Chapter 3

Abstract:
This chapter is about figuring out which intelligences your students prefer. It gives many suggestions to help you accomplish this such as interviewing students, talking to parents, questioning other teachers, looking at students files, and observing students and finding out what they like to do in their free time. Another way to see how students learn is to watch the way they misbehave. If they talk out of turn in class, if they are always having side conversations with their friends, if they doodle during class, or if they are always fidgeting, these can all help a teacher determine how that students learns. There really isn't a clear cut test which you can give students that will tell you exactly which intelligence is their strongest. However, by giving students choices and seeing what they pick and what they excel at it is possible to get a good idea about how they learn.

Reflections:
We all thought that this chapter had some very good sugesstions for figuring out a students multiple intelligences. Also, this chapter helped Audra to learn more about her own intelligences by making her reflect on her past and present. She really liked the idea of keeping a notebook with observations of her students because she felt it would give her a clearer perspective on her students intelligences. Matt and I were more impressed by the idea of watching a students misbehaviors to help understand their intelligences. We liked the idea that something positive could come from a bad behavior. By misbehaving the student may really just be trying to tell us something about themselves and the way they learn. It would be incredibly unfare to write that behavior off like the student were just a bad kid, especially when you can use it to help them in the long run. I also like the idea of talking to the parents because it not only gives you a new perspective on a students intelligence, but it also lets the parents know that you care about their child and are trying your best to help them learn. Like Erik mentioned, in order to be a good teacher it is important to know more about your students and how they learn. This chapter has many good suggestions that would be easy to apply in a real classroom.

*Posted by Chelsae