Reflections Week 9: Multiple Intelligences and Final Draft

As the penultimate week of the project comes to an end, a sense of completion and achievement is being felt amid a feeling of nostalgia. There were two important things that were done this week. One of them included the submission of the final draft of our projects. The other was being introduced to Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences.

By the end of this week, I also happened to check the examination answer books for my students for the semester end examination. Reading their answer books (especially the BA-1 class: Introduction to Poetry- The class on which I did my project) I was able see the marked difference in the way they had performed from their first internal assessment. There was a marked changed in the way they wrote their examination answers and the linguistic performance had improved significantly. I am glad I did this project. 

Project Final Draft

Thanks to my partner Nino that I was able to fill in the lacunae in the project and make important changes in the final draft. There were many things that had to be thought out and implemented before submitting the final draft of the project. One of them included the question as to how would the learnings of the project influence my teaching style in future. I had to arrange an informal meeting with the students to decide the outline for hte next semester. It was decided that in the next semester 6 novels and 12 short stories that would be taught would be done with the help of technology. After ensuring this, I was able to incorporate the same in the final draft of my project. 

Multiple Intelligences in Classroom and using Technology to cater to them 

The topic of discussion and the reading material that was made available was on Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences. The following diagram is an excellent representation of the varying kinds of intelligences. 

However, this was not 'the' focus of discussion. Courtney had clearly instructed us on the discussion forum to  

focus on the technology aspect. 

The resources for the week included the article "Technology and Multiple Intelligences" (http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm) which was a very informative article and helped me understand how to use technology for each kind of intelligence. In my analysis of the multiple intelligences and adopting technology for each kind, I was able to suggest ways for using tools of technology to address the needs of  different kinds of learners. Going through the discussion forum and reading Cherry's remark that my post and the comments associated with it helped him allay apprehension of integrating MI and technology in the language classroom. There was another article shared by Raj entitled "Multiple Intelligences and Technology" (http://www.casacanada.com/multech.html). The article talked about integrating technology into the classroom for the following seven kinds of intelligences namely Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Musical, Bodily-Kinaesthetic, Interpersonal and Intra-personal.

The other articles and resources include the following:

1. Multiple Intelligences after twenty Years by Howard Gardner: (http://pzweb.harvard.edu/PIs/HG_MI_after_20_years.pdf)
2. How Technology Enhances Howard Gardner's Eight Intelligences (http://www.america-tomorrow.com/ati/nhl80402.htm#
3. Learning styles online quiz - learn about your own learning style. A very good quiz that can be taken by anyone.  (http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-learning-styles-quiz)
4. Howard Gardner Video on Multiple Intelligences (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iYgO8jZTFuQ#!) shared by Raj. 
5. Sailing with 5Cs with Learning Strategies (http://www.nclrc.org/sailing/)

I would like to quote Jasmina who writes that teaching is like cooking that includes, "A little bit of everything, mixed appropriately, seasoned to taste, prepared and served with patience and a good dose of encouragement will melt down even the grumpiest student."

Looking forward eagerly to the final week. 

Ashish Pande.