I conducted an interview with two 6th grade students about the Making
Connections lesson that I taught and had them chose from Gardner’s Multiple
Intelligences to select how they best learned. Student 1 was a struggling
student and Student 2 was a successful student in the class that I taught.
Student 1 said that he did learn a little more about how to
make text-text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections because of
the Making Connections brochure that we constructed in class. He said it would
have been more helpful if they would have used the Making Connections brochure
with other stories to practice making connections, so that he could understand
the concept better.
I also asked the students to pick out which of Gardener’s
Multiple Intelligences best fit them. Student 1 said that he was a
Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, and Naturalistic learner; and that I did use
Bodily-Kinesthetic and Interpersonal intelligences in the Making Connections
lesson. He wished that more of the lessons and activities that were taught in
school were created for Bodily-Kinesthetic learners.
Student 2 told me that this lesson was very beneficial to
her because she had concrete questions to refer to when making text
connections. She said that she needs more practice making text-to-self
connections because she may not have life experiences that she can use to
relate to the text. Just as
Student 1 said, she said that if they could use the brochure with other stories
to make connections, that would better help her understand the concept of
making connections.
She concluded that she was a Spatial, Naturalistic,
Math/Logical, and Intrapersonal learner from Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences.
She liked that I targeted Spatial and Intrapersonal learners for this lesson
because she is a visual learner and also likes doing assignments by herself
because she is the one who works the most in a group. She wishes that teachers
taught lessons and activities that were Naturalistic, Bodily Kinesthetic, and
Logical/Mathematical because they do a lot of paper work for schoolwork.
