Teachers that integrate multiple intelligences activities into classroom instruction often turn to alternative assessments. Learning tasks that emphasize different intelligences may lead to more creative assessment strategies.

Performance tasks that offer elements of student involvement and student choice work well as assessments for MI activities. Performances ask students to apply what they have learned, often using real-life applications for authentic real-world problems. Performance tasks serve as systematic methods for assessing skills and applied knowledge.

Meaningful assessments strive to measure in-depth understanding of key concepts, core knowledge, and target skills. First, teachers should establish appropriate criteria for these assessments. Students can be invited to participate in this process. Scoring rubrics that reflect these criteria are an effective way to measure performance on designated tasks. 

Sample Ideas for Assessment of MI Activities
Each can be assessed with an analytical rubric that reflects established criteria

Sample Rubric

• Give a speech, make an oral presentation
• Write and/or tell a narrative story
• Develop and present a report on a topic

• Graph important numerical data from the unit of study
• Create a Venn diagram to compare two concepts or representative ideas
• Compile numerical data, analyze data, and draw conclusions 

• Dramatize a situation or scene (active role playing)
• Represent target concepts with body language and physical movement
• Show relationships through dance or mime

• Create diagrams and charts representing target content
• Build puzzles with graphic elements to reinforce critical concepts
• Draw pictures or take photos construct a visual essay related to the unit of study

• Record outdoor observations that serve as representative analogies for identified concepts or target vocabulary
• Develop a project that involves flora or fauna
• Draw observations of the natural world

• Write a song with lyrics related to the unit of study
• Present a rhythmical representation of  target vocabulary, phrases, or "chunks" of language
• Share an original rap song that reinforces important ideas in the unit

• Group storyboard to share unit concepts
• Participation in short teaching episodes
• Interviewing others to learn more about the target content

• Samples from journal writing
• Self-evaluation of selected items
• Sketches (pictoral or linguistic) that relate personal experiences to target content