This week students in stage 4 (years 7 and 8) started their English and History project on our ‘neighbours’ China. For English they have read the book Mao’s Last Dancer and our History focus will be Ancient China. For this project students will be completing a variety of tasks using a Pirozzo grid. What is a Pirozzo grid? Well, it’s a teaching tool which combines Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences with Bloom’s Taxonomy – a classification of educational goals. Using the grid students complete tasks which play to their strengths and increase in complexity and difficulty. As an example, many of our students are kinaesthetic learners, they like ‘hands on’ activities, drawing, cutting, pasting and building. The Pirozzo grid allows them to complete a number of hands on tasks which are achievable to begin with and then become more complex. The first task may ask them to create a mind map, whereas the last task may ask them to compare and contrast the novel and Ancient China all in hands on forms.
The great thing about Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence is that students are made aware of ‘how’ they are smart – they may be smart verbally, musically, kinaesthetically or even mathematically. It also allows teachers to design tasks which play to the students strengths. There is no point asking a verbally smart student to draw a picture because you are setting them up to struggle and be disappointed, let them write a short story or descriptive paragraph.
It is not only students who benefit from knowing their intelligence, it can be beneficial to adults as well. Ever wondered why sitting at a desk pushing paper is so painful? Maybe you too are a kinaesthetic intelligence and need to be moving around completing hands on activities to stay engaged. The link below will take you to a short quiz where you can find out your own intelligence and maybe apply this in your daily life.
http://www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html
Over the coming weeks I will talk about further ways to engage our hands on learners.
Bec
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