Students in seventh-grade cluster classes at Brandon Middle School have been working with Habits of Mind throughout the year.
Recently, the students were taught Robert Sternberg’s Triarch of Intelligences. Sternberg believed there were three types of intelligences: Analytical, Practical and Creative. One of the ways that teachers can differentiate in their classrooms for all types of learners is to modify an assignment in three ways and let the students pick which method they would like to use to demonstrate understanding.
In Anne Fox’s class, the students went back to Habits of Mind as they picked from a variety of different methods to demonstrate which Habit of Mind they believed to be the most important.
Students were able to analyze which one was the most essential to successful adults, explain in practical terms the age appropriate example of the habit that would be most important to an elementary student, or create something to catch the attention of middle school students while talking about which Habit of Mind was crucial to success. Fox followed up the lesson with an activity using the same three intelligences on Riki-Tiki-Tavi.