1. LISA BOOTH SPRING 2015 Pedagogy that considers multiple intelligences and non-traditional students

2. Today’s agenda Introduction How I got started… Who are our students and why are we talking about this? Right brain/left brain and multiple intelligences… What can we do to help? Questions/discussion

3. How I got started… Personal/professional history: - Middle school foreign language (traditional and non traditional students) - Foreign language, kindergarten- adult - Tutoring - students with increased needs and executive functioning issues - Adult ESL at HCC - My son, Timothy

4. Who are our students? Those who choose to attend college but are not attending a traditional 4 year university. Why are they HERE? - Money - Grades - Family - Non traditional age (i.e. older students) - Military - Other reasons…

5. Why are we talking about this? “Alternative pedagogy” benefits everyone. Struggling students (often) are not less intelligent or motivated. They are simply not being taught the way they learn best. Many “unsuccessful” students are not working less, just working less successfully.

6. Multiple Intelligences Howard Gardner and multiple intellegences (1991) Different people learn in different ways. We need to teach them the way(s) that they learn in order to reach them.

7. Multiple Intelligences

8. Gardner- multiple intelligences Gardner says that these differences "challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in the same way and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test student learning. Indeed, as currently constituted, our educational system is heavily biased toward linguistic modes of instruction and assessment and, to a somewhat lesser degree, toward logical- quantitative modes as well." Gardner argues that "a contrasting set of assumptions is more likely to be educationally effective. Students learn in ways that are identifiably distinctive. The broad spectrum of students - and perhaps the society as a whole - would be better served if disciplines could be presented in a numbers of ways and learning could be assessed through a variety of means."

9. Gardner- Multiple Intelligences Visual-Spatial physical space High environmental awareness Enjoy drawing, puzzles maps Thrive on 3-D modeling and images Bodily-kinesthetic Effective body use Excellent body awareness Thrive on movement/physical activity Like to touch “real” objects Musical Sensitive to music, rhythm, sound Thrive on “hearing” information Interpersonal Enjoys human interaction Thrive on group activities, dialogues, etc

10. Gardner- Multiple Intelligences Intrapersonal Self aware Thrive on individual/independent work Good at introspective work Linguistic Use words effectively Enjoy reading/writing Thrive with books and words Logical -Mathematical Enjoy reasoning and calculating See patterns and relationships Enjoy puzzles and investigating See concepts first, then fill in details

11. Right brain/Left brain Our brain has two sides… right and left. Most people use one side as their dominant side, although both sides of the brain are used cooperatively to complete complex tasks. So… Which side of the brain completes which tasks?

12. Right brain/Left brain (cont) Left brainRight brain LanguageRecognizing faces LogicExpressing emotions Critical thinkingMusic NumbersReading emotions ReasoningColor and images Intuition Creativity

13. Right brain/Left brain (cont) How do the two sides of the brain work together? - Ex. Reading - The left side of the brain decodes the text. The Right side of the brain uses intuition and creativity to interpret what has been read. How does this impact the teaching/learning of a foreign language? - Native language = left side of brain! - Second language = whole brain!

14. What can we do to help? We can lesson plan, considering multiple learning styles and less teacher work. We can look at the “readability” of our documents, so that students can be evaluated on true content. Let’s look at some examples…

15. Examples… Rubric (see document): For readability Speaking activity (see document): For differentiation Board game verb practice (see document): For verb practice with differentiated levels. Verb conjugation with colored note cards (see manipulatives).

16. Lesson planning for diverse student learning styles … Vocabulary: Present vocabulary with corresponding images and review consistently with these images. This allows for the students who are right brained to use images as a memory/retention method. Play charades. Get the students moving. Not only will they be more awake, but acting out new vocabulary will help them retain it. Verb conjugation: Those who struggle with “formulas” will have issues understanding and/or retaining. You can facilitate by practicing in creative ways. Chanting repetition (or even to music), associating an image with the subjects, etc. Visually, verbs can be presented in distinctive ways. (see example)

17. Samples/ideas Yo hablo Tú hablas El habla Ella habla Ud habla Nosotros hablamos Ellos hablan Ellas hablan Uds hablan

18. What can we do to help? Presentations: Allow students to have picture based note sheets, so that you are assessing them on their ability to produce the language, not memorize a speech under pressure. Use PowerPoint for presentation of new information. It has a neater appearance and allows student to revisit the material, exactly as it was presented. It also allows for listening only, for students who struggle with multi-tasking. (no need to take notes) and means you can re-use the presentation for review.

19. What can we do to help? (2) Test preparation: We can help them learn “how to study”. Passive studying is not successful for most non traditional students. They need to study in conjunction with how they learn… See “pp flashcards” document Color/gender coded flashcards for noun vocabulary (see “gender friendly notecard example”)

20. Gender friendly flashcards (1) La mesa

21. Gender friendly flashcards (2) El televisor

22. What can we do to help? (3) Other suggestions or thoughts?

23. Questions? Discussion… Any questions? Feel free to contact me at lbooth@howardcc.edu with any questions.lbooth@howardcc.edu

24. Sources http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsycholog y/a/left-brain-right-brain.htm http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsycholog y/a/left-brain-right-brain.htm