The Mentor as Learner:
Lessons Learned from Howard Gardner and the TV Remote Control
Each
week, an educator takes a stand or shares an Aha! moment in the classroom in Education World's Voice of Experience
column. This week, educator Max Fischer's first days in a middle school classroom -- after years at the elementary
level -- were eye-openers. Would he ever be able to reach the students whose "deadpan stares, wet-noodle postures,
and other lethargic body language screamed 'Go ahead, make me learn! I dare you!'"? Included:
How Howard Gardner and thoughts of the TV remote control saved the day!
Max W. Fischer
After 20 years as a self-contained elementary classroom teacher, my initial weeks as a junior-high American history
instructor were real eye-openers. Perhaps I had been wrong; maybe I had overestimated the dread of stagnation within
my previous position. Unlike the enthusiastic fifth and sixth graders I had been so accustomed to teaching, I was
confronted with deadpan stares, wet-noodle postures, and other lethargic body language that just screamed “Go ahead,
make me learn! I dare you!” It was as if I was the last act at a B-grade improv during a blizzard. The silence was
deafening.
HOWARD GARDNER TO THE RESCUE
A catharsis of sorts lay in the works of Howard Gardner. I had been exposed several years earlier to his theory
of multiple intelligences. I would discover within Gardner’s theory a key to unlock the potential of the motivationally
impaired early adolescent.
Care to reflect on a classroom experience that opened your eyes? Click here
to learn more.
Education, as an institution, usually fights tooth and nail to oppose change. The concept that each person has as
many as nine intelligences -- linguistic, mathematical/logical, visual/spatial, musical, kinesthetic, emotional, natural,
interpersonal, and intrapersonal -- seems diametrically opposed to the time-honored teaching styles in which linguistic
and mathematical intelligences dominate. Surely, words and numbers must be an integral part of any form of thorough
education. It is, however, the near exclusive use of those two identified forms of intelligence that drive so many
students into catatonic stupors by seventh or eighth grade.
If Gardner’s ideas were the treatment for my mid-career challenge, education consultant Roger Taylor was the administering
physician. I have attended four of Taylor’s workshops since my transition out of a self-contained classroom in 1994.
I openly confess that I could never duplicate what he does in developing 15 or more strands of higher order thinking
skills (the HOTS, as Taylor refers to them) for almost any concept, but Taylor convinced me that the melding of content
and critical thinking is the optimum teaching approach.
MULTIPLE "CHANGE-UPS" A PART OF EACH LESSON
I, like many veteran middle school teachers, have found that supplying multiple “change-ups” within a 45-minute
class period can keep students involved, even motivated. Molding those change-ups around three or four intelligences
interwoven with auditory, visual, and tactile learning styles ensures that each child gets an opportunity to shine
in some aspect of my class.
As a social studies instructor with heterogeneous classes, I realize I must present reading comprehension lessons
in the guise of covering content. Yet, I will not allow reading comprehension, by itself, to become the ball and chain
that stifles interest in my instruction for most of my pupils. Employing a rock song, the lyrics of which tie into
an historical event or concept that I’m teaching; viewing a movie snippet that accomplishes a similar goal; using
a simulation or role-play to get students emotionally involved in a lesson; having students predict outcomes from
a photographic image; having students march as if they are part of an ancient Greek phalanx... Those are the ways
to reach virtually all students on a most regular basis and keep them tuned in to what I’m trying to teach.
Using varied approaches also presents a natural form of differentiation in instruction. While more limited students
benefit from those activities that will help them understand the reading, advanced learners are attracted to the variety,
the change of style, and pace that accompanies each lesson. Working in cooperative groups provides additional assistance
for the slower students while it offers opportunities for high-ability pupils to lead and to express critical thought.
THE VARIETY SHOW
I’ve read that television variety shows have become obsolete due to the remote control and the availability of hundreds
of channels. Viewers create their own variety instantaneously with the remote. We no longer live in the era of only
three or four accessible channels. As an educator, I need to realize that my students respond more favorably when
I apply more than two instructional methods.
As Gardner wrote in the book Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (Bantam Books, 1997), “There are hundreds
and hundreds of ways to succeed and many, many different abilities that will help you get there.” I must remind myself
frequently of the fact that there are multiple channels of instruction that will turn on my students’ cerebral remotes.
A teacher for nearly three decades, Max Fischer currently teaches seventh graders the marvels of ancient history.
A National Board certified teacher in the area of early adolescence social studies/history, Max has authored nine
resource books for teachers in the fields of social studies, health, and math. You can read a previously published
article about Fischer: Simulations Engage Students in Active Learning.
Each
week, an educator takes a stand or shares an Aha! moment in the classroom in Education World's Voice of Experience
column. This week, educator Max Fischer's first days in a middle school classroom -- after years at the elementary
level -- were eye-openers. Would he ever be able to reach the students whose "deadpan stares, wet-noodle postures,
and other lethargic body language screamed 'Go ahead, make me learn! I dare you!'"? Included:
How Howard Gardner and thoughts of the TV remote control saved the day!
