Ch 4 - Teaching Students About MI Theory

Abstract:
A unique aspect of MI theory is that students as young as six or seven years old can understand the main ideas. In a few minutes, young and old alike can understand and use the MI theory in various aspects of their lives. The most direct way to introduce MI theory is not through activities or any other common teaching tool, but to simply explain it to them.
A common visual aid is the “MI Pie Chart” or a circle drawn on the board and divided into 8 pieces. Then fill in the pieces of the pie with simple vocabulary, for example instead of ‘Linguistic intelligence’, which is a mouthful, use word smart. To reinforce it for the spatially inclined students, draw a simple picture to illustrate the pie piece.
Inclusion is a common teaching tool to help students participate in various aspects of any lesson plan. When presenting the MI Pie ask open ended, developmentally appropriate, and simple questions to include as many students as possible. By using simple vocabulary and giving an example of a prodigy or highly skilled person the students will be able to better absorb the aspects that the intelligences represent.
Linguistic – Word smart (Authors)
Logical-mathematical – Number smart (Famous Scientists)
Spatial – Picture smart (Illustrators)
Bodily-Kinesthetic – Body smart (Star Athletes)
Musical – Music smart (Famous Rock Stars)
Interpersonal – People smart (TV Talk Show Host)
Intrapersonal – Self smart (Famous Entrepreneurs)
Naturalist – Nature smart (Animal Experts)
Some of the various ways to emphasize the Mi theory throughout the school year are having a career day and establishing the intelligences each professional uses on a daily basis, learning biographies of historical prodigies in one of the intelligences (like Mozart for musical), taking field trips to locations that emphasize an intelligence, tailor your lesson plans to take advantage of the various intelligences, use wall displays or posters to emphasize and reinforce the intelligences, and for older students you can assign readings/reports to help the students deepen their understandings of MI Theory.

How did I connect with the reading, reflection on my thoughts on the chapter?
This chapter had a good deal of ideas on how to talk to student about MI theory in words that they would understand like “word smart” and “math smart”. The many ideas that each chapter has represented allows us to learn more about the plethora of ways we can use MI theory in all aspects of the teaching profession. From using it to create a multifaceted lesson plan to having various activities throughout the week to vary to the MI of our students, we can really become better educators by simply taking the time to go through the checklist of multiple intelligences and ensuring that we do everything we can to at least touch on each one. The variety of ideas that the author suggested helped to spark some ideas of my own.