PLANNING INDEPENDENT LEARNING
The More You Know, the Smarter You Are?
Summary Insight
Jim Vega’s explanatory essay “The More You Know, the Smarter You Reading this essay will help
Are?” questions the idea that collecting facts and information is an students expand their ideas
important aspect of being smart. He describes the work of Howard about intelligence. It will prod
SELECTION RESOURCES them to think about intelligence
Gardner, a professor at Harvard University, as evidence. Gardner
irst-Read Guide:
F identified multiple kinds of human intelligence, including visual/ in people who perhaps do
Nonfiction spatial, musical, and interpersonal, among others. Gardner thought not have that much book
knowledge. It will also lead them
that too much emphasis had been placed on language and math
lose-Read Guide:
C to assess their own intelligence in
Nonfiction
abilities and that IQ was not the only way to measure intelligence. new ways.
According to Gardner, we should start thinking of being “smart”
he More You Know, the
T in new ways. In addition to Gardner’s ideas, the essay suggests that
Smarter You Are?: Text street smarts and wisdom are two additional types of intelligence.
Questions The author concludes that there are many ways to be smart. He
Audio Summaries urges readers to identify their intelligence strengths and to use their
strengths to stretch their weaknesses.
Selection Audio
Selection Test
Connection to Essential Question
The article directly addresses the Essential Question: In what different
ways can people be intelligent? It does this by supplying evidence that
there are many ways to be intelligent.
Connection to Performance-Based Assessment
In the Performance-Based Assessment, students are asked to write an
informative essay that addresses the prompt: In what different
ways can people be intelligent? The essay provides background to the
question by suggesting that applying book and experiential knowledge
to problems is essential to intelligence.
Text Complexity Rubric: The More You Know, the Smarter You Are?
Quantitative Measures
Lexile: 1190 Text Length: 733 words
Qualitative Measures
Knowledge Demands Some familiarity with the idea of multiple intelligences is helpful for reading the text, though terms are
1 2 3 4 5 explained.
Structure Structure is easy to follow; after an introduction of the main ideas, Gardner’s multiple intelligences are
1 2 3 4 5 listed with examples. The rest of the article follows a clear organization with logical connections.
Language Conventionality and Clarity Style of language is conversational, but there are many lengthy sentences with multiple ideas and
1 2 3 4 5 clauses. Some vocabulary is academic and subject-specific.
Levels of Meaning/Purpose Main purpose and concepts are explicitly stated, explained at the beginning, and summarized at end.
1 2 3 4 5 Concepts cover a wide range of ideas, some of which are complex.
430C UNIT 4 • HUMAN INTELLIGENCE
EXPLANATORY ESSAY
The More You Know,
the Smarter You Are?
Jim Vega
About the Author
Jim Vega (b. 1989) is a native of Brownsville, Texas, where his family
has lived since the late 1800s. After beginning a family of his own, Vega
became interested in the ways that people express their intelligence—his
two sons, he says, couldn’t have been more different! Vega still lives in
Brownsville, with his family and several rescue dogs.
BACKGROUND
In 1983, the publication of a groundbreaking book revolutionized
people’s understanding of psychology and education. Its author,
Howard Gardner, proposed that everyone has seven kinds of
intelligence, and that each individual exhibits more strength in some
of these intelligences than in others. Educators use his theory to adapt
their methods so that they can effectively teach the variety of students
in their classrooms.
W hile it’s true that acquiring facts and information about
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NOTES
a wide variety of sources is an important factor in what
it means to be smart, some people think there is a big difference
between being “well educated” and being “intelligent.” For
example, some people might be able to recite a lot of facts and
figures but not be able to use what they know to solve problems.
2 Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard University, believes
that we place too much importance on language and math
abilities, and he did not agree that the Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
test should be the only way to look at intelligence. He identified
more areas of human intelligence. Below is a list of Gardner’s
Multiple Intelligences with the strengths associated with each one:
3 Visual/Spatial – puzzles, directions, drawings, models
4 Bodily/Kinesthetic – sports, dance, intricate movement
(surgery)
UNIT 4 Independent Learning • The More You Know, the Smarter You Are? IL8
5 Musical – rhythm, sound
NOTES 6 Interpersonal – understanding others, empathy1
7 Linguistic – words, writing, reading
8 Logical/Mathematical – numbers, reasoning, calculating
9 Naturalist – using, categorizing, recognizing parts of the
environment
10 According to his way of thinking, just having a lot of
knowledge is not the only part of intelligence that should be
valued. Scientists who disagree with Gardner say that some
of these “intelligences” are just talents—they are not a part of
intelligence. However, the Multiple Intelligences theory has made
many people see “smart” in a new way.
11 Another way to be intelligent is to have “street smarts.” The
fancy term for street smarts is “tacit2 knowledge,” and both
mean something similar to common sense. If we learn from our
own experiences and mistakes and apply that learning to future
situations, then we are showing street smarts. For example, a
person who has read all about geography and can recite capitals
and countries might not have the “street smarts” to read a bus
schedule and find his or her way around. Sometimes it might
involve a way of looking at something to find the easiest and best
solution.
12 One story to illustrate this comes from history, when Thomas
Jefferson was designing the University of Virginia, and the
architects were designing the layouts of the walkways. Jefferson’s
solution was to plant grass and wait to see where the grass was
most worn down so that they would build the walkways where
people naturally wanted to walk.
13 A final example involves personal safety, and what can frustrate
us so much when watching scary movies: if a person knows an
alley is dark and could be dangerous, he or she avoids it. He or
she uses prior experience, intuition, and awareness to make solid
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decisions—street smarts! Usually, this type of learning happens
when we are not trying to learn anything at all; instead, we are
just trying to reach a goal or complete a task. Although this type of
learning can happen in school, it usually occurs during the course
of our daily lives.
14 Apart from book learning and critical thinking, there is wisdom,
which seems to be something earned over a lifetime (though
young people can have it, too!). A combination of intuition, life
experience, a deep understanding of people, and knowledge of
what is most important in life, wisdom might be just as important
as math skills or vocabulary knowledge. Maybe, when her
granddaughter tells her about a fight with a friend at school, a
1. empathy (EHM puh thee) n. awareness of and sensitivity to the feelings of others.
2. tacit (TAS iht) adj. expressed without words or speech.
IL9 UNIT 4 Independent Learning • The More You Know, the Smarter You Are?
grandmother says, “This, too, shall pass.” She means everything
changes over time, again and again. The fight will end and NOTES
things will change, one way or another. The grandmother knows
this from a lifetime of seeing it happen, and she knows, in this
moment, that it might give her granddaughter some comfort.
Sometimes, however, wisdom can come from someone very
young.
15 Since there are so many ways to be smart, it seems like the
best course of action is to identify strengths, stretch weaknesses,
and make the most of the smarts we have by building on them
in as many ways as possible. So, if you love to build things but
sometimes have a hard time reading, you could find a complicated
model and read the instructions to help you build it: use your
strength to stretch your weakness. Similarly, if you love to draw
but have trouble with math, you can draw pictures to help you
solve problems. Everyone has strengths, so make sure to identify
what you love to do and what you are good at. Then you can
really enjoy those parts of yourself and make the most of them! ❧
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UNIT 4 Independent Learning • The More You Know, the Smarter You Are? IL10
