“Two Kinds of Intelligence” by Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi
HS / ELA
Attitude, Community, Intelligence, Identity
Ask students to journal-write (about 4-5 minutes): What makes you unique?
Distribute the poem. Discuss how the text appears to be structured, and what students
anticipate it to be like. Have students circle ending punctuation, and number the
stanzas. Read the poem aloud as a group, and ask participants to underline unfamiliar
vocabulary.
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Rumi was a 13th Century Persian poet and Islamic Scholar. He lived in modern-day
Tajikistan and Turkey. Although he lived a long time ago, many of his ideas are still
relevant today.
Elicit from the group, and list on the (interactive) white board, words that students
identified as unfamiliar vocabulary. Working in partner groups, students look up two
words. Each pair will share the definitions with the group, while all take notes to clarify
meaning.
Participants read the text silently once and then aloud again with a partner. While
reading, have the students underline what they believe to be the most important word in
the poem.
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 What is the single most important word in the poem? (round-robin
response)
 Why did you choose that word? (spontaneous discussion)
 In stanza 2, the speaker of the poem says of the first intelligence, “You
rise in the world. You get ranked ahead or behind others.” What does this
suggest about how society views the first type of intelligence?
 The second kind of intelligence is referred to (stanza 3) as something
“fluid”—what does this mean?
 The speaker of the poem refers to tablets (stanza 2, stanza 3) with each
kind of intelligence. What do you think these tablets are?
 What would you call the second kind of intelligence, if you had to give it a
name?
 If the second tablet is “already completed and preserved,” can we grow
our second kind of intelligence? If so, how?
 Have participants look back at the journal writings from the Launch
Activity. Are these things that make you unique preserved on your tablet?
What else is recorded on the tablet of your “second knowing”?
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Students make notes about ideas that they heard, said or thought about identity. How is
the second type of intelligence unique to each person?
After reading this poem and our seminar discussion, write a letter to yourself in which
you describe the two types of intelligence. What is preserved on your second tablet?
What will you do with this knowledge?
(LDC Task#: 8 )
Have students work in pairs to break down the writing prompt by circling key words, to
determine what the writing task is asking.
Then make a two-column chart showing characteristics of each type of intelligence,
record details from the text as well as ideas classmates shared about each during the
seminar.
Post the following tips for letter writing:
 Begin with a salutation: Dear _____,
 Include both information and your reflections on this information.
 Structure/Outline:
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
o Begin with a brief introduction: Describe what we did, what we talked
about, and what we read.
o Spend one paragraph describing the first type of intelligence, and your
thoughts about it
o Describe the second kind of intelligence in the next paragraph. What is it?
What is preserved on your tablet?
o In the third paragraph, conclude your letter by contrasting the two kinds of
intelligence and explaining how you plan on using each in your own life.
Think about this section as your reminders to yourself!
o Finish your letter with some sort of farewell and sign your name.
Write in a conversational tone that is easy to read. This will require you to put
some of the poem’s ideas into your own words! However, you should also
include a couple of quotations from the poem.
Provide time for students to write a first draft.
Have students work in pairs to read each other’s first drafts aloud, with emphasis on
reader as creator and editor. Switch roles. Provide time for full revisions resulting in a
second draft.
Students should work in groups of three/four to edit one another’s writing for spelling,
grammar and technical/organizational elements. Include a checklist for students who
need extra guidance. Give time for writers to make corrections resulting in a third and
final draft.
Compile digital copies of students’ letters and create a wordle.
(http://www.wordle.net/create) View the wordle as a portrait of ideas as a class and
discuss which words from the poem the class found most important and which original
words multiple students included in their writing.
Emily Satterfield
R. J. Reynolds High School
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Two Kinds of Intelligence
By Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi
There are two kinds of intelligence: one acquired,
as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts
from books and from what the teacher says,
collecting information from the traditional sciences
as well as from the new sciences.
With such intelligence you rise in the world.
You get ranked ahead or behind others
in regard to your competence in retaining
information. You stroll with this intelligence
in and out of fields of knowledge, getting always more
marks on your preserving tablets.
There is another kind of tablet, one
already completed and preserved inside you.
A spring overflowing its springbox. A freshness
in the center of the chest. This other intelligence
does not turn yellow or stagnate. It's fluid,
and it doesn't move from outside to inside
through conduits of plumbing-learning.
This second knowing is a fountainhead
from within you, moving out.
From the translations of Rumi by Coleman Barks
© by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes
retrieved on 10/26/2016 from: http://allpoetry.com/Two-Kinds-of-Intelligence
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