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Madison Davis

Lori Cory

EDU 218

February 24, 2020

Multiple Intelligences and Learning Strategies Assignment

To fully understand a learner, you must make sure that you understand how they learn.

A great teacher knows how to teach all types of learners and can adapt their curriculum, so all

students feel included. I used a survey to gauge what types of learners I was working with in my

classroom. Then, I was able to learn about the different ways my students learn and able to

reflect on how that could impact their learning in the classroom.

I felt that this survey was very effective for a group of seventh graders because it had

multiple questions about their habits overall and challenged them to think about themselves.

There were around two or three questions that the students struggled with, however once the

question was explained the student had a better understanding and could answer the question

properly. I also felt that this made the students feel more mature in the fact that this test was not

written for an elementary student. This was a test that any adult could take, and I wanted the

students to feel proud of their answers. However, I did find that some students started to confine

themselves to their top category. One student did not receive the social learner intelligence in

their top three and talked to me about it. They were confused because they like talking to their

friends and being around them. As many of the students finished the survey, I had to remind

them not to confine themselves to their top category, that this survey was just a guess at how

they felt the most comfortable learning. I would use this survey again, because the results were

very realistic to most of the class which meant that the students answered honestly and did not

take this task as a joke. This survey worked extremely well for the age group I was working

with.
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When I administered this survey, I used an online version for this assignment because

every school in Nevada is one on one, and in the middle school, the students use their

computers in almost every single math class. I felt that giving the students an online version of

the test would be easier for them because then it would be accessible to all the students and the

students could complete the survey on their own time without other pressures from their friends.

These pressures included watching a friend finish early and learning their scores and sharing

them which could influence the outcome of the other students' scores, or even students

answering questions based on their friends’ answers. I wanted to eliminate any outside

influences, which meant that I used an online version of the survey. I also chose this survey

because both the teacher and I felt that this survey would challenge the students in a positive

way and not be too easy for them, where they would feel it was a kindergartner’s survey. With a

seventh-grade class, I wanted the students to feel like young adults which meant this test had

more questions about many different aspects of their life. The online version of me reaches

every student.

Since I used an online version of the survey, the results were shared directly with the

students, which meant they had to share it with myself and the teacher. We had the students

screenshot their results and email them to us, so that we had the results and who they were

from. I wanted students to see their results because I felt they were mature enough to

understand what the different categories were and how they applied to their life. I felt that this

survey allowed them to answer to their best abilities and not feel like they were in an elementary

classroom. This is extremely important for seventh graders and I wanted them to feel mature.

In this classroom the students have an idea of what their results meant which allows

them to understand how they feel most comfortable learning. This could impact many students

because now that they have an idea, they could become more proactive about their learning,

such as playing music during a test or going to get a drink to keep their focus on the lesson. For

a majority of the classroom, the students fell under the body movement category. This category
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was in the top three for almost every student. Musical and naturalistic, were two categories that

scored in a majority of the students top three categories. The naturalistic category might have

scored so well because the students enjoyed being outdoors and using the other intelligence of

body movement to learn. For the body movement learners, I would maybe start the lesson with

the students walking around or moving into different groups to talk about the lesson before

completely diving into instruction. That way I would be able to engage those learners in the

lesson. For the students who received the naturalistic learning intelligence, I would try to use

math problems that were centered around nature and the outside world to give relevance to the

topic of instruction. For the musical learners I would find little patterns and sayings for the

different ways to solve the math problems. There are many patterns and sayings teachers use,

which directly applies to those musical learners. I might also play music in the background of the

group work time so that those students might feel more comfortable.

My teacher felt that the results matched the students and understood why they received

those results. We talked about a few students whose answers did not seem to match the

individual at all, however we had to accept that they answered to the best of their abilities. The

majority of the results from the students were very similar and did not surprise the teacher

because we had both made a guess as to what categories the students would land in.

One student, SL, received the intelligences of self and spatial which was very interesting

considering most of the classes' scores. SL received the category of the self-learner, which

means during work time they would rather spend time alone, I would allow her to work on her

own during the class work time and also encourage her to show her work on a math problem

and draw a picture to go along with it. This may allow her to understand the content more and

make SL feel more comfortable in the math classroom.

Another student, LG, received their top score as nature and the second score as

musical. For this student I feel that it would be best if I gave word problems that applied to the

outdoors, and maybe even tried to take the class outdoors for a lesson. For this student’s
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musical intelligence, I would use lots or patterns or rhymes for the student to remember different

math tricks. Such as the rhymes, 6 x 8 is 48. This is a simple rhyme; however I still use it when I

multiply and I feel that this student would benefit with these different patterns and rhythms.

JB, received the intelligences of body movement and musical. For this student I would

encourage them to walk around before and after a lesson, or to get in small groups, anything for

this student to move with what they were learning. In some cases, the students will do jumping

jacks before they take a test, and I feel it is a great way for the students to wake up and engage

their mind. This is also a great way for the body movement learners to become engaged in

whatever they are doing. To try and appeal to their musical intelligence, I would use rhythms

and patterns which would make it easier for them to understand what they are learning. There is

the saying: keep, change, flip. This saying is repeated on many occasions when teaching about

multiplying and dividing fractions. This is a simple pattern for this student to use and would be

easy for them to apply to their learning.

Overall, this assignment was extremely helpful for me to learn and understand how my

students learn. I found it extremely helpful. The students have an idea of what type of learners

they are which can impact their learning. A student who knows how they might learn can feel

more comfortable in the classroom and learn better.