Ch 3 - Describing Intelligences in Students

Abstract:
As an educator, there is a responsibility to help all students learn and learn effectively; to that end, helping the student to recognize their best learning styles both as a student and in their life. First, helping the student to recognize the specific intelligences that they show an aptitude in will help them to have more confidence and to begin to recognize the aspects of those intelligences in their daily life. Second, helping the student to recognize which intelligence is the best avenue by which they learn.
The most useful tool for determining a student’s multiple intelligences is observation. When observing the student, pay special attention to their misbehavior; for example, the linguistic student will often talk out of turn; the bodily-kinesthetic student will not be able to sit still for long, and so on. Another time to study the student is to see how they spend their “free time” during school, perhaps during recess the student prefers to read a book (linguistic), gossip with friends (interpersonal), or playing sports (bodily-kinesthetic).
There are multiple other opportunities to discover students’ intelligences:

Collect Documents - photos, sketches, recordings, or videos.
Look at School Records (the students grades over the years – what are the students strongest subjects?) some examples of items to look for:
Linguistic – reading tests
Logical-Mathematical – Math achievement tests
Spatial – art achievement tests
Bodily-Kinesthetic – the president’s physical fitness test
Musical – music grades/proficiencies
Interpersonal – social maturity scales
Intrapersonal – self-concept assessments
Naturalist – tests that include plants/animals
Talk with Other Teachers – What have their observations concluded?
Talk with Parents – Have they noticed strengths in certain intelligences over others?
Ask Students – Where do they feel their inclination lies?
Set up Special Activities – When teaching to the multiple intelligences, which intelligence is best perceived by the student?


How did I connect with the reading, reflection on my thoughts on the chapter?
I felt that this chapter gave a lot of wonderful ideas on how to locate the various strengths within our students, including making the student an active participant in their own learning and observations. Students are the best resource for their own lives and will have the most information on how they learn and what they prefer to do. Too often students are ignored or just not treated as the bright individual they are. Although from what I have seen and experienced, I think it would be extremely difficult for many teachers (especially those in an urban setting) to implement the various tools and tasks set forth in this chapter. I have seen that it is all the teacher can do to get through the regular curriculum at a broad level or instruction to try to reach as many students as they can. However, I think that resource specialists or education techs would be able to implement these ideas and observations to a much higher degree and success due to the smaller student to staff ratio.