Chapter 5: Multiple Intelligences Theory to Practice in Third Grade: Call All Children to Learn

Third-grade teacher, Kristine Mains, believes that children learn by “building upon their talents, relating to one another, and reflecting upon their own learning.” Elementary teachers have the responsibility and opportunity to help children recognize their academic strengths. In powerful social studies instruction (Brophy & Alleman, 2006), aligned with national, state, and local standards, teaching and learning is a creative, thought-provoking process by which students explore new content in multiple ways. Students can have opportunities to bridge new information to existing networks of knowledge and multiple options to make their knowledge visible. In such a classroom, the idea of multiple intelligences allows students to become co-constructors of learning. Kristine Mains considers her teaching to be multiple intelligence-based. For her, testing and assessment matter as indicators of success; however, testing provides a minimum baseline for understanding individual students’ knowledge. Kristine encourages students to demonstrate what they know in multifaceted ways. Her approach to teaching enables powerful social studies instruction that is student-centered and engaging for teacher and student alike.