Multiple Intelligences

Guidance Lesson: Multiple Intelligence 

By: Elyse Goslin, Venette Melo & Elise Dunlap

This guidance lesson is geared toward 6^th grade students and focuses on Multiple Intelligences. Students often associate intelligence or “being smart” with test scores and grades. By teaching students Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence, it gives us the opportunity to help students understand that they are all unique and smart in different ways. This will help increase student’s self-confidence, purpose, and motivation to learn. Through engaging in activities such as this lesson, students will begin to understand how they are often using multiple types of intelligence to accomplish a task, and it will help them start to identify their personal strengths.

Supplies Needed:

• Computer - Internet access (for MI- YouTube video)
• A “journal” sheet for every student
• Timer
• Magazines
• Construction paper
• Glue
• Scissors

Introduction:

·         Show your excitement for being in the classroom with the students and introduce the term “Multiple Intelligence”

·         Activate students’ knowledge about multiple intelligence:

o   Ask students – “Does anyone know what multiple intelligence might mean?”

o   Ask students to partner with their elbow partner and talk about what they think makes someone “smart”

o   “What were some of the things your groups came up with?” – Write their answers on the board

·         Explain that Multiple Intelligence means that each one of us can be smart in many different ways – There are 9 different ways each of us can be smart.

o   “Let’s watch this video to help explain….”

·         Show Youtube Video: 8 Intelligences – Theory of Multiple Intelligences explained by Dr. Howard Gardner  

o  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2EdujrM0vA

Developmental Learning Activity:

·         Address how awesome the video was at explaining the 8 different intelligences.

·         Let the students know – Now they will be split into groups and do some fun activities that use multiple intelligences

·         Break students into groups and assign them a station to start at

·         Each station should last around 5 minutes, and then they will rotate to the next

·         If there are multiple counselors, a counselor can be at each station interacting with the students, or, can roam around the room checking on each group

Station #1: Intrapersonal & Verbal/Linguistic

The purpose of this station is to help students practice internal reflection. At this station, students will be given a sheet of paper that has prompts for them to think about and write about. For example, on a piece of paper, potential prompts could include: “I am thankful for ______” “Something that challenged me this week was _________” “One thing that made me happy this week was ________” “I want to be ________ when I grow up because _________” “How would your bestfriend describe you?” “What is your favorite thing about yourself?”  “Some of my strengths are                       “  “I am happiest when __________”

Station #2: Naturalist & Spatial/Visual Arts

The purpose of this station is to have students do intentional daydreaming, while at the same time generating creativity. At this station, students will be offered multiple options of colored construction paper, magazines, markers, scissors and glue to assist them in creating their collage. They will then be offered two different prompts to choose from: 1) Dream about your ideal vacation spot with as much visual details as you can, or 2) If you could have as many animals as you wanted as pets, what would they be and what would your home look it? Allow students to use various design skills such as pictures, words or drawings that will assist them in sharing their ideas or thoughts to others.

Station #3: Interpersonal & Bodily-Kinesthetic

            The purpose of this station is to actively work together to demonstrate their interpersonal skills. At this station the group will be given the task to create a special handshake between each of the members in the group. They will create the handshake and once they have the handshake down, they will then teach the counselor in the group as well. They will have the opportunity to share their handshake in front of the class at the end of the lesson.

Closing & Follow-up:

·         Wrap of the sessions and have students take a seat

·         Partner students up and have them think about every station and what “intelligence” they used at that station – then ask for groups to share their answers

o   Write up each station on the board, and list all the intelligences that were used, as the students share

·         Ask if anyone would like to share their collage or handshake

·         Thank the students for their participation & sharing

·         Ask “What is one thing each person learned today?”

·         Summarize how much fun we had with them today and how awesome it is that each person is smart in many different ways and has their own personal strengths

·         Remind students that each person is unique – if they have any questions, need to talk, etc., remind them where your office is! 

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.