MI Discovery Activity

(Developed for ESOL to introduce Multiple Intelligences Theory to students)

Read through the activity, step by step
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Activity Objectives

-- to help students identify their own intelligences
-- to help students recognize the variety of intelligences present in the class
-- to help students understand the theory of multiple intelligences
-- to help students get used to doing a variety of playful activities in class as part of the learning process

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Materials

Handout with directions

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Process

1. Without discussing the theory of multiple intelligences, give students a handout listing the following activities and ask them to complete them within ten minutes. Tell the students that the activities may be done in any order.
   --Write a short poem.
   --Write down on a piece of paper how long ago was a million seconds ago and show it to me.
   --Draw a simple picture of an animal.
   --Go outside and run to the end of the building and back.
   --Sing a favorite song from your country to someone else.
   --Tell another student in the class about something nice that happened to you this week.
   --Close your eyes and think about the happiest moment in your life. You don't need to tell anyone about it.
   --Look out the window and notice all the living things and natural formations you can see.
2. After ten minutes, call the class back to order.  Most students will not have finished, but that's ok because the objective of the activity is not to do every activity.  Have the students reflect on the following questions:
   --Which activity did you do first?  Why?
   --Which activities didn't you get to?  Why did you leave them for last?
   --Which activities did you respond to by thinking, "Not in a million years!"
   --Which activities did you wish you had more time for?
3. Have the students share their answers to these questions in small groups with each other for 5 minutes.
4. Do a quick poll of the entire class, asking the questions in number 2 to the entire class or several members of the class if the class is large.
5. Again, have students discuss in small groups what they think this activity tells them about their learning and then share their thoughts with the entire class.  Most students will not see any relationship between their responses to the tasks and their own learning.
6. Give a brief overview of Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligence.
7. As closure for this activity, ask students to identify one intelligence that they think they might be good in.

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Reflection

For homework, the students are asked to read the introduction on multiple intelligences from Thomas Armstrong's book, 7 Kinds of Smart, complete the Multiple Intelligences inventory from Armstrong,  and listen to a short recorded lecture on multiple intelligences and then write a reflection, answering the following questions:
1. Think of a time in your life outside of school when you had to solve a problem.  Describe the problem and tell how you went about solving it.
2. Could there have been more than one way to solve the problem?  What other ways might have worked?  Why did you solve it in the way you did?
3. In light of what you have learned today about the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which intelligences do you think are your strongest?
4. How can knowing this about yourself help you in your studies?

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Dialogue

Annette designed the MI Discovery Activity guided by the three components of our theoretical model. The activity has been adapted from a suggested activity in Thomas Armstrong's book, Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom (2000)

This activity takes into consideration

-- the unique learnerStudents not only learn about their own intelligences through this activity, but also see that other students have different strengths.  It is important to emphasize that each learner does have different strengths.  As a class, the students need to be supportive of these differences.

-- the environment
Because the class activity is playful, students may need encouragement to take some risks.  It may be necessary to reassure the students that doing the different tasks is relevant to understanding themselves as learners better and that the discussion that follows will make this clear.  For some, the activity may be a significant revelation and may help them in their own study habits.  For others, it may be simply a novel idea.   In any case, the activity does help students realize that learning can take place in many different ways.  As the semester continues, students will understand that the variety of approaches we use in our classes has a sound basis in educational theory.

-- the construction of individual meaning
As students gain a better understanding of their own strong intelligences, they can use this information to help themselves deal with new content in all of their courses.

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