Multiple Intelligences

Guidance Lesson: Multiple Intelligences 

By: Brooklyn Beeler & McKenzie Harsin

Lesson plan

Topic: Multiple Intelligences (Naturalist, Linguistic, Body/Kinesthetic, and Musical)

Grade level: 4th Grade

Introduction

●       Overview: The overall objective of this lesson is to inform fourth graders on four of the nine multiple intelligences and help them identify their strengths and areas for growth or practice.

●    Introduce yourselves: “Hello everyone, we are ________, and we are here to talk about the different ways of being smart, and how every one of you has multiple intelligences or ‘smarts.’”

●       Activate previous knowledge:

○       Start the lesson with a Pre Check-in: (Ask the students these questions)

■       Raise your hand if you can name different ways that people can be smart.

●       Call on them to listen and validate some of their answers.

■       Now raise your hand if you think you are also smart in any of these ways.

●       “So as we can see, you all know a little bit about intelligence. So today we are going to go a little bit more in depth about the ‘smarts.’ We are going to do some activities that demonstrates a little more about each ‘smart’.”

Outline of Lesson:

●       Go over the definition of multiple intelligences and briefly mention that there are nine of them total, but the counselor(s) will only talk about four in this lesson. Then, focus in on the four multiple intelligences the counselor(s) will talk about, which are nature smart, word smart, body smart, and music smart.

○       Go over the four definitions and check for student understanding by having them provide examples for each of the multiple intelligences and write them on the whiteboard.

■       Example: Body Smart - (the students offered these examples) dunking, flips, parkour, tetherball, walking, water skiing, olympics

●       Now, explain the four stations and answer any questions they may have. Tell them that they will have 3.5 minutes to complete the activity and then they will rotate stations. Then, break up the class into four groups and assign each group to their first station.

●       Start the first rotation and time the 3.5 minutes. When times up, provide 30 seconds for the group at the ‘body smart’ station to perform their dance to the class at the end of the time. Note: Be sure to walk around, check in and help the groups if they need assistance.

●       At the end of the 20 minutes given for the activities, the counselor(s) will lead the class in a reflection period where they will discuss:

○       What did you like about each station? What was your favorite one? What were your strengths? What was hard? What are areas for growth?

●       Note: The counselors need to be sure to reiterate that even though a station may have been harder for some students than others it does not mean that that student is not smart in this area, but they can work to improve this area and strengthen this ‘smart.’ Also, be sure to mention that our ‘smart’ strengths may change over time as we grow and develop and that is ok. We used the analogy of gaining ‘smarts’ is like working out, and in order to build muscle you have to practice.

Developmental Learning Activities

There will be four groups with an equal number of students in each group. Each group will start at a different station and will have 3.5 minutes at each station, 30 seconds will be given for the group at the ‘body smart’ station to perform their dance to the group at the end of the time.

●       Naturalist “Nature smart”→ There will be a sheet with several pictures of animals and the group will write down the name the animals, where they live, what they eat, and if they have any predators.

Below is a list of two of the animals we included, we encourage to have about 10-12 animals.

●       Linguistic “Word Smart”→ The group will be given a list of words and a sheet with six categories corresponding to a number on a six sided dice. The categories are: give the definition, use the word in a sentence, draw a picture of the word, synonym, antonym, and write the word three times. The group with roll the dice and have to complete the category that corresponds to the number they rolled and repeat until times up.

 

●       Body/Kinesthetic “Body smart”→  The group will begin by passing a ball back and forth first with two hands 20 times, then, with their dominant hand 20 times, and finally with their dominant hand 20 times. If the group finishes before the time is up, have them try doing this activity on one foot.

●       Musical “Music Smart”→  The group will come up with a dance and perform it to the class. The counselor will provide an appropriate song and a speaker, we used ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ by Justin Timberlake from the movie Trolls.. The group will have 30 seconds to perform to the entire class after the times up.

Assessment/Evaluation

●       Summarize: The objective of this lesson was to inform the students about four out of the nine multiple intelligences and help them identify strengths and areas for growth or practice.

●       Assess if the students learned the objectives by:

○       Ending with a Post Check-in:

■       Raise your hand if you feel like you learned more about ‘smarts’ than you knew before.

■       Raise your hand if you feel like you can identify your strengths and areas for growth.

●       Check for understanding throughout the lesson by asking students to provide a thumbs up or down to see if they are understanding the content being taught.

Closing and Follow up

●       Now that they are more informed about multiple intelligences, ask them to independently practice what they learned to help increase awareness about their ‘smarts’.

●       Note: Mention the location of the counseling office and that the counselors’ office door is always open if the students need anything.