3: A Multiple Intelligences Lesson

The Multiple Intelligences theory encourages teachers to accept that students have
various ways of learning and that each of these ways can be considered and incorporated
into lesson plans. In the TEFL class these ways of learning are demonstrated by students
in these ways:

* Naturalist: Student like to engage with the natural world by talking/reading about
the environment.
* Musical: Students recognise rhythm and tone well.
* Logical-mathematical: Students like to analyse structure systematically.
* Interpersonal: These students mix well with others
* Intrapersonal: These students understand themselves
* Bodily-kinaesthetic: Students need to move objects or get up for games and role-
plays.
* Linguistic: Students enjoy using and analysing words for exercises such as stories
and debates.

An Intermediate Poetry Lesson Plan

Incorporating Multiple Intelligences
This lesson lasts about an hour and shows how you can facilitate learning for students
with different intelligences using a poem.

Intelligence Handling a poem Example

Choose a poem which has Use Roald Dahl’s The Pig

a theme about the natural
http://allpoetry.com/poem/8503193-The-Pig-
world such as trees and
by-Roald_Dahl
animals.
Naturalistic
Find out about cultural and personal
perceptions of this animal from the
students. For example is it cute, dirty,
greedy or something else?
Write each line of the This poem has very long stanzas. So, let
poem on separate strips of different groups tackle different
paper and get the students stanzas.
Kinaesthetic
to put them in order using
meaning and rhymes as
clues.

1
 Students share ideas and
work collaboratively with
classmates to order the
Interpersonal poem. Read the poem
aloud for students to listen
and check.
Examine the number of
lines in each stanza and
other patterns evident in
Logical- the poem such as rhyme
mathematical schemes. Teach students
to describe the rhymes
using codes such as aaab
cccb
You read the poem aloud
while tapping its rhythm
on the desk. Read it again
Musical
and get the students to
read and tap along with
you.
Get students to find
synonyms and definitions
Linguistic
for key words in the text
Students reflect
individually on what they
think the poem means and
make notes.
Intrapersonal
Have the stanzas set out on different
tables for each group. Read the entire
poem and let the students move from
table to table to check and assist with
reordering if necessary.
Finally, give each student a copy of the
poem.
After explaining rhyme schemes, ask
students to analyse The Pig and create
a code. There are end rhymes in an
aabbccddeeffgg pattern.
There are eight syllables per line and
the rhythm hits the fourth and eighth
syllables. Get students to practise
reading a few lines each, in small
groups, focussing on the rhythm.
For example, in the first stanza, find
synonyms for plain, massive, sums and
to drive someone round the bend using
dictionaries .
Ask students to consider questions such
as:
What is the poet’s message in this
poem? Is the pig character funny or
violent, in your opinion?
Are you a vegetarian?
If people eat animals, is it fair for
animals to eat people?