ABSTRACT
Performance tasks in English language arts offer the perfect opportunity for tapping into multiple intelligence approaches. These modes of intelligence are interconnected, and educational theorists are considering adding other types of intelligence to the list.
Verbal-Linguistic
This is intelligence that comes through words. Obviously, English Language Arts tasks are almost always centered on this type of knowing. Traditional tasks are essays, debates, speeches, dramatics, creative writing. Humor based on satire and wordplay is also part of verbal-linguistic intelligence.
Intrapersonal
This is the knowing of the self. Reflective pieces that call for metacognition (thinking about thinking) tap into this kind of intelligence, as do autobiographical pieces. Philosophical and spiritual thinking is also in this realm. Tasks that call for knowing of the self are journals, especially reader response journals, which ask the student to justify an opinion, react on an emotional level, or relate the self to the literature.
Interpersonal
This is intelligence that involves communicating with and having insight into others. Students with this strength do well in cooperative learning groups; they make good leaders, but they also make good group members. Tasks that ask the student to perceive the nature of relationships among characters, to understand conflict, and to analyze character traits focus on interpersonal intelligence.
Musical-Rhythmic
This is knowing the world through sound and rhythm. Any good piece of writing, not just poetry, has rhythm. Every sentence has an intonational contour, and the careful writer knows where to place the words of emphasis. Those with this strength can see patterns of sound and can find the relationship between music and meaning. Asking students to soundtrack a story is a powerful way of leading them to find various interpretations. Language is filled with metaphors of sound and music. These metaphors abound in advertising, poetry, editorial writing, and reviews.
Bodily-Kinesthetic
This is knowing through physicality and performance. In English class, the handiest form of this type of intelligence is dramatics. Students usually enjoy making videos or acting out live presentations of the literature. People with a strong bodily-kinesthetic way of understanding the world concretize an intellectual concept, such as a new vocabulary word, by acting it out.
Visual-Spatial
This is knowing the world through mental and actual pictures. We often hear people refer to themselves as visual learners. Such learning involves making and responding to illustrations, flow charts, symbols, and other graphic representations. We should remind students to activate the movie of the mind and to use vivid imagery, even if the writing piece is not designated as descriptive.
Logical-Mathematical
This is knowing the world through patterns and numbers. A number person can express the complexities of literature and language through intricate diagrams and tessellations. She can also understand that effective sentence making is a matter of expressing relationships between subordinate and main ideas. Many syntactical concepts, such as parallel structure, have a logical-mathematical base.
Naturalistic
This is knowing the world through nature. A strong naturalistic learner can perceive patterns and subtleties in the outdoor world. She can make predictions, gather evidence, and draw conclusions based on the complex relationships in nature. She has a keen sense of orientation and sharp observational skills.
