Multiple Intelligences

Here is my reply to a question in my ESL class.

Which of the intelligences do you use most in your instruction? Will this change now that you have discovered the benefits of teaching through all nine intelligences?

I teach in a small school,=) and read aloud to my students about two hours a day. This reading is often interrupted with conversations and questions on the topic. The children are then allowed to study according to their study plan that they have created. I find that my visual students often use this time to express what we have been reading and discussing visually. I, also, have a musical student who will often make up songs on the keyboard to go with our studies or he will ask me to look up music from a certain area or region for him to hear. For instance, with the Olympics he spent time creating what he thought Chinese music might sound like and then he asked me to find some traditional Chinese music along with what their instruments looked like. After we listened to this, he was surprised at how different his idea as to how it would sound was from what it actually sounded like. We then had a discussion on the difference and why it was different where he got to analyze the different sounds and different musical patterns. I like to allow the children this freedom and will continue to do this as it allows them to learn using their strengths. I will still read to the students about two hours a day even though it is mostly verbal, because of reasons too numerous to state here. (Here as in the assignment, but not here as in on this blog=)).