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There are multiple benefits to employing MI in your classroom. The Multiple Intelligence classroom acts like the "real" world in that, for example, the author and the illustrator of a book or the actor and the set builder in a play are equally valuable creators. Students become more active, involved learners. You and they may also come to regard intellectual ability more broadly. Drawing a picture, composing or listening to music, watching a performance -- these activities can be vital to learning, as important as writing and mathematics. Learn about additional benefits of using an MI approach at the Concept to Classroom online workshop on Multiple Intelligences.
An MI curriculum is designed to teach content by taking into account all nine intelligences described in the Overview section. A child may wish to express his or her knowledge of that content in one of many different ways (i.e., puppetry, model making, classroom demonstrations, songs, plays, etc.). Learning through a variety of unique experiences allows children to better understand themselves as lifelong learners, and to see how others acquire knowledge and apply their skills. The key to implementing MI successfully is to design your classroom and the particular lesson so that students are able to participate in learning and understand the material in a variety of ways. Keep the following in mind:
1. Teaching with MI often necessitates that students work together in groups and/or on projects that employ many materials. Be sure that you adapt your classroom space as best you can to the parameters of the lesson. For example, if the lesson plan asks students to work with computers and you do not have enough in your classroom, try to schedule time in the computer lab in advance. If the lesson plan involves drawing or acting, be sure to arrange your classroom so that there is sufficient space and materials.
2. Be prepared not only to encourage collaboration and "thinking outside the box," but also to maintain some control by setting specific boundaries for students. For example, if the assignment calls for the students to work together to develop a presentation, be sure to define exactly how they should work together (perhaps by encouraging them to assign different roles within the group) and what to do if they have trouble cooperating.
3. One "answer" or outcome is not the only acceptable measure of a child's understanding. For example, if your objective is for students to understand the literary elements of a story or novel (e.g., rising action, conflict, climax, etc.), different learners might grasp the concept in different ways. One student might illustrate them through drawing, another might be able to re-create the elements through acting, and yet another might better be able to summarize them in writing.
4. Students need to have a clear understanding of how their work will be evaluated. Be sure to lay out the exact objectives and expectations of your lesson before beginning. Because MI allows for many different means of learning and expression, children need to understand that there may be many different forms of evaluation and that one style of work is not necessarily more demanding or time consuming than another. For example, if a project gives participants a choice between writing and illustrating, the outcomes will obviously be very different, but they may be given the same grade for meeting the same objective.
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banner photo: The white fairies and their escorts in the Kingdom of Sweets from THE NUTCRACKER FROM THE ROYAL BALLET. |
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