Transcript Making the Most of Multiple Intelligence: Humor in Higher

The Use of Multiple Intelligence, Humor,
and Technology in the College
Composition Classroom: A Practical
Approach
Katerina Andrioti, Ph.D.
Dean of Arts and Sciences
St. Joseph’s College, New York
Why Multiple Intelligence?
The “One-Size-Fits-All” ideal is outdated and
does not apply to our students anymore.
According to Walter McKenzie, in fact,
students’ orientation to learning required
tools that were not available.
In other words, “if the only tool you have is
a hammer, everything around you looks
like a nail. . . .”
W. McKenzie
Why Social Media?
• “Social Media is the
collection of tools and
online spaces available
to help individuals to
accelerate their
information and
communication needs.”
Axel Schultze
Why Humor?
Why Not?
Multiple Intelligence Theory
Howard Gardner:
Co-director of Project Zero
and Professor of
Education at Harvard
University.
 Redefined intelligence
from a single quantifiable
entity that is registered on
a standardized test to a full
spectrum of intelligences
that are combined and
used in highly personal
ways.
How Can I Apply MI Theory to
Help Students Learn Better?
According to Howard
Gardner, learning is both
a social and
psychological process.
When students
understand the balance
of their own multiple
intelligences, they begin
To manage their own
learning.
To value their individual
strengths.
Today’s Students—Digital Natives
⏏ Consumer experience drives expectations (MI and Social
Media)
Desktop to mobile computing
Web sites to web experiences
Solitary games to participant/group play
Static web content to real-time interaction and collaboration
Telephones to integrated mobile information
Email to instant video, voice and text messaging
Multiple Intelligence Theory
 Gardner’s multiple
intelligences theory
challenges us to look beyond
our available technologies
because in the information
age, we have technologies
evolving that hold new
promise to reach all learners.
(2002) (Do not teach
information; teach people)
Including Social Media in Course
Development
✔Blogging a contraction for the term “web logging” is best described as a form of
micro-publishing on the internet.
Wikis are websites that allow the users to add, remove, edit
and change available content. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki
an effective tool for collaborative writing and revising.
✔FaceBook and similar social networking sites are designed to connect users.
Facebook is the leading social networking site for college students. In this platform,
users are able to create profiles that include everything from their basic information,
to their interests, affiliations, photographs, and video.
✔Second Life is a Linden Lab creation: a revolutionary new form of shared experience,
which is a 3D virtual world created solely by the users or residents.
Multiple Intelligence Theory
Absorbing course
material can be
different and unique
for students.
Multiple Intelligence Theory
How are we smart?
Linguistic Intelligence
 How can I use the spoken and
written word?
(Desktop & Web-based publishing,
PowerPoint presentations,
sentence & essay writing, poetry
& story writing, lecture, dice
games, discussion letters,
dialogue, plays, email)
Multiple Intelligence Theory
Spatial Intelligence
How can I use visual aids,
visualization, color, art, or
metaphor?
(Graphic images,
PowerPoint presentations,
student presentations,
charting, graphing, utilizing
online platforms and editors,
prepared or created
images, digital animation)
Multiple Intelligence Theory
Bodily/Kinesthetic
 How can I involve the whole
body or hands-on experience?
(Use of tactile materials, group
work, presentations,
diagramming, videoconferencing,
sorting various materials by
attributes, participating in virtual
group simulations)
Multiple Intelligence Theory
Logical/Mathematical
Intelligence
How can I bring in
numbers, calculations,
logic, classifications or
critical thinking skills?
(Sorting sentences &
essays, PowerPoint
presentations, group
work, Venn Diagram
sorting, analyzing data,
use search engines to run
queries, & various online
platforms to problem solve)
Look like your Dog Contest
Multiple Intelligence Theory
Musical Intelligence
 How can I bring in music,
environmental sounds, and set key
points in a rhythmic or melodic
framework?
(Incorporate digital sounds into
PowerPoint & multimedia
presentations, group work, rap,
chant, song, poetry)
Multiple Intelligence Theory
Interpersonal Intelligence
How can I engage
students in discussion,
cooperative learning, or
large group simulation?
(Small & large group work,
synchronous--chat-rooms
or asynchronous--email,
discussion boards, dice
game, dialogue, role
playing & various
collaborative projects)
Multiple Intelligence Theory
Intrapersonal Intelligence
How can I evoke personal
feelings or memories, or give
students choices?
(Narrative essays, letters,
answers to guided questions
posted on the discussion
section of Blackboard)
Multiple Intelligence Theory
Naturalist Intelligence
How can I appeal to
the students’ love and
understanding of
nature?
(Group work,
organizing & making
sense of information,
through creation of
databases or semantic
mapping)
Multiple Intelligence Theory
 How do I appeal to the
students’ ability to
conceptualize and
philosophize deeper
questions regarding
human existence?
(Virtual communities,
Virtual art exhibits &
Virtual field trips)
Multiple Intelligences Matter
According to Gardner, addressing all
intelligences in the classroom is
paramount for the success of all students.
Variation of subject content may result in
higher levels of student achievement and
success.
Variation in assessing student knowledge
must be part of lesson-plan and
implementation.
Funny? Who? Me?
• Not necessary to
Dress up in costumes:
– Humor is not taking
more time to prep your
classes
– Humor is not becoming
a stand-up comedian
– Humor is not drastically
changing the way you’re
doing things in your
classroom
How Do I use Humor in the
Classroom?
• Create a positive atmosphere where
students are not afraid to make mistakes.
• Encourage them to bring jokes and
cartoons, do the same, share with the
class before you begin.
• Every week bring a different pointer for
your board or PowerPoint presentations.
(Golf clubs, fishing rods, pool cues,
kitchen utensils, makeup brushes, etc.)
• Include a trivia question half way into a
quiz or a text.
Why Use Humor
• Employing a sense of humor can lower
blood pressure, improve blood circulation
and energy and help alleviate job stress
and burnout.
• Using humor in the classroom can
increase the students’ attention span.
• Humor can diminish anxiety and reduce
the threatening nature of the course by
changing the tone of the instructional
process.
• Your students may even arrive to your
classroom earlier than usual.
ENGLISH: COLLEGE
COMPOSITION
Dr. Andrioti’s Rules
1. Don't abbrev.
2. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
3. Don’t use question marks inappropriately?
4. Excessive use of exclamation points can be disastrous!!!!!!!!!
5. Never use that totally cool, radically groovy, out-of-date slang.
6. Profanity sucks.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.
9 Don’t repeat youself, or say again what you have said before.
10. Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use
them.
11. Note: People just can't stomach too much use of the colon.
12. About sentence fragments.
13. Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.
14. Just between you and I, case is important.
15. Don't use commas, that aren't necessary.
More Rules
16. Only Proper Nouns should be capitalized. also a sentence
should.
17. begin with a capital and end with a period
18. In letters compositions reports and things like that we use
commas to keep a string of items apart.
19. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
20. A writer mustn't shift your point of view.
21. Don't write a run-on sentence you've got to punctuate it.
22. A preposition isn't a good thing to end a sentence with.
23. Avoid cliches like the plague.
24. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
25. Its important to use apostrophe's right.
26. It's better not to unnecessarily split an infinitive.
27. Don't use no double negatives.
VARIOUS APPLICATIONS OF MI
Dice game:
 Role the dice.
 Use punctuation marks, or
various terms, formulas,
concepts, etc. in a sentence
of your choosing.
 Combine group sentences to
make a story, recreate a law,
concept, formula, etc.
 Present your results to the
class.
Use the ellipsis ( . . . ) to indicate missing . . .
1. Retirement is a verb . . .
not a destination.
2. Ernest Hemingway was a
really, really, good
righter. . . . He was so
good that he won the
pull it surprise for his
book The Old Man and
the Sea.
Good teaching comes in myriad forms, but
good teachers share one trait: they are truly
present in the classroom, deeply engaged with
their students and their subject. They are able
to weave a complex web of connections among
themselves, their subjects, and their students,
so that students can learn to weave a world for
themselves. The connections made by good
teachers are held not in their methods but in
their hearts—the place where intellect and
emotion and spirit and will converge in the
human self.
Parker Palmer, 1998
[email protected]
Thank you!