Multiple Intelligences and Adult Literacy

In this breakthrough volume, the authors present an overview of Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory along with concrete examples that educators can use in their classroom with adult literacy students. Featuring the experiences of teachers who participated in the Adult Multiple Intelligences (AMI) Study, this practical sourcebook includes:

• MI Basics—providing educators with the “basics” of MI theory: what it is and how it can inform practice.
• MI Reflections—looking at the successes and challenges involved in using MI theory in adult education, including an array of activities for exploring MI theory with students.
• MI-Inspired Instruction—discussing how MI theory can be used to develop learning experiences and instructional strategies that tap into students’ intelligence strengths.
• MI-Inspired Lessons—presenting concrete examples of how AMI teachers translated MI theory into lessons and activities for language arts, learning English, writing, reading for meaning, math, science, and more.
• Discussion Questions for individual and group reflection and Classroom Experiences for trying out ideas in your own settings.

Julie Viens is a researcher with Project Zero and the instructor of an online course, "Using MI theory to help students learn" http://wideworld.pz.harvard.edu. Silja Kallenbach is the director of the New England Literacy Resource Center at World Education.

“I must admit that I had never thought about uses of MI ideas with adult learners who were trying to master the basic literacies….Thanks to the pioneering work of Julie Viens, Silja Kallenbach, and AMI teacher-researchers, we now know that, in capable hands, the idea of multiple intelligences has a generative role to play in the education of adults.”
— From the Foreword by Howard Gardner

“Capturing the resonance of MI theory with the complexity and richness of adult learners' lives, this book offers concrete strategies for building on adult students' strengths and interests and for enhancing adults' agency with respect to their own learning.”
— Susan L. Lytle, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania