Multiple Intelligences Chapter 5 MI and Curriculum Design

This chapter starts by giving a brief history of the theory of multiple intelligences. The theory can be traced back to Plato when he mentioned education as being something that people should find amusement in and not as being compulsive. Then the idea was further developed by Jean Jacques Rousseau in the 18th century. He said that learning should not be done with books but by experiences. This idea has continued though out history and just recently it has become stronger and is now being used in the classroom. A teacher that uses the theory of MI is very different than a traditional teacher. While a traditional teacher will stand in front of his class lecturing a teacher using the theory of MI will spend some time lecturing and writing on the board but he will also spend time catering to the other intelligences besides verbal. The chapter then went on to make a list of different ways of incorporating the different intelligences in your classroom. This list includes using Socratic questioning for logical, videos for spatial, field trips for kinesthetic, word games for linguistic, mood music for musical, peer teaching for interpersonal, and independent study for intrapersonal learners. The chapter then goes over a seven step process for creating a lesson based around the theory of multiple intelligences. Your first step is to think of the specific topic or objective you want to teach and write it in the center of a web. Next you are to ask yourself how you can incorporate the different intelligences into the lesson plan. Then you want to consider which of the methods you just brainstormed can be used in your class. After deciding which intelligences you are going to use you should brainstorm ideas of how to use them in your lesson. In this step you should write down everything that comes to mind and then go back and circle the activities that are the most appropriate. The last two steps are to design the lesson around the intelligence and activity you chose and to implement it.

Almost everyone who read this chapter commented that they liked the lists of ways to incorporate each intelligence into their classroom. Some people commented that they felt the book is getting repetitive and that they get it all ready, multiple intelligence is the way to go. People also commented on how they have had past teachers that brought in many of the different types of intelligences and how much better those teachers were at teaching than the teachers who stood in front of the class and lectured every class. Overall most people were positive about the chapter and found the list of ways to get the intelligences in the classroom to be very helpful.