The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and Writing

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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
The Conundrum of Multiple Intelligences
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Bodily/Kinesthetic
Logical/Mathematical
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Spatial/Mechanical
Intrapersonal
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?
Musical
?
Interpersonal
Thomas Armstrong
Verbal/Linguistic
Naturalist
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
The Conundrum of Multiple Intelligences
Bodily/Kinesthetic
Logical/Mathematical
Spatial/Mechanical
Verbal/Linguistic
Intrapersonal
Musical
Interpersonal
Thomas Armstrong
Naturalist
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 6-7
Introduction
Whether we like it or not, one of the best
things that we as educators can do to help our
students achieve success in this culture is to
assist them in becoming as fully literate as
possible What we really need are not reasons or
excuses for why so many children and adults are
not literate, but rather positive solutions for
helping empower everyone with the skills of
literacy I advocate an approach to literacy
based on the belief that there is no one best way
to teach reading and writing skills, in part
because each person is so differently organized
neurologically, and that the best attitude to
adopt in any literacy program is a
multiple-solution focus reading and writing are
not simply linguistic acts they involve all of
the intelligences, and many more areas of the
brain are involved in literacy acquisition than
has previously been assumed by educators working
in the field. We have limited ourselves too much
in the past even in the field of MI theory by
considering too narrow a range of interventions,
and ignoring many other strategies that are
available for helping children and adults acquire
literacy skills.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 7, 21
Introduction
Literacy emerged out of our oral language
capacities (verbal/linguistic intelligence), our
logical capabilities (logical/mathematical
intelligence), our physical movement
(bodily/kinesthetic intelligence), our
image-making abilities (spatial/mechanical
intelligence), our musical proclivities (musical
intelligence), our emotional life (intrapersonal
intelligence), our attempts to decipher and
control nature (naturalist intelligence), and our
impulse to connect meaningfully with others
(interpersonal intelligence) A revolution of
sorts is required in the way that we think about
reading and writing, so that more of the brains
power may be brought to bear upon the acquisition
of these valued skills. The biggest question is
whether we as educators are going to teach
literacy skills in such a way that the words lie
dead there on the page for so many students, or,
conversely, whether were going to take positive
steps toward the ultimate goal of making the
words come alive for all students.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 10-11
1.The Blind Educators and the Literacy Lion
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 10-11
1 The Blind Educators and the Literacy Lion
This beast is made up of whole words! Yes, all
sorts of words, like the and captain and sure and
poultry and wizard and tens of thousands more.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 10-11
1.The Blind Educators and the Literacy Lion
This animal isnt made up of whole words! It is
made up of sounds! Sounds like thhh and buh
and ahhhh and ayyyy and juh and many more.
In fact, I counted all the sounds, and there are
exactly 44!
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 10-11
1.The Blind Educators and the Literacy Lion
This creature isnt made of sounds or whole
words. Its constructed out of stories, and
fables, and songs, and chants, and poems, and
storybooks, and Big Books, and board books, and
novels, and plays, and whole libraries full of
living, exciting tales, and lots more besides!
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 10-11
1.The Blind Educators and the Literacy Lion
Theyre all wrong! This beast is made up of
whole cultures, and people crying out for freedom
and power, and its about understanding who we
are and what were capable of, and how each of us
can speak, and read, and write with our own
voices, and in this way contribute to the good of
all.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 32-34
2.Coming to Grips with the Muscularity of
Words(Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence)
Ive often suggested to educators that if, after
reading a story, teachers would simply have
students quickly role-play the material that they
have just read, reading comprehension levels
would increase rapidly for many students,
particularly for many of those students who have
been labeled as having attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or learning
disability. What were asking students to do is
think through material in the text through their
bodies, instead of simply requiring them to sit
still at their desks and do all the thinking
invisibly. Tel them that in addition to having a
physical body, they also have an imaginary
kinesthetic body. After reading a text, have
students experience the action of the text (if it
is a narrative) by closing their eyes and
imagining themselves in the story.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 49
3.Seeing the Visual Basis of Literacy(Spatial/M
echanical Intelligence)
Perhaps the simplest activity and one that I
believe would make a big difference in the
reading comprehension rates of students,
especially for those with good imaginations
would be to ask students anytime they have read a
body of text to close their eyes for a minute or
two and picture what theyve just read. To go
one step further, students might be asked to draw
their images of what theyve just read, making
quick one- to three-minute sketches or creating
longer art projects. Another approach to
employing visual imagery in reading involves the
use of guided imagery to help students into the
text.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 55, 57
4.Grooving with the Rhythms of
Language(Musical Intelligence)
Notice how, this sentence is particularly
difficult to, read because, I have put in,
punctuation, marks that, disturb the, basic, flow
of what I am, trying to, say. Whereas, when I
place the punctuation marks appropriately, my
ability to communicate effectively with you
becomes much smoother. This little experiment
provides a small indication of the huge
importance that rhythm, meter, and music have in
language and literacy The rhythms of music stir
words to life in our great orators (remember
Martin Luther King Jr.s historic I Have a
Dream speech)
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 63
4.Grooving with the Rhythms of
Language(Musical Intelligence)
There is the sense in education that music is a
frill and that, aside from small doses of it in
cute little songs and rhymes, formal reading
programs are much too serious to be bothered by
this kind of creative nonsense. And yet, for the
highly musical individual who struggles with
reading using traditional methods, such a program
might well be the key that gives them access to
the world of literacy. Look for environmental
sounds in texts, such as rain falling, the wind
blowing against the trees, or the sounds of an
avalanche. Have students keep a journal of
sounds and rhythms they hear in their everyday
world.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 68, 75, 80
5.Calculating the Logic of Words(Logical/Mathem
atical Intelligence)
(The logic or illogic of letters, sounds and
words.) There are more than 1,100 ways that
letters in English can be used to symbolize the
44 sounds in the spoken language. This diversity
gives rise to sentences that would baffle just
about anyone trying to learn the code. Some
examples The bandage was wound around the
wound. The farm was used to produce produce.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the
desert. In a classroom, students who have
logical proclivities may be interested in
thinking about and creating both logical and
illogical sentences. Ask students to share the
problem-solving process they go through when
reading something that they dont initially
understand. Encourage them to articulate what
questions, ideas or strategies work best for them.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 82,
6.Feeling the Emotional Power of
Text(Intrapersonal Intelligence)
I have to chuckle a little when I hear educators
and researchers discuss reading and writing as if
they were exact sciences I suspect that for most
of us, our early memories of literacy acquisition
were probably not scientifically neutral
experiences Instead, Ill bet these memories
were something far more luminous, set in a
complex web of emotions sitting in the arms of a
loved one reading a book together, angrily
attempting to write some words after a real or
imagined slight, writing a love note to a secret
admirer, listening to a fairy tale before
drifting off into dreamland. (Quote by 1971 Noble
Prize winner in Literature Pablo Neruda p. 82)
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 91-92
6.Feeling the Emotional Power of
Text(Intrapersonal Intelligence)
What are we doing in our literacy programs,
reading classes, and literature courses to help
students feel deeply what they read? We need to
remember that while illiteracy is a terrible
plague on society, so is aliteracy, a term I like
to use to describe people who are able to read,
but choose not to do so. Too many people are
turned off by text because they feel there is
nothing in the words that speaks to their lives,
their concerns, their hopes and dreams. Select
materials for reading that has been passionately
written. Avoid textbook materials that have been
written by committees or with a school culture
voice.(share from Beyond the Aspen Grove by Anne
H. Zwinger p. 278) In writing activities, help
students move beyond the superficial mechanics of
writing to focus on what real writers care about
telling a moving story in the most compelling way
possible
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 99
7.Relating to the Social Context of
Literacy(Interpersonal Intelligence)
(The Power of Words) An 8 year old writes the
words Go Away! on a piece of paper and tacks
it to his bedroom door, and suddenly he shapes
the social world around him in a tangible way
A 6th grader writes an essay on environmental
waste that helps to create a recycling program
for her school A teenager writes a passionate
love letter to a girl he just met and discovers
to his joy that it serves to transform an
accidental meeting into a significant romantic
relationship. An adult writes an article for a
local newspaper on recent layoffs in his
community and generates a political action group
from among several of its unemployed readers.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 99-100
7.Relating to the Social Context of
Literacy(Interpersonal Intelligence)
(The Impotence of Words) The infant may up
until she is blue in the face, and no one may
come. The school child may write the
environmental essay, only to have it filled with
red pencil marks and given a D for poor
penmanship. The teenager may strike out with both
the letter and the girl. The adult may find his
submission to periodicals met with rejection at
every turn. No mini-revolution, no big or small
social reforms to create, no cultural
transformations to effect but rather serve only
the narrowest social goal of doing what the
teacher wants me to do. When students feel
their words are written only to be graded and
then tossed into the wastepaper basket, then
clearly they are being indoctrinated into the
social impotence of words.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 111, 115
8.Speaking out About the Oral Basis of Reading
and Writing(Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence)
Even people who may not be able to read or write
a single word have the ability to speak thousands
of different words and know what they mean. They
can orally construct complex sentences with
elaborate syntax and intricate meaningsOral
language has had an enormous head start over
written language in evolution and history Prior
knowledge of words and their meanings a good
oral vocabulary is a very useful prerequisites
to launching into the experience of reading and
writing. Consequently, any program that provides
students with plenty of exposure to spoken words
through discussions, conversations, dialogues,
lectures, storytelling, and plays, as well as
through having books read to them on a regular
basis, will help create a strong foundation for
literacy acquisition.
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 123-124
9.Opening the Book of Nature(Naturalist
Intelligence)
Words and literacy have a central relationship
to the natural world for example, humans were
pre-adapted neurologically for reading through,
among other things, the ancient skill of animal
tracking, which could be considered the reading
of hoof and paw prints. In ancient Egypt, the
need the to control the flooding Nile using vast
irrigation systems, led to more complex social
organizations and the need to develop a system of
writing to handle the increased workload. A
young child is alive with the rhythms and
sensations of nature she revels in watching a
bird fly, smelling a flower, feeling the wind
against her face, observing a squirrel eating a
nut. These experiences captivate the child in a
way that words, lying lifeless on a page, simply
cannot. However, as a child is introduced to
printed words and discovers the mysteries they
can reveal about the world around her, they too
become imbued with a kind of magical natural
quality
Thomas Armstrong
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The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and
WritingMaking the Words Come Alive
Page 127, 132
9.Opening the Book of Nature(Naturalist
Intelligence)
As they walk, students may be asked to name the
many natural things they see Once back in the
classroom, each student might assemble (these
words) into a story or poem. In a nature-focused
literacy program, many students first words
might consist of onomatopoetic words based in
nature, such as buzz, splash and murmur. Sitting
in a chair at a table or desk in a classroom with
fluorescent lighting and no windows is certainly
one of the worst places for highly naturalistic
students to do their reading and writingHave
students go to a specific place in nature
(preferably of their choosing) for 5 to 10
minutes a day for a week or longer and read or
write down their observations in a notebook.
Thomas Armstrong