Multiple Intelligences and Portfolios: A Window into the Learners Mind

by Evangeline Harris Stefanakis

Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences suggests that culture, language, and environment all influence how an individual's intelligence is expressed. In this guide, Evangeline Stefanakis provides concrete suggestions for translating Gardner's theory into curriculum and assessment practices in the context of urban classrooms. By combining the collection and analysis of student work in comprehensive portfolios, she offers a framework for teachers to improve the assessment of diverse individuals. Stefanakis is especially well suited to the task of combining theory, philosophy, and practice on this topic. She has helped teachers, teacher educators, and school leaders understand both MI theory and how to use portfolios to personalize their teaching to better serve all students, including those who are bilingual and have disabilities. She worked with the Harvard Project Zero on the Massachusetts Schools Network on a three-year effort to implement schoolwide portfolio assessment in thirteen urban and rural schools. The contents of this book, which include principal and teacher stories from the Cambridgeport School, grew directly from this experience. In eight concise chapters, Stefanakis takes teachers through proven strategies for creating personal student profiles and portfolios as "windows into learners' minds." Her book

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2002