Multigenre, MultipleIntelligences, andTranscendentalism

COLLEEN A. RUGGIERI

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hate math!” I exclaimed to my friends during my junior year of high school. To some

of them, it seemed logical, as I was a self-proclaimed lover of English class. After all,

we surmised, most people can’t love and excel in both subjects. Unfortunately, as the

weeks passed, math class became more and more torturous to me. How could I have

gone from absolutely loving the subject to dreading it so much that I got headaches before

class? I couldn’t do the problems assigned by the teacher, my grade was slipping, and my

ego was definitely bruised. In the end, I chose to drop the math class to save my sanity. To

this day I regret it, wondering just how many of life’sequations may have been solved by the knowledgegained in that one course.

“You know, you probably could have donethose problems if they’d been explained dif-ferently,” a colleague commented to me, nearlytwenty years later. “One of the mistakes in theUnited States is that people believe that problemscan be solved only one way. That’s not how theJapanese or other cultures teach subjects, andthat’s probably why [fewer] people are scared offwhen it comes to advanced coursework in othercountries.” Taking these comments to heart, a lightwent on in my mind. There is truth to the idea thatsome American classroom practices can actuallystifle learning and alienate students. How manytimes have I heard my students saying, “I don’t getthis stuff,” whether in my high school English class,or in someone else’s? How many students, who’donce loved language arts classes in elementary andmiddle school and who’d appreciated the value ofEnglish class, have come to hate it once they’ve hithigh school? Furthermore, how many high schoolteachers and college professors are not only stuckin the rut of lecturing in order to “cover all the ma-

terial,” but also of presenting literature in only oneform or from one perspective?

In response to this rhetorical thinking, I de-cided to transform my eleventh grade Americanliterature classroom, beginning with the unit onTranscendentalism. Like most teachers, I had sup-plemented the core curriculum containing Self-Reliance, Nature, Walden, and Civil Disobediencewith other genres, allowing my students to discussthe literature, work cooperatively, and write a va-riety of responses and papers. However, the unitultimately ended in the dreaded exam, which wasthe consummate stumbling block during each classdiscussion. “Is this going to be on the test?” seemedto be the primary focus of nearly every student.Therefore, in revamping my unit, I set out toachieve two goals. First, I sought a wider variety ofsupplemental materials and literary connectionsthan what I’d previously been using. Second, Ihoped to provide alternative assessment opportu-nities that would be meaningful and rewardingwhile delivering authentic results. These goals ledme on a journey that ultimately became fulfillingfor my students, as well as enlightening and en-riching to me as an educator.

I

Mult igenre Teach ing

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Captur ing Mean ingfu l Connect ions through Comics

When seeking new texts to incorporate into the unit,I thought about what might inspire or interest me ifI were reading casually or for pleasure. The first ideathat came to mind was the Calvin and Hobbes comicstrip. It seemed as if every time I read this comic, Iexperienced an epiphany as well as a chuckle. AsKathy Kirk notes in her book, Writing to Standards,what is especially appealing about using comics isthe fact that they provide a fun way to study voiceand that they often make serious statements aboutpolitics and culture (14). In order to share the sameexperience with my students, I headed for the near-est bargain table at my favorite bookseller. Comiccreator Bill Watterson has published several collec-tions, including Something Under the Bed Is Drool-ing, There’s Treasure Everywhere, The Calvin andHobbes Tenth Anniversary Book, The IndispensableWorld of Calvin and Hobbes, and The EssentialCalvin and Hobbes. In their many adventures, char-acters Calvin and Hobbes often deliver messagesregarding individualism and the environment. Be-cause of this, Watterson’s books lend themselves tointeresting discussion and analysis, so I purchased afew copies of each title at greatly discounted rates touse in my classroom.

By reading the comic books, my

students were able to use this

different genre to interpret social

commentaries, make connections

with works they’d studied in class,

and develop their own views on the

subjects of individualism, nature,

and passive resistance.

After my students and I had read and dis-cussed the four major selections in the Transcen-

dental unit, I put members of the class in coopera-tive groups of four. I gave each group one or twocomic books and fifteen to twenty minutes of classtime to read and enjoy the comics, asking them tofind connections to the concepts we’d discussed re-garding Transcendentalism. Following the allottedreading time, each group shared at least two comicsthat had strong literary connections to the ideas ofEmerson and Thoreau. When sharing the strips, wediscussed specific lines from the texts we’d studiedthat could be connected to the comics. Multiplegroups selected two specific comics, and we foundthat many lines from the Transcendental textscould readily be connected and compared to theseparticular strips. (See Figure 1.) As a homeworkassignment, I asked students to locate other exam-ples of comics that would provide literary links towhat we’d studied and to bring them to class alongwith a paragraph of explanation. Within two days,nearly all of the class had finished the assignment.Peanuts, B.C., Family Circus, and Crock wereamong the many comics collected by students. Inthe paragraphs accompanying the comics, studentsanalyzed political statements and commentaries interms of their connections with Transcendentalthinking. By reading the comic books, my studentswere able to use this different genre to interpretsocial commentaries, make connections with worksthey’d studied in class, and develop their own viewson the subjects of individualism, nature, and pas-sive resistance.

Making Mean ing through Mus i c

In considering another genre that might provide apositive vehicle for learning, I opted for a modethat motivates most everyone I know—music. Tointroduce the class to the next assignment, Ibrought in my favorite Frank Sinatra song and dis-cussed the Transcendental ideas contained withinthe lyrics of “My Way.” I asked my students to con-sider their own music collections and to bring asong to class—along with the lyrics and a briefparagraph of explanation of the connection be-tween their choice and the ideas we discussed.The response was terrific, and in order to sharethe excitement, I played portions of each song be-tween classes and for the first two to three min-utes each period that I had American literature.As the songs were played, the students who broughtthem to class shared their rationales with others.

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FIGURE 1. COMICS THAT WERE MOST OFTEN SELECTED BY STUDENTS

(Top panels) from Something Under the Bed is Drooling (99). (Bottom panel) from There’s Treasure Everywhere (9).CALVIN AND HOBBES © 1988 Watterson. Reprinted with permission of UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE. All rights reserved.

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E n g l i s h J o u r n a l 63

We also made a chart acknowledging the varioustitles and artists, as well as the musical genres rep-resented in the selections. (See Table 1.) When re-viewing the chart, my students were quick tonotice that certain categories, particularly the rock/pop music section, had the most entries. They alsonoted that they were surprised at how many songswere listed in the country music category, and thatwe did not have any listings for alternative music,jazz, or heavy metal. Several of the students whowere fans of the alternative genre stated that whenthey listened to the music they had a difficult timechoosing songs from this genre because the lyricsseemed “angry” and didn’t appear to be optimistic.However, one student pointed out to the class that,though these songs might not meet that one par-ticular criterion, many alternative musicians arevery original and innovative in their approaches tomusic and songwriting, thus making the actualcreation of the music at least partially Transcen-dental in nature. His response sparked furtherdiscussion, as class members saw the call for indi-vidualism at work in their own choices of songs.

For example, while two students in the class wereGarth Brooks fans, they each chose different songsfor the assignment. One student commented fur-ther about the song selections in a freewrite at theend of the period:

All of these songs are amazing. I never wouldhave listened to country music before now, because I thought it was a bunch of cry me ariver, I lost my girl and truck music. Now I seethat the genre is a lot different from what Ithought it was. It’s amazing that the messages of individuality and nature are so universal in the music. It makes me realize that what we’rereading in class really does have connectionswith what we see in real life. It also helps me to learn more about the people in our class. Inever would have guessed that some peoplewould have picked the songs they did, and Iguess that proves that we don’t always reallyknow each other.

This student’s remark struck a chord with everyonein the classroom when it was shared the next day.Indeed, by adding the musical element to class study

Oldies/Classics

Otis Redding:“Sitting on the Dockof the Bay”

Louis Armstrong:“What a WonderfulWorld”

Billy Joel: “Just theWay You Are”

Frank Sinatra: “My Way”

Grateful Dead:“Liberty”

Bob Marley: “GetUp, Stand Up”

Beatles: “HereComes the Sun”

Bob Dylan: “Blowin’in the Wind”

Joni Mitchell: “BigYellow Taxi”

Three Dog Night:“Joy to the World”

Pop/Rock

Madonna: “Rain” and“Respect Yourself ”

Mariah Carey: “Hero”

Dave Matthews Band:“Cry Freedom”

U2: “Beautiful Day”

Van Halen: “Dreams”

Creed: “Higher”

Dido: “My Life”

Jewel: “Hands”

Backstreet Boys:“Shining Star”

Bon Jovi: “My Life”

Vanessa Williams:“Colors of the Wind”

Michael Jackson:“Earth Song”

Whitney Houston:“One Moment in Time”

Sting: “Fields of Gold”

R&B/Rap

R. Kelly: “I BelieveI Can Fly”

Tupac Shakur:“Keep Ya HeadUp”

Destiny’s Child:“Survivor”

Desiree; “YouGotta Be”

Jennifer Lopez:“I’m Real”

Janet Jackson:“Clouds”

India Arie: “Video”

Jermaine Jackson:“Rise to theOccasion”

En Vogue: “FreeYour Mind”

New Age/Classical

Enya: “Sail Away”

Cranberries: “Copy Cat”

Tim Janis: “Water’s Edge”

Vivaldi: “FourSeasons”

Yanni: “Rain Must Fall”

Handel: “WaterMusic Suite, No.2 for orchestra in D major”

Modest Mussorgsky:“Night on BaldMountain, A, fororchestra”

Country

Dixie Chicks: “WideOpen Spaces”

Lee Ann Womack: “IHope You Dance”

Billy Gilman: “Hero”

Garth Brooks: “The River” and “WeShall Be Free”

Norman Blake: “YouAre My Sunshine”

Martina McBride:“Independence Day”

Trisha Yearwood:“Real Live Woman”

Tim McGraw: “Place in the Sun”

Jo Dee Messina:“Burn”

Rascal Flatts: “Prayin’for Daylight”

TABLE 1. EXAMPLES OF STUDENT-SELECTED SONG TITLES AND ARTISTS THAT REFLECT TRANSCENDENTAL THINKING.

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and discussion, students thought more about thecurriculum, as well as its relevance in their world.

Making Mean ing with Free Read ing

Once we finished the comic and music activities, Iblocked out time for a free reading unit in order toexpose students to even more genres. I gave studentsthe class period each day to read, and their home-work assignments consisted of journal responses to

the works that they’d read. Their journals were notdue for two weeks, which allowed for more readingtime outside of class. I required each student to readselections from three genres, though no one was re-quired to finish more than one entire work withinthe timeframe of the actual assignment. In helpingto guide students’ choices, I provided them with alist of titles for their consideration. (See Table 2.)However, they were free to find other works, pro-vided that they showed me their materials in advance

Art/Photography

Cunningham, Antonia. EssentialImpressionists. Bath,England: Parragon,2000.

Goldsworthy, Andy.Andy Goldsworthy: ACollaboration withNature. New York:Harry Abrams, 1990.

Hassrick, Peter, ed.The Georgia O’KeeffeMuseum. New York:Harry Abrams, 1997.

House, John. Monet:Nature into Art. NewHaven: Yale Univer-sity Press, 1986.

Jennings, Kate F.Ansel Adams. NewYork: Barnes andNoble, 1997.

Leopold, Aldo. ASand County Almanac. New York:Oxford, 2001.

Line, Les, ed. TheNational AudubonSociety, A Century of Conservation:Speaking for Nature.Southport: HughLauter Levin Associ-ates, 1999.

Wolfe, Art. Africa.Seattle: WildlandsPress, 2001.

Poetry

Anderson, L. and Marty Asher,eds. Sisters of the Earth:Women’s Prose and PoetryAbout Nature. New York: Vintage, 1991.

Bosselaar, Laure-Anne, ed.Urban Nature: Poems aboutWildlife in the City. Minneapo-lis: Milkweed Editions, 2000.

Farrell, Kate. Art and Nature:An Illustrated Anthology of Na-ture Poetry, Vol. 1. New York:Little, Brown & Company,1992.

Ferra, Lorraine. A Crow Doesn’t Need a Shadow: AGuide to Writing Poetry fromNature. Salt Lake City: GibbsSmith, 1994.

Hines, Anna G. Pieces. NewYork: HarperCollins, 1998.

Kilcher, Jewel. A Night Without Armor. New York:HarperCollins, 1999.

Quetchenbach, Bernard. Backfrom the Far Field: AmericanNature Poetry in the Late Twentieth Century.Charlottesville: University Pressof Virginia, 2000.

Spence, Gerry L. GerrySpence’s Wyoming: The Landscape. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.

Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass.New York: Bantam, 1998.

Williams, Jill. Nature Sonnets.Arlington: Gival Press, LLC, 2001.

Nonfiction

Dillard, Annie. Pilgrimat Tinker Creek. NewYork: HarperCollins,1998.

Erlich, Gretel. A Matchto the Heart: OneWoman’s Story of BeingStruck by Lightning.New York: Penguin,1995.

Henley, Don, and DaveMarsh, eds. Heaven IsUnder Our Feet. NewYork: Berkley Publish-ing Group, 1992.

Krakauer, Jon. Into ThinAir. New York: RandomHouse, 1997.

Leggett, Jeremy. GlobalWarming and the Endof the Oil Era. NewYork: Taylor & FrancisGroup, 2001.

Lopez, Barry. ArcticDreams: Imaginationand Desire in a North-ern Landscape. NewYork: Vintage, 2001.

Muir, John. NatureWritings: The Story ofMy Boyhood and Youth,My First Summer in theSierra, The Mountainsof California, Stickeen,Essays. Ed. WilliamCronan. New York: Library of America,1997.

YA Lit. & Picture Books

Anderson, Laurie Halse.Speak. New York: Puffin,1999.

Avi. Blue Heron. New York:Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Carter, Forrest. The Educa-tion of Little Tree.Albuquerque: University ofNew Mexico Press, 2000.

Fleischman, Paul. Seedfolks.New York: HarperCollins,1997.

Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust.New York: Scholastic, 1998.

Hickam, Homer. October Sky. New York: RandomHouse, 1999.

Hobbs, Will. River Thunder.New York: Random House,1999.

O’Dell, Scott. Island of theBlue Dolphins. New York:Random House, 1987.

Rawls, Wilson. Where the Red Fern Grows. New York:Dell, 1996.

Rylant, Cynthia. The Wonder-ful Happens. New York:Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Seuss, Dr., Jack Prelutsky &Lane Smith. Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! New York:Knopf, 1998.

Taylor, Mildred. The Land.New York: Dial Books, 2001.

Voigt, Cynthia. A SolitaryBlue. New York: Macmillan,1993.

TABLE 2. SELECTED MULTIGENRE READINGS FOR AN AMERICAN LITERATURE TRANSCENDENTALISM UNIT.

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of their reading. Many students found the books I’dsuggested at the school or public library, and someeven went to the bookstore to purchase their owncopies. While my students were reading in class, Imade the promise to read along with them. This wasdifficult for me at first, as I was conditioned to feel-ing guilty for taking the time to read when I felt likeI should be teaching. Students loved having the op-portunity to read selections they’d found on theirown, and during the free reading unit I was even ex-posed to a great book, Paul Fleischman’s Seedfolks,after a student suggested it to me. This book is a col-lection of vignettes that depict a diverse group ofneighbors living in inner city Cleveland, who cometogether with the formation of a community garden.It provides terrific connections to Transcendental-ism, and it can be read in about an hour. The bookbecame a class favorite, and it has stayed in my reper-toire of supplemental readings. When reading thejournal responses, it was refreshing to note that stu-dents responded in ways that indicated they hadmade further connections with the curriculum whileengaging in other readings. Also, my classes as awhole reacted with great energy when given an as-signment that had an element of freedom. By theend of their reading, students wrote in their journalsthat they enjoyed the assignment and felt that theyhad a much stronger appreciation of the applicationof the themes of Transcendental literature.

Making Mean ing through Mul t ip le Inte l l igences

As a culmination of the Transcendental unit, I intro-duced Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelli-gences, based on my reading of Frames of Mind andMultiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice duringgraduate school. My students and I discussed Gard-ner’s belief that knowledge is what a person uses “toresolve genuine problems or difficulties that he or sheencounters and, when appropriate, to create an ef-fective product,” along with the fact that traditionalknowledge is often measured in very limited ways(Frames 61). To further introduce the theory, each ofmy students participated in a variety of MI activities,including taking a few intelligence inventories. A clearand easy to use inventory appears on J. Ivanco’s Website at http://snow.utoronto.ca/courses/mitest.html.Another inventory developed by Walter McKenzie(http://surfaquarium.com/Miinvent.htm) was alsovery helpful to my students. In addition, we usedThomas Armstrong’s “intelligent hunt”; each person

in class was given a slip of paper with an intelligencescenario and asked to find individuals in the roomwho demonstrated that intelligence (35). After dis-cussing the eight intelligences theorized by Gardnerand recently discussed in terms of classroom impli-cations by Thomas Armstrong (see Table 3), studentsreviewed their inventories and were excited to real-ize their intellectual strengths. Once students dis-covered their strongest areas of intelligence, wediscussed a form of assessment that would be used todetermine the knowledge they had gained during theTranscendental unit. I provided a general list ofproject ideas to show students what could be consid-ered acceptable (see Table 4), and students were thenallowed to choose or modify one of the projects onthe list. In order to evaluate each project, studentsand I collaborated in creating individual rubrics.

The rubrics were based upon understandingand analysis of the curriculum and supplementaryreadings completed in the unit; the thoroughnessand originality of projects; and self, peer, and teacherevaluations. After the projects were submitted, wespent three days in a museum style exhibition.

There were performances from some stu-dents, and there were a variety of exhibitions con-taining art, photography, nature studies, and stories.Students did quality work by tapping into their in-telligence and provided interesting insights throughthe content and presentation of their work. One par-ticular student, who was typically somewhat quiet inclass, chose to demonstrate her knowledge througha comic book that she created based on her readings.(See Figure 2.) Her artistic talent and intellect wererevealed to the class, which may not have happened

Type of How someone Intelligence with this type thinks:

Linguistic in wordsLogical-Mathematical by reasoningSpatial in images and picturesBodily-Kinesthetic through somatic sensationsMusical via rhythms and melodiesInterpersonal by bouncing ideas off other

peopleIntrapersonal in relation to their needs,

feelings, goalsNaturalist through nature and natural

forms

TABLE 3. EIGHT WAYS OF LEARNING (ARMSTRONG 22).

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TABLE 4. PROJECT SUGGESTIONS FOR TRANSCENDENTAL UNIT ASSESSMENT

Linguistic Write a portfolio of short stories or poetry that contain Transcendental ideas and themes;develop and deliver a speech.

Logical-Mathematical Design a series of Transcendental puzzles; perform a series of nature experiments in whichyou document the results; design a Web page.

Spatial Create a photo/art exhibit; make a video/documentary; make a scrapbook.Bodily-Kinesthetic Stage a performance (dance, act).Musical Create songs; perform for the class; compile a “Name that Transcendental Tune” list of thirty

songs that were not discussed during class.Interpersonal Do an environmental survey of at least 100 of your peers, documenting the results.Intrapersonal Spend an hour outdoors for at least a week and design a nature journal based on the ideas

gained from your classroom readings.Naturalist Create a nature guide for the local park, using passages from the readings for inspiration;

create a garden.

FIGURE 2.SAMPLE IRONIC COMICS FROM A UNIT PROJECT DEMONSTRATING HOW CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

OFTEN VIEWS THOREAU’S IDEAS.

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through other traditional classroom activities andevaluations. Similar situations occurred as the classadmired each other’s projects, generating a newsense of camaraderie and excitement.

Eva luat ing the Resu l ts

Upon completion of the projects, students and I dis-cussed their evaluations. One surprising finding wasthat students were often harder on themselves whendetermining the overall quality of their work. Forexample, one student completed a photographicessay, in which she took nature shots that inter-preted scenes from Walden. While the photos wereall connected in an outstanding fashion to the liter-ature she had studied, she was quick to note that thequality of prints did not match her own standards of“excellence.” She also stated that she had procrasti-nated and found herself frustrated when she ran outof the time to complete the project according to herstandards. She told me that she felt the project de-served a B, offering her complete candor regardingher performance. This was especially interesting, asthis particular young woman would often complainabout her test grades if she received anything lessthan an A, most often placing blame on “a bad test”or “boring material.”

In addition to this finding, it was also inter-esting to note that many students who had regularlystruggled with the rigors of the literature in thecourse responded with much greater effort duringthis unit than they had in the past. In fact, there wasa 99 percent homework completion rate for theclass during this unit, which was an improvement of15 percent from previous averages. Furthermore,when the projects were evaluated, overall stu-dent performance rose an average of 5 percent perstudent—the equivalent of a letter grade for manyindividuals. Perhaps the greatest revelation regard-ing achievement was my own, however, as I realizedthat the lecturing, skill-drill-and-kill style of teach-ing had not weaseled its way into my lessons as I cov-ered the curriculum. Students did not fall asleep inclass, nor did they complain while they were doingtheir assignments. The supplemental materialsmade a significant difference in interest and per-formance, and the project assessment motivated mystudents beyond comparison.

As a final element of the unit, I offered stu-dents the opportunity to take a written exam onwhat they’d learned through their work. I gave

them the opportunity because I truly wanted tomeasure the results of the projects against the re-sults of a pencil and paper test. As an incentive for myresearch, I offered the test as a “free zone” option—meaning that it would not count toward their over-all average. With a little persuasion, every studentwas convinced to take the exam, and the resultsagain were interesting.

Once students discovered their

strongest areas of intelligence, we

discussed a form of assessment that

would be used to determine the

knowledge they had gained during

the Transcendental unit.

Though the students who typically had thebest averages in the class saw only an average of a2 percent increase in scores, the marginal studentswho had experienced the greatest levels of disin-terest and difficulty in previous units experiencedsubstantial improvement. One student, who hadpractically given up during a previous unit, anx-iously awaited each new component of the assign-ment. His average improved by 12 percent, whileseveral students who had previously earned C av-erages saw their grades improve by an entire letter.Most importantly, students took ownership of theirassessment and showed the desire to further theirlearning. In her book Rainbows of Intelligence, SueTeele comments on the American classroom:

Many current classrooms are directed only to thelinguistic and logical-mathematical students,which leaves students who process informationwith the other intelligences to struggle . . .Through understanding multiple intelligencesand identifying dominant intelligences, educa-tors can develop increasingly effective teachingstrategies to match learning with instruction.They can also develop multiple assessment mea-sures that match those intelligences and teaching

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methods that accurately reflect what knowledgestudents have acquired. (85)

In his more recent publication, Intelligence Re-framed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century,Howard Gardner celebrates the acknowledgementof several intelligences stating, “. . . the monopoly ofthose who believe in a single general intelligence hascome to an end” (203). As we English educatorsspend our days in the classroom, we want all of ourstudents to come to love language as much as we do,even if they don’t have a natural aptitude for the sub-ject. We also want all of our students to be able tounderstand the material covered in class, as well asto see its relevance in the real world. Through in-cluding a wide range of genres, activities, and as-sessments that incorporate the principles of thetheory of multiple intelligences, I have found thatthis is possible. In the future, I hope to begin myAmerican literature course by introducing studentsto all of the intelligences they bring to my classroombefore we even open a book. Though I chose tomodify the tenets of Gardner’s theory and incorpo-rate a rubric during project evaluations, I have foundthat this provides a workable medium between thestandardized testing that is being used to determinelevels of accountability and the creation of productsthat allowed my students to have an increased senseof self-worth, while authentically demonstrating theirmastery of a subject. In addition, during this unit Iwas often able to observe individual learning in ac-tion, something that I considered merely an unob-tainable luxury in past units. In the end, students inmy classroom transcended the boundaries of learn-ing, truly reaching heights that even the likes of

Emerson and Thoreau most likely would have ap-plauded. How wonderful for English teachers tohave the tools to open the doors of life and learning,and to help their students to have a few more of theanswers to life’s equations.

Works Cited

Armstrong, Thomas. Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom.Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2000.

Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of MultipleIntelligences. New York: Basic Books, 1983.

———. Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the21st Century. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

———. Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. NewYork: Basic Books, 1993.

Ivanco, J. “What Are My Learning Strengths?” 1 March2002. http://snow.utoronto.ca/courses/mitest.html.

Kirk, Kathy. Writing to Standards. Thousand Oaks, CA: Cor-win Press, 2001.

McKenzie, Walter. “Multiple Intelligences Survey.” 1 March2002. http://surfaquarium.com/Miinvent.htm.

Teele, Sue. Rainbows of Intelligence. Thousand Oaks, CA:Corwin Press, 2000.

Watterson, Bill. The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth AnniversaryBook. Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel, 1995.

———. The Essential Calvin and Hobbes. Kansas City, MO:Andrews and McMeel, 1988.

———. The Indispensable World of Calvin and Hobbes.Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel, 1992.

———. Something Under the Bed Is Drooling. Kansas City,MO: Andrews and McMeel, 1993.

———. There’s Treasure Everywhere. Kansas City, MO: An-drews and McMeel, 1996.

COLLEEN A. RUGGIERI teaches English at Boardman HighSchool, Youngstown, Ohio.

E J 6 0 Y e a r s A g o

Truth and Creativity

“The pupil who is most likely to succeed in writing creatively is the one who searches through his own life for material.He has not been told to study and emulate the great masters; on the contrary, he has been encouraged to believe thathe himself has something to say if he will but find it.”

Robert W. Rounds. “Creative Writing and Living Language.” EJ 31.6 (1942): 454–62.

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