MI Chapter 3 Response

I think that this chapter provides very useful tips and suggestions for determining the most developed intelligences of your individual students.  I did notice, however, that some of the tips were more conducive to a secondary ed. classroom than others, and I will remember to focus more on those once I have my own students to observe.  (I also think that our field experience for this class will be great practice for trying to guess student intelligences based on sole observation).  I found it humorous but insightful when Armstrong says that “the one good way to identify students’ most highly developed intelligences is to observe how they misbehave in class” (34).  I had never really considered how much there is to learn from what we might otherwise view as poor or unacceptable behavior, but now I am curious to see what kinds of crazy things my future students will do!  I also really like the idea of using “choice time” as an opportunity to observe students’ intelligences, but the “choice time” Armstrong refers to is more prominent in elementary schools (I think).  So, I began to think of ways that middle or high school students could show their intelligences through choice.  In the English classroom, this could mean through the types of books they chose to read or how they chose to format a book report or paper.  In terms of other suggestions that Armstrong provides for determining students’ intelligences, I think that looking at school records, talking with other teachers, and asking the students themselves are the best suited for secondary level.