I created a new assignment where students could select their own mode of deliverable: a poem, a speech, a drawing, a blog, a vlog, a calendar, an essay... or submit their own suggestion
I wanted students to be able to communicate using their own strengths and interests to maximize their commitment and success
While I enjoyed the multiple intelligences project's creativity and empowerment, there was confusion with the grading creiteria. I let students design their own rubric (based on specific guideleines from me). This resulted in 14 different rubrics in two different sections of Introduction to Human Communication. Next semester, I will implement one generic rubric with all set creiteria, wth one component of the rubric focused on adapting to the multiple intelligence chosen
As predicted, having one rubric made the grading easier and more consistent. Students reported positive feedback about this assignment, showing the clarity of the assignment for students was greater. Grades on the project improved slightly. The creativity and variety of types of projects submitted increased, which was the best part (for me); it captured the goal of the assignment to encourage using different "intelligences" or ways of expressing knowledge/skill.
Multiple Intelligences is a theory that students have "intelligence" in a variety of fields (artistic, mathmatic, kinestetic, verbal, etc). By allowing students to use their strengths applied in to context of the discipline (in my case Communication), students can hopefully feel more confident in their abilities and engage better with the content. This could be aplied to practically any project in any discipline.
Comments
Roxan,
Thank you for taking time to document what you are doing. I really appreciate how you gave students an option; this allows them to do what is more meaningful to them. I hope you continue to explore doing this this Fall 2019.