EDIM 508 Unit 3 Summary Posting Information Overload:

The Need for the Synthesizing Mind

Ive enjoyed reading your discussions this week. I hope that the readings have better opened your mind to
understanding the synthesizing mind and the technological tools and strategies that can be used to foster this
mind. Id like to highlight some thoughts from this weeks discussion.

Amber- I believe ultimately this challenge can best be tackled by doing

exactly what Gardner outlines and combining multiple disciplines to come up with the best
way to evaluate their students. I also feel that we may need to look at evaluating
effectiveness on a student by student basis even if this may mean more work for us, because
just like we differentiate our instruction according to students' needs we also need to look
into differentiating their assessments now as well.

Amy- Many times I find out more from listening to students synthesis the
lesson in their own voice and thinking. Understanding true synthesis in a debrief will take high level, intentional
questioning but not impossible. Just wondering if you felt assessment of synthesis could be structured in smaller
nuggets (debrief) in addition to larger assessment methods like PBL.

Arielle- At times, I feel that some teachers are stuck on one method and their students must learn
that one method or none at all. I think it is important to encourage students to find different ways to solve
problem. All people think differently and I think students should be taught that. I think math is one of the biggest
subjects to encourage different methods. I try and teach my students a variety of ways to solve one problem. I do
this because I want to reach all learners.

Carrie- Thinking about what I already do in my class and connecting it to Howard Gardner's
ideas of creating a synthesizing mind made it more clear. I allow for all the different minds to create different
ways to the same solution. I actually do a neat problem solving technique where the kids sit in groups of four
and they each have a section of a piece of poster paper. I present them with an open-ended question and given
their own space they formulate the answer. After they are all done, they share with each other and then pick
just one of the ways to the solution to place in the middle of the poster. In doing this, they get a chance to look
at different ways to solve the problem and they get to share with their classmates.

Christopher- I read an article this morning on Mind/Shift and in it Dr. John Abbott says, "Any kid
can read a textbook they dont need a teacher standing over them telling them to do so...they need teachers
to inspire them to think about things in a much bigger way than theyve done before. (Vangelova, 2014) When
it comes to synthesis, our kids need to receive information that can help them make sense of the world around
them. Every kid is born to learn, we just need to guide them on their journeys.

Courtney- I think that it is important for kids to be hands on, and shows a
connection between content areas, which is why project based learning is beneficial. I
also think that differentiation is key because not all children learn the same, or are at the
same level. Each child has different needs which should be accounted for. However, we
all know that time is valuable and we do not have time to design 16 different exams for
each subject. It's just not reasonable.

Hilary- Gardener's statement about celebrating connections made by young

students also stood out to me, as well as your statement about providing students with more opportunities to
make connections on their own. In the classroom I often know some of the connections I want students to make
regarding our content, but my favorite moments are when "their light bulbs turn on" and they are sharing
connections they make to their own experiences or content they have learned in another class. Celebrating
student's connections and allowing them to explore and represent their connections in unique ways would help
to promote synthesizing in and across classrooms.

Jacob- I call this "chunking" and as a special education teacher, I did this a lot. If I present too
much material to my students at once, I will lose them. They will become overwhelmed, confused, and lose
focus on my lesson. And then frustration will result both on their end and mine. I make it a point to teach
material in smaller parts so that not only is it easier to learn, but they are able to take ownership of their
learning at a steadier pace. This makes them feel successful and it's more of a win-win situation.

Megan- Students need to be provided with a reference to follow when developing their solutions.
Rubrics are a great way to provide students with this criteria, but I never thought about the importance of
developing different rubrics to accommodate for the different ways students synthesize. However, now looking
back upon this idea it makes sense, because every student is different from the way they gain knowledge and
how they put the information together or synthesize.

Natalie- To help students with they synthesis part regarding research

sources, I actually made my own search engine which only makes reference to a
handful of websites. This helps make sure the resources used are scholarly or at
least maintained and respected. Nevertheless, when students research various
questions to which they must know, they need to be able to sift through the handful
of sources to find not only correct information, but reconcile which information is
accurate if any conflicts arise. Additionally, I ask some relatively open ended
questions which require a little synthesis which can be observed during the
presentation.

Rebecca- So much of whats important in the development of a

synthesizing mind, according to Gardner, is anticipating the method/approach to
which this thought process is taking place. I think one way we can boost the
accessibility of recognizing this in the classroom is to provide ample experiences
from which students learn content in different contexts, and to do it often. As I read
this chapter, my mind went back to a Project Based Learning class I took last
spring. One of the key components in a successful PBL experience was a well thought/engaging driving
question, and the availability of a variety of resources and means through which students research, explore,
and create their own learning. I believe that by setting up a PBL atmosphere, we as educators could really
grow the synthesizing minds in our classrooms.

Samantha- Teachers need to incorporate instruction about different forms of synthesis into their
lessons, and they need to encourage students to generate several representations of the same idea or concept, in
order to foster the synthesizing mind. Gardner mentions that students benefit from exposure to different
solutions, different methods of arriving at solutions, and different rubrics for evaluation of those solutions
(page 69). The idea of using different rubrics for evaluating student solutions is one that I had not considered
before, but makes sense given that not all students may synthesize information in the same way.

Sarah- In my opinion, the goal of developing the synthesizing mind is develop a deeper, more
meaningful understanding of what is taught and presented. Students are able to connect information to other
areas of school or even perhaps their lives. Last week we discussed through our posts about teaching for
mastery when helping to develop a disciplined mind, and I think that has a lot to be said for developing the
synthesizing mind as well. The more we teach our students to connect and interweave information taught and
learned, the more solidarity will be shown when applying the knowledge elsewhere.

Tiffane- I do agree that the most challenging part of developing this synthesizing mind would be
determining the effectiveness all around, or determining how and what type of data we can collect to determine
this. I believe ultimately this challenge can best be tackled by doing exactly what Gardner outlines and
combining multiple disciplines to come up with the best way to evaluate their students. I also feel that we may
need to look at evaluating effectiveness on a student by student basis even if this may mean more work for us,
because just like we differentiate our instruction according to students' needs we also need to look into
differentiating their assessments now as well.