Choice Board:Take a stand Kate Ye h) Take a Stand Select a topic and develop an argument for or against the topic. Make sure you use specific references to the readings to back up your claims. Chapter 11, Strategies, Cooperative Learning,and Multiple Intelligences: MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE (Larsen-Freeman, & Anderson, 2011, p 169) Although there are various methods in which students are able to acquire knowledge, I would like to argue with the author and take a stand regarding teachers acknowledging and conforming to a student's type of intelligence. As this method seems to be a favorable and idealistic method for students and teachers, it is actually a disadvantage for the students especially. The first argument I would like to make against this is that This type of teaching does not adequately prepare or model for students' real life scenarios in the workforce. A large part of many students obtaining an education is to further their professional careers and excel in their chosen field. Catering to each individual student’s preferred learning method in relation to the type of 7 bits of intelligence mentioned by Christison (1996) and Armstrong (1994), is enabling the students to depend on tasks and methods catered to them personally, whereas in the workforce, many, if not all professions, especially entry-level positions, do not provide an individual training option for employees based on their learning styles (Larsen-Freeman, & Anderson, 2011, p. 170). The author attempts to address the following challenge “The issue for teachers who wish to honor the diversity of intelligences among their students is how to represent the other intelligences and enable each student to reach their full potential, while not losing sight that their purpose is to teach language” (Larsen-Freeman, & Anderson, 2011, p. 172). Although representing individual bits of intelligence may seem ideal, this does not necessarily reflect what these individual learners will be immersed in while in the workforce. Educators have spent years trying to shove information in the student’s minds that many have forgotten that the reason why these students are attending school is to become successful members of the workforce. The second argument against this case of acknowledging individual learning styles is that once students discover that their current style of learning falls under a certain category, the student will most likely adhere to this specific style, and will not want to move out of their comfort zone. Education is not just about memorizing facts and obtaining the best tools on how to do this, it is also about understanding how to connect certain ideas with others that have been learned previously to create or have a deeper comprehension of other tasks. Instead of categorizing types of intelligence, I propose that teachers should collaborate with the students as a collective. By working together, the teacher would be able to model for the students how different concepts, ideas, theories or facts support each other. This would not only address the student’s personal learning style, but it will also provide the student with appropriate scaffolding to challenge them into different ways of learning while exploring other areas. Although Agosrini attempts to “ teach from a multiple intelligence perspective… so that the different bits of intelligence arc represented” in a lesson plan, he does not create desire or inspiration within the students to explore further outside their personal learning styles by guiding them into a creative learning process of connecting one type of style to another. For example, by attempting to introduce the students to new avenues of thinking about a topic, the teacher can guide students to realize how two different learning styles, such as linguistic and visual learning, can creatively or strategically form a new idea that the students will be excited and curious about learning. One example of this would be to simply ask the students how to model, draw, or diagram certain linguistic concepts such as words, phrases, sentences for the class, or as an assignment. This can be done through morphology trees, creative design, putting together a puzzle, or different interactive word magnets. These types of activities are endless, and would create a more engaging, productive, and inspiring learning experience for students of all ages. References Larsen-Freeman, D. & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques & principles in language teaching. New York: Oxford.