It was an 8th grade English class, but the day's lesson was not on literature. The class took a multiple intelligence quiz to help pinpoint their learning styles.
In case you're not familiar, there are 8 types, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Most of us have more than one dominant type. While most of you have probably heard of some of this before, these students were largely new to the concept. So, after they took the quiz, we discussed various aspects of each type.
We got to intrapersonal. As with all of them, I had one student read the description...
"Oh, these are the freaks."
The girl who said this had been difficult all period. She was roaming the room at the tardy bell, and seemed oblivious to my attempts to get her to participate in the class.
Me: "So, I'm a freak? Gee, thanks."
She at least had the decency to act chagrined. Not that she tried to backtrack the statement or anything.
Sigh.
Not that I know I'm intrapersonal. It's not usually what pops up when I take these things (and I didn't take this one as I was busy taking care of the class), but there are some aspects that I identify with. I identify with many aspects of most of the categories, though. And I'm sure there were some students in the class who were largely intrapersonal, so there was no way I was going to let that statement pass without challenging it.
But now I wonder what intelligence she was dominate in. Hmmm...
Edit: The links should take you to the various intelligences if you're interested in learning more about them. And I just found this self-assessment that takes 5 minutes (and rated me just about how I'd expect).
You should have posted the different types.
ReplyDeleteWow I hadn't even heard of this personality test. It came out shortly after I decided my graduate education would be library school rather than getting a masters or PhD in psychometric. Such a perfect response to a very thoughtless comment.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember having taken this quiz...maybe I need to take it now. We're always learning, right?!
ReplyDeleteWhat are the different types?
ReplyDeleteI never heard of that eight different types thing. Interesting. I wonder what type I am.
ReplyDeleteWell: I took it, and I came up 100% on Interpersonal. I don't know what they all mean. I'll have to look them up later.
ReplyDeleteInterpersonal means you're good with people. Wait a minute...
DeleteI came out on top as linguistic, which doesn't surprise me since I tend to like a lot of words and am surrounded by words all day :)
ReplyDeletebetty
I think anyone who writes a blog should have some linguistic in there somewhere.
DeleteEvery student who came through my school took (and still takes. It's not like they stopped administering the test because I stopped teaching there) a similar test. I took it once because I was curious and I was 100% Intrapersonal.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's one of the types in this quiz but I'd guess I'm kinaesthetic. I learn by doing things. I'm a hopeless auditory learner.
ReplyDeleteYes, kinesthetic is in there. Although, they seem to be more in the athletic than in the just doing, so I scored low even though I do need to do, too.
DeleteI have taken the quiz, and found that I'm 'intrapersonal.' 'Intrapersonal' was a new word to me.
ReplyDeleteIt's a new word to most of us. I get the little squiggly line that designates it as misspelled wherever I happen to type it.
Deletewell I love these tests and I got Linguistic as my top at 83% followed by Intrapersonal at 81%. My lowest was logical-hahahaaaaa at 38%
ReplyDelete