Lesson 1C Overview

Now that you know about your Multiple Intelligences, let’s consider another strategy to help you learn.

You may have heard these popular sayings:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Chinese Proverb.

How We Process Information

We process information in three main ways:

Seeing
Hearing
Doing

Reflect

Let’s think about the ways you already use seeing, hearing, and doing as a learner. Think about the last time you studied for a test or completed a project (like an essay, research, creative piece, etc.).

How did you use sight to study? List everything you can think of that involved the use of your eyes.
How did you use hearing to prepare? What did you listen to that helped you remember and use the information?
What did you do (action) to prepare? What did you make and/or how did you move as you studied?
Which of the three — seeing, hearing, or doing — would you like to use more the next time you study?

Apply

The Multiple Intelligences and processing information go hand-in-hand. These strategies work together to help you see how information is presented and to help you develop tools to take in, remember, understand, apply, and — yes — even enjoy using that information.

Let’s practice. In the coming week, pay attention to how information is presented to you in the classes you take, the extracurricular activities you do, and the other areas you spend time in each day.

First, note (either mentally or by writing it down) a few ways you recognize the information coming your way. How do you see it, hear it, and do it?

Next, choose one assignment that is difficult for you. This might be a list of math problems, a long reading passage, or a multi-step project. Put into practice what you learned in this lesson about Multiple Intelligences (Section 1.B, Apply) and processing information. What strategies can you use to help you accomplish this task?

Example:

A. Let’s say I have strong bodily-kinesthetic intelligence and want to use it to help me with a logical-mathematical task, such as learning to analyze ratios (ray-shee-o-s). I would use manipulatives to help me see how ratios work. For instance, if I want to demonstrate the difference between an acute, right, and obtuse angle, I would use rulers, string, or pencils to create each type of angle or I might use my arms to figure out the different types of angles. I could make a sideways “V” to represent an acute angle, for example. I would also teach the lesson to someone else to make sure I really understood it.

B. I may tend to rely a lot on my hearing to learn new information. If a teacher assigns a long reading passage, it may be hard for me to understand what I read. To make things easier, first, I can read out loud. Then, I can stop at the end of every section or every few pages to talk to myself out loud. I may ask questions about what I read, repeat the main concepts, and try to guess what might be important to understand. This way, I can use my hearing to help with a sight-based task.