Putnam City Academy, Putnam City Schools’ alternative high school, recently received accolades for being one of two schools in the state to be named an A+ Oklahoma Network School. Developed by the Oklahoma Department of Education, the A+ program encourages a holistic approach to learning, which the Putnam City Academy lives by every day.

Schools in the A+ Oklahoma Network are centered on researcher Howard Gardner’s Multiple Levels of Intelligence Theory, which encourages a strong integration of the arts in all curriculum areas.

Putnam City Academy students show the Rubik's Cube built by their group as they learned about brain researcher Howard Gardner's Multiple Levels of Intelligence Theory. The cube represents Logical/Mathematical Intelligence.

"Art is woven through and through every subject we teach, and every subject we teach is woven through art. You can’t look at a building and not see the geometric shapes and architecture or listen to Mozart and not hear the mathematical rhythms," says Janet Oden, Putnam City Academy principal

Art involves the seeds of invention, discovery and learning, Oden says, and art analysis, synthesis evaluation and processing are all higher order thinking skills.

"Students who have not been successful with traditional lecture and note-taking often find themselves mastering the concepts and being successful in this type of program," says Oden.

Gardner’s multiple levels of intelligence involve more than art. The first two levels are types of intelligence typically valued in schools. The next three are usually associated with the arts, and the final two are what Gardner refers to as "personal intelligences." The types of intelligence Gardner defines are

• Logical/Mathematical
• Linguistic
• Musical
• Spatial
• Bodily/Kinesthetic
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal

Schools that follow Gardner’s theories develop a mindset in which students don’t ask "How smart am I?", but instead ask themselves "How am I smart?"

A recent project at Putnam City Academy has involved students working in groups to create a three-dimensional display that fills the school’s lobby. Extending from the floor to the ceiling, the display features students’ artwork representing Gardner’s Multiple Levels of Intelligence.

From painted papier mach’e musical notes floating through the air to a bigger than life, freestanding cut-out of students in a circle, the display depicts the various ways people are smart.

To compliment the Putnam City Academy’s focus of hands-on learning, a new, glassed-in Resource Room, stocked with shelves of manipulatives, paper of all kinds, paints and more, has been set up at the school. Funded by a grant from the Oklahoma Educators Credit Union, the Resource Room is utilized by everyone at Putnam City Academy.