Introduction

How many times have you had students in class who did not seem to be focusing or following your lecture, but who are wizards in the lab, or who are very involved in lectures but have difficulty with writing assignments?  You meet with the students to discuss their effort and participation and they assure you they are trying their best. You suspect they have given up and are not really trying,  you hope this is not true, but you do not know what is wrong.  How can you help these students?

Howard Gardner has developed a theory that explores the idea that people have different abilities, and learn using different intelligences.  Other educators have developed ideas that people  learn and process information in different ways.  How will these theories help you improve your students' academic performances?  How will they help improve their job performances?  How will they help them get a raise, or a promotion?

During this quest, your students will learn about Howard Gardner's theory of Multilple Intelligences, identify their learning style and the way they process information.  They will be able to identify their own styles, identify the styles of others, and be able to advocate for their learning needs to teachers, peers and supervisors.

The scenario for this quest is:
You are a student in Mr. Miami's class.  You are frustrated because you do well during the labs, but cannot stay focused during his lectures.  You also notice that your friend is always raising her hand during the lectures, but has a hard time following the lab procedures.  You are both concerned and wonder why this is happening. Your task is to investigate current theories in learning and multiple intelligences, develop a personal profile using these theories and describe them to a peer and a teacher.

This webquest will address the following standards from the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks
 

Massachusetts Curriculum Health Frameworks	Teach about and model healthful behaviors to peers and other students.
Massachusetts Curriculum Health Frameworks	Identify and implement strategies to improve social environments.
Massachusetts Curriculum English Frameworks	Analyze difficult relationship situations identifying ways to improve communication and to offer or obtain help.
Massachusetts Curriculum English Frameworks	Deliver formal oral presentations using clear enunciation, gestures, tone, vocabulary, and organization appropriate for a particular audience.
Massachusetts Curriculum English Frameworks	Make oral presentations that demonstrate appropriate consideration of audience, purpose, and the information to be conveyed.
Massachusetts Curriculum English Frameworks	Drawing on one of the widely-used professional evaluation forms for group discussion, evaluate how well students and others engage in group discussions at a local discussion.

The students will be able to explain their learning style profiles to their peers.
The students will be able to explain how they will utilize the theory in their lives and advocate for their learning needs to a teacher, supervisor, or significant adult.

My class is a resource room for students with learning disabilities.  For this WebQuest, the students will work independently, over several days, weeks, or depending on the student, completing the tasks over a semester or school year.

Each student will develop a personal definition of intelligence giving examples. Then the student will research the definition on the web and write a composition which compares and contrasts the two.

Students will read an interview with Howard Gardner, and write an essay in response to that interview.

They will take surveys on learning styles, multiple intelligences and right/left brain preferences.

Using the information about learning styles and multiple intelligences which they have found, they will prepare a project which demonstrates their knowledge of the theories and how it applies to them.  The project choices may include make a poster, write a song, or a presentation to be determined by student with consultation with teacher which explains the results of these surveys.

The students will explain their learning style profile to a peer.

The students  will explain how theh will utilize the theory in their lives and advocate for their learning needs to a teacher, supervisor, or significant adult.

• Internet access using websites documented on the student page

http://www.newhorizons.org/trm_duriemi.html Read an interview with Howard Gardner where he discusses his theory of multiple intelligences

http://edweb.cnidr.org/edref.mi.gardner.html
Multiple Intelligence    Definitions of types of intelligences and information about Howard Gardner

 http://www.ed.psu.edu/insys/ESD/Gardner/vidmenu.html Video clips and transcripts of interviews with Howard Gardner

http://www.mtsu.edu/~devstud/advisor/learn.html  Left Brain/Right Brain Survey

http://edweb.gsn.org/edref.mi.th.html Descriptions of intelligences, definition of intelligence

http://www.athena.ivv.nasa.gov/curric/weather/adptcty/multint.html
Good descriptions of Multiple Intelligences.

http://www.aenc.org/KE-Intelligences.html
More definitions and descriptions including a wheel graphic of multipleintelligences

http://www.chaminade.org/inspire/learnstl.htm
Determine your Learning Style, chart describes activities and preferences.
 

http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/lernsty2.htm
Interpretation of Learning Style Survey

http://ss.uno.edu/SS/Theory/learn.htm
Descriptions of Brain Based Learning, Right Brain/Left Brain profiles and Includes information about  other theories of learning.

http://scbe.on.ca/mit/mi.htm
Multiple Intelligence Theory: Multiple Intelligence Home Page includes characteristics, definitions, benefits and classroom strategies

http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/lernsty2.htm
This site has a Learning Styles survey.

www_wordsmyth_net.html

• Wordsmyth is a good place to look up definitions.

• Human resources needed: Teacher/aide to monitor computer use.

Learner's skills: Internet use, ability to access websites

Teacher's Skills:  Internet use, ability to access websites

The students will explain how they will utilize the theory in their lives and advocate for their learning needs to a teacher, supervisor, or significant adult.  Click here to view the student rubric.

The students may use this as part of a Life/Health class.

Students can proceed to apply this knowledge to analyze the way they study and the effectiveness of their study habits when taking into account their personal preferences for learning.