, such as book nooks for linguistic learners, art areas for spatial learners, and a hands-on center for bodily-kinesthetic learners. Centers can be permanent fixtures, where students can choose what they want to do when they have free time or have finished their work, or they can be temporary activities, where students rotate to all the centers. This chapter gave great examples of activities that I will definitely use in the classroom. I plan to teach at the high school level, and I wonder how this would work with older students. I can see it working very well for elementary and middle school students, but would high school students buy into it?

Caitlin Alexander
===Chapter seven on the book //Multiple Intelligences// focused mainly on different ways to properly apply each individual intelligence to different environments. I think that I am going to apply the “activity centers” idea to my classroom once I become a teacher, because by doing so it not only gives each of my students the opportunity to chose different quadrants of the room to visit, where each quadrant offers a different type of activity, and within that activity, each of the multiple intelligences. I think that this approach is a good, creative way to touch on all of the intelligences, but it also allows student to exercise their free will and make their own choices, giving them autonomy. My only concern would be using this layout in every classroom, considering how time consuming the “set-up” part of this task would be for every single lesson. In all reality, I believe that unless a first-year teacher started setting this up during the summer, or spent countless hours during every week of the year to arrange this, it would be unrealistic for a teacher to actually apply this unless they had had months of free time to plan it out.

Tyler Brookings
Creating a safe and comfortable environment in the classroom is clearly a must, but being able to do it and incorporate all the intelligences into the into the classroom is the main focus of this chapter. The chapters gives ideas which can be used and expanded upon to meet your needs and likes, as well as the students. The chapter really focused on the MI activity centers which could be set up in the classroom so that students could focus on the activity in their own way of learning. Such as a physical/Kinesthetic would get up and be active, outside or maybe even in the gym. This chapter gave me a few great ideas on how to bring all the intelligences into my classroom, ones which I will definitely use. I love being creative and I am sure with a little push I could come up with a copious amount of activities.

Kyle Rines
This chapter focuses on designing the classroom to best utilize the multiple intelligences within your classroom. Certain classrooms are already designed to best fit some intelligences based on what the subject is. Science class will be primarily logical, visual, and naturalist. The key is to find the balance and learn how to incorporate the tougher intelligences into the science classroom like musical and kinesthetic.