I especially appreciated how she spoke to the interest of the practicing classroom teacher, including her wealth of academic activities, teaching strategies, and meaningful interpersonal strategies. This is an important skills and often neglected by the busy classroom instructor. Perhaps Allison best sums up the overall tone of the book with this opening paragraph from the final chapter. This included understanding cause and effect in order to make good choices. It includes internal self-talk, which evaluates the potential outcomes of actions.
Personal intelligence includes understanding one's strengths and admitting one's weaknesses.
More to that latter point, Ellison skillfully weaves the latest research on the brain and human learning throughout the text and models reflective practice throughout. I found her language to be quite conversational and thus easy to comprehend, most practical, and speaking to the interests of current classroom teachers. Personal Intelligences contains an excellent annotated bibliography on books connecting to the two personal intelligences, useful teaching guides, resources lists, as well as numerous teaching strategies and activities. If there is a weakness in the book, it lies within the final three chapters. Here Ellison stumbles somewhat in her attempt to address the diverse nature of how a student's strength in any of Howard Gardner's six additional intelligences might be utilized to facilitate limitations in the two personal intelligences.