Thursday, November 12, 2009

"doing MI?"...no such thing

Recently I had a conversation with a colleague about people using the term, "doing MI", as in, "She doesn't really do MI" or "Who is doing MI?"

A teacher does not "do" MI--MI is a theory about how the brain solves problems and creates products. The primates bring their intelligences into the classroom, and the teacher provides opportunities for the primates to use their intelligences in unique combinations to solve problems and create products.

This blog, including the statement above, is the way I have interpreted Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, and the way I approach teaching and learning is heavily influenced by this different perspective on intelligence. It has taken years of trial and error, experimenting, and most importantly reflecting on my teaching practice to feel ready to share what I do as an example of effective translation of theory to practice.

So I don't believe it's appropriate to think of MI as something a teacher "does" or "doesn't" do, it's a shift in how a teacher perceives her students, how the classroom environment is created and maintained, and how s/he thinks about teaching and learning. All of this requires ALOT of thinking about teaching and learning, because MI necessitates a paradigm shift and everything changes from that point.

I'd like to also share another conversation w/ a different colleague.....this time about whether or not project work was the only way to incorporate MI theory into teaching and learning practice. I wasn't sure of where I stood on that issue at the time...but after some reflection, I feel confident in saying that while project work lends itself well to providing multiple entry points and child-directed learning, it isn't the ONLY way to transfer theory to practice...for example............

I just began working with a reading group of 19 primates--it's a big group, but I have a wonderful student teacher, so it's working well. They, much like my own class, requested Tony Terlizzi's The Spider and the Fly which was not a book I planned to read w/this group, but the cover to that book is just so enticing to these guys! We read it twice on consecutive days after completing the work I had planned for the group. Today we read it again and I split the group into 3 smaller groups, which rotated at 3 different centers:
- Make: make a spider and a fly using black & gray construction paper, scissors, pencils, glue, and google eyes
- Marble: marble paint white webs onto black construction paper prepared by folding one edge and stapling it to form a pocket on the back
- Play: primates retell the story of the spider and the fly to music....one primate is the spider, one the fly, and the rest form the web...roles rotate so primates get a chance to play each part

After three center rotations, we left our marble paintings to dry, and gathered on the rug. I used my own marble painting and spider and fly to retell the story to the group in my own words. I included text directly from the book, intonation, followed the same pattern of the story (spider beckons to fly, fly refuses over and over until the spider uses flattering words to finally entice the fly and then eats it). Then pairs of primates took turns retelling. They will each take their own retelling set home when it dries--using the back pocket on the web to hold their paper spider and fly.

This one day exploration of a story (really a poem), provided multiple entry points to learning: foundational, logical, aesthetic, narrative. Thus providing opportunities for students to use unique combinations of intelligences to understand story structure and make connections to the text.

MI is all about perspective. More on how and what I assess through this learning experience later....

No comments:

Post a Comment