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Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, 4th Edition

by Thomas Armstrong
Table of Contents

Chapter 12. MI Theory, Personalization, and Deeper Learning

The more people participate in the process of their own education … the
more [they] participate in the development of their selves. The more the
people become themselves, the better the democracy. Premium Member Book
(Nov 2017)

—Paulo Freire

Up to this point in the book, I have presented MI theory strategically as a

way to enrich virtually any style of teaching or system of learning. In this chapter, however, I'd like
to look at the emerging personalization movement and examine how MI theory can help to
deepen its practice.

Let me be clear about what I mean by personalization. First, I am not talking about personalization
in the way corporate education companies that tout "personalized" programs and products do. In
essence, these programs use algorithms to collect data about students as they work through
computerized course material, and then proceed to customize modules and assignments based
on student inputs. There is little of the "person" in any of this (education critic Diane Ravitch calls
these "de-personalization" programs on her blog at http://dianeravitch.net). Second, I'm not
speaking of teacher-directed programs where instructors assess student interests, preferences,
and learning styles and craft curriculum around those factors (the primary focus of this book up
to this point). When I use the term personalization in this chapter, I'm referring to student-
centered, student-driven projects and activities that strongly emphasize student voice and
student choice.

Real personalization respects students' aspirations and feeds students' desire for mastery over
real-world challenges. The reason this approach is so important to the lives of students is that it
represents the best preparation they can receive for life. As Ron Berger, the chief academic
o cer of Expeditionary Learning (EL) Education puts it,

In all of my years sitting in classrooms as a student, in public schools that were highly
regarded, I never once produced anything that resembled authentic work or had value
beyond addressing a class requirement. My time was spent on an academic treadmill of
 turning in short assignments completed individually as nal drafts—worksheets, papers,
math problem sets, lab reports—none of which meant much to anyone and none of which
resembled the work I have done in the real world. Although I received good grades, I have no
work saved from my days in school, because nothing I created was particularly original,
important or beautiful. Yet when we nish school and enter the world of work, we are asked
to create work of value—scienti c reports, business plans, websites, books, architectural
blueprints, graphic artwork, investment proposals, medical devices and software
applications. This work is created over weeks or months with team consultation,
collaboration and critique, and it goes through multiple revisions. The research, analysis, and
production involve multiple disciplines, such as reading, writing, mathematics, science,
engineering and design. (Berger, 2013)

It stands to reason, then, that the type of curriculum students should be engaged with in school
re ects to a reasonable degree what they're going to be doing once they get out into the
workforce. Implementing personalized learning is the best way to ensure this.

MI Theory's Contribution to Personalized Learning

Here are some ways in which MI theory can help guide the personalization process.

MI theory places Self Smart and People Smart front and center. Instead of regarding Word
Smart and Number/Logic Smart as the foundation of school learning, personalized projects
require, more than anything else, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences. In order to do the
envisioning, planning, and organization required to launch personalized projects, students need
to frankly assess their own strengths and weaknesses, engage in realistic goal setting, and adjust
their goals as the project unfolds. Similarly, in personalized team projects, students must learn
how to collaborate and participate in the give-and-take necessary to e ectively implement their
plans and envision the social connections needed to accomplish their goals.

Here's an example. A senior at Avalon Charter School in St. Paul, Minnesota, decided to engage in
a project related to theater production. In the course of the project, he analyzed plays, took a
class on stagecraft at a local university, built stage sets, and produced, directed, and acted in
plays for the school community. Another senior at Avalon spent more than 800 hours working
with a nonpro t educational advocacy group to help pass legislation in Minnesota expanding
opportunities for individualized learning programs in the state (Traphagen & Zorich, 2013).
Although both of these projects also involved the other intelligences (Logic Smart to analyze,
Body Smart to dramatize, Picture Smart to visualize), the key driving power was supplied by the
students' use of the personal intelligences.

MI theory helps both students and teachers envision the broad spectrum of possibilities
available in developing a personalized project. A teacher who limits her understanding of
learning to just words and numbers may facilitate deeply authentic personalized projects in a
classroom where students choose their readings and decide on their writing genres and topics.
But if this is all that is available to students, then potential gifts that they may possess in musical
expression, artistic ability, dramatic sensibility, or ecological sensitivity may go untapped. When
we suggest to students the possible tools available to them in developing a personalized project
—words, numbers, music, audio, video, drama, nature, photos, and much more—they are more
likely to be fully engaged. Figure 12.1 provides a menu of processes that students might select
from in developing a project or personalized learning plan.
Figure 12.1. Processes for Personalized Learning Projects

MI theory can help teachers integrate personalized student-driven activities and projects
into the traditional curriculum. Many teachers are hesitant to wade into the deep waters of
authentic student-centered projects because they fear losing contact with the standards,
requirements, and content that form the core of their teaching responsibilities. Kallick and
Zmuda (2017) view personalized learning as a continuum, teacher-directed at one end and
student-driven at the other. Furthermore, they apply this continuum to several components of
the personalized learning process, including goal setting, idea generation, tasks, and evaluation.
Students may lead the way in some of these areas, while the teacher takes responsibility for the
others. Certainly, many teachers will want to test the waters before they engage in a full- edged
student-directed program. Figure 12.2 suggests how activities in traditional content areas might
be designed to begin the process of personalizing work in each of the eight intelligences.

Figure 12.2. Personalized Learning and MI Theory

Personalized My Community Geology (4th Grade Science) Expressive Arts (8th The Novel (11th Grade
Learning (1st Grade Social Grade Art) English-Language
Studies) Arts)
MI Integration

Word Smart Make a book Read self-chosen Create art Read self-
about your books and articles from words chosen novels
favorite on geology; keep a and letters in
things in the "geologist's journal" English and
community of your other
explorations languages
spoken by you
or your family
Number/Logic Choose Become familiar Create art Create
Smart things to with eld guide from databases to
count in tools and strategies mathematical keep track of
your used to analyze representation books read and
community rocks; study the of personal lms watched
(e.g., houses molecular data (e.g., (with a data
on your structure/elemental scatter plot art eld for
block, street composition of based on the personal
lamps rocks times you reactions and
downtown) went to bed interpretations)
each night
plotted
against your
test score
results the
following day)

Picture Smart Take photos Put together a Put together a Watch lms
of your town photo display of "mood based on
and put local rocks (for use collage" novels read
them to help others in representing
together in a their identi cation) your feelings
photography during a
exhibit typical day

Body Smart Go on eld Learn appropriate Create a self- Put on a play,

trips to techniques for portrait mime show, or
di erent breaking rocks for sculpture improvisation
areas of analysis based on
your scenes from
community novels read
and create
"social
stories" of
the trips

Music Smart Make an Write a song based Use Create a

audio on your favorite composition musical
recordings rock or rocks ("rock software to composition
of the music") create an that tells the
sounds instrumental most
heard work interesting
 around your representing stories from
community your opinion each novels
about some
controversial
topic

People Smart Contact a Establish a "rock Get together Create a book

local hound" club; meet with a small study group; e-
historian with a geologist; group of peers mail or Skype
who can visit share rock to create a with authors
the school collection with a drama that
and talk lower grade acts out a
about the topic of keen
history of interest to
your participants
community;
interview
members of
the
community
about the
history of
your town

Self Smart Make a list Put together a rock Choose an art Choose the
of all the display of your form and a novels you
things you favorite found topic of special wish to read;
like most specimens passion and work at your
about your create the own pace;
community work decide how to
and all the present each
things you book to others
like least
about it

Nature Smart Create a Study the geology Create a work Create a

garden to of the local area of art bibliography of
produce where you live expressing novels where
food to give your personal nature is one
to the philosophy of the key
neediest using only "characters"
people in
 your natural
community materials

MI theory provides a way to contextualize the learning that unfolds during student-
directed projects. Understanding that truly personalized learning re ects the fact that students
may change direction as they develop their projects, MI theory provides a conceptual map that
can help both teachers and students understand which intelligences are being activated and how
they can be further extended into the learning process.
An excellent model being used to personalize learning is the Genius Hour, which emerged from
Google's injunction to employees that 20 percent of their work time should be spent on creating
their own unique ideas for helping the organization. In Genius Hour classrooms across the United
States, teachers have set aside a speci c amount of time per day or week for students to engage
in passion projects that re ect their own deepest interests. For example, Spencer (2017) writes
about a student who focused on studying the history of skateboarding and ultimately designed a
model of a hybrid skateboarding museum and skate park. This project integrated the Word
Smart, Body Smart, Picture Smart, and Number/Logic Smart intelligences into a Self Smart–
directed project. Another student curated (Self Smart) her favorite recipes from around the world
(Word Smart, Body Smart) and integrated them with interviews she conducted with immigrants
(People Smart). A group of students collaborated (People Smart) on rating (Number/Logic Smart)
existing roller coasters and eventually designed (Body Smart, Picture Smart) their own model
ride.

Yes, But How Deep Is the Learning?

Naturally, a big concern of teachers relates to how much learning is actually going on during
these student-driven projects. Some teachers have aligned personalized learning exercises
directly to state or district standards or developed benchmarks to assess student learning
progress. Whether a teacher decides to do this or not, it can be helpful to have some measure of
the level of learning going on at any given stage of the personalized learning process. Webb's
(1997) Depth of Knowledge (DOK) schema provides a template to help educators gauge how deep
a student project may go in terms of cognitive complexity for any given learning activity. It
consists of the following four levels (Hess, 2013):

1. Recall and Reproduction—includes listing, de ning, calculating, memorizing, reporting,

and identifying;
2. Skills and Concepts—includes inferring, categorizing, predicting, interpreting,
summarizing, and predicting;
3. Strategic Thinking and Reasoning—includes critiquing, appraising, investigating,
testing, hypothesizing, assessing, and revising; and
4. Extended Thinking—includes initiating, designing, collaborating, researching,
synthesizing, self-monitoring, critiquing, producing, and presenting.

It's important to keep in mind that we're not talking here about "good, better, or best" learning or
thinking. Each of these levels has signi cance in its own right. For example, a student's plan
during a Genius Hour to learn Mandarin Chinese may exist at Level 1 of Webb's model, but would
be more intellectually challenging than another student's Level 4 project to research the
background and signi cance of songs popular during World War I.

Webb's model allows teachers to monitor levels of thinking processes and use that information
to help students self-evaluate and improve their learning plans. In the course of developing a
robotics project, for example, a student may realize he needs to master a Level 1 skill in coding as
a prerequisite for programming the robot for a Level 4 navigation routine. The fact that students
can themselves learn to self-monitor the cognitive complexity of their work (and, in addition,
understand their multiple intelligences) represents an important metacognitive skill that can
carry over into everyday life. Figure 12.3 provides examples of how MI theory can be understood
in relation to Webb's DOK model.

Figure 12.3. Examples of Webb's Depth of Knowledge Model Integrated with MI

Theory

Intelligences DOK-1 – Recall and DOK-2 – Basic DOK-3 – Strategic DOK-4 – Extended
Reproduction Application of Skills and Thinking Thinking
Concepts
What is the Why can the How else can the
knowledge? How can the knowledge knowledge be used? knowledge be used?
be used?

Word Smart Learn the Write a poem, Analyze an Create a weekly

correct short story, or author's radio show
orthographic novel writing style based on
spelling of to help research done
English improve during the
words one's own previous week
writing
abilities

Number/Logic Memorize Use heuristic Design a Set up a school

Smart algorithms strategies in science weather station
to use in solving math experiment and monitor
doing math problems to measure data over a
problems the amount period of several
of sugar in weeks or
various fast months
food
beverages

Picture Smart Learn about Use knowledge Use a Curate a visual

and of graphic graphic arts art show made
reproduce software to app to create up of
graphic create a website an contributions
architectural from the school
 images for design that and local
an artwork integrates community
two
architectural
styles

Body Smart Master a Execute winning Choreograph Develop a

motoric backhand a dance football game
routine for a volleys while playbook that
gymnastics playing a game can be used by
class of tennis the school's
varsity team

Music Smart Learn how Play a violin Compose a Organize a

to read sonata by piece of concert where
musical Mozart music for the you will perform
notation for electronic or conduct your
the piano synthesizer composition and
give a lecture
afterward on its
creation

People Smart Remember Lead a small- Create, Plan, create, and

and group provide, and lead a student
reproduce discussion using evaluate a voice campaign
proper social acquired survey that in school
behaviors in interpersonal polls student
the strategies that opinion on
classroom maximize the topic of
collaboration school
bullying

Self Smart Recall and Write or create Create and Develop a

be able to in nonverbal lead an yearlong project
express past media an activity to to plan and
memories of autobiographical teach 1st direct your
failures and account of your grade independent
successes in life students learning in
school about their school based on
multiple Joseph
intelligences Campbell's
hero's journey
 Nature Smart Memorize Use Linneaus's Design an Plan and lead a
the taxonomy to experiment coordinated
taxonomy of classify to evaluate school–
living things arthropods in the quality of community
created by the eld the local campaign to test
Linneaus drinking and monitor the
water water pollution
in the local
community

Ultimately, authentic personalized learning should be regarded as a delicate balance between a

student's own motivations, interests, and aspirations and the teacher's knowledge of the terrain
that can be covered in a learning adventure. The student provides the passion, the background,
and the forward motion in exploring an area of great interest, while the teacher brings to the
table her own skill set of strategies, resources, suggestions, and feedback. A knowledge of MI
theory provides a cognitive map that can help lead a student's personalized learning journey
toward a successful and meaningful conclusion.

For Further Study

1. Set aside a speci c amount of time each day or week for a Genius Hour when students
can explore a topic, issue, or pursuit of great interest to them (for more information on
setting up a program, go to www.geniushour.com). As students choose their projects,
notice whether there is a match or mismatch between a student's most developed
intelligences and the intelligences required to do the project or the intelligences that will
be strengthened as a result of the project. Talk with colleagues who are implementing
the Genius Hour about the pros and cons of students choosing projects based on their
desire to improve a di cult intelligence, their wish to continue developing a preferred
intelligence, or the impetus to explore an intelligence they may only be dimly aware of
possessing.
2. Evaluate the level at which your current classroom teaching integrates authentic
personalized instruction (not computer-based or teacher-enforced). Consider how you
might bring more student-driven personalization into your program and how you could
integrate the theory of multiple intelligences into the projects or pursuits that students
choose to explore.
3. Develop a student-directed personalized program, or take curricula you've already
developed and use Webb's DOK schema and MI theory to keep track of which
intelligences are being used and what levels of learning are being engaged. List
additional activities that might enhance the intellectual breadth and cognitive depth of
the program.

Copyright © 2018 by Thomas Armstrong. All rights reserved. No part of this publication—including the drawings, graphs, illustrations, or
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