Sunday, November 17, 2013
JoAnn and creative thinking
Chapter 6 discusses the assessment of creativity and creative thinking. How do you promote creative thinking in the classroom? Do you feel that you can grade this type of creativity? Do you feel that you should grade creative assignments? And finally, what skills do you feel students should have in order to be creative thinkers?
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Yes I do promote creative thinking in the classroom. For example when I teach the students political cartoons, I find it an excellent time to encourage students to be creative. A simple way to start is to show examples of what it is to be creative with the topic at hand. Students should know what is expected of them, and giving them examples of that, will point them in the right direction. Even simply just teaching in a creative way, will spark some passion hopefully for the student to be creative. I do feel creativity can and at times, should be assessed. Creativity is a skill that some students have (and sometimes that may be their best skill) and others need to work hard to come up with something creative, and like anything else it should be noticed with a grade. One way assessing creativity may be with a rubric. Skills students should have in order to be creative, the ability to "think outside the box" and knowing your audience and how your creativity may appeal to them.
ReplyDeleteI believe creative thinking should be involved in a classroom everyday, in order to promote creative thinking I believe as a teacher you need to encourage the children to think outside of the box and create an environment to where the things students may say aren’t dismissed but able to be built upon, and discussed further. Creative thinking is taking a topic students are interested in and asking them questions to where they need to either research other resources or think creatively by having the students think of a bigger picture not just a problem at hand. I believe you can grade creative thinking..maybe not so much how creative they actually are but the effort they have put into an assignment and the reasoning for what they were asked to think about
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, in the beginning of the year I always have the class work on a project on summary writing. Part of the rubric is “creativity” and in regards to this project it is usually more along the lines of color and aesthetics. However, this assignment is also a “get to know the student” based project which is my first time meeting with the kids and getting to know a bit about them. It is my “crossover” project from elementary school to the now more mature intermediate school. Once this project is behind us we move on to more intense and reorganization and analyzation of ideas in regards to creativity. A lot of the creativity in my class comes to fruition through creative writing, use of figurative language, and the concept of rearranging of ideas. After reading chapter 6 of Brookhart, I agree a with Swellar’s idea of creativity and that it CAN be assessed. Swellar claims that students can’t successfully rearrange concepts, analyze characters or accomplish other creative tasks if the student doesn’t have some level of knowledge about the topic (Brookhart, 2010). After reading Swellar’s take on creativity and grading students on creativity I do believe to grade creativity is A-OK.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to teaching creativity I approach it in two ways. First, while teaching writing, I focus on explosive the students to a lot of figurative language. We study all the different writer’s crafts and I encourage students to try this in writing assignments. Furthermore, I enjoy analyzing creative writing pieces or texts with the class. We dissect the different techniques and approaches an author uses. While analyzing the piece, we discuss how it made the literature at hand more interesting for us as the reader…and then how it may have been more interesting and fun from the point of the writer. Working with the mentor texts (be it published work or former student work) the students are inspired to try new approaches to creativity on a daily basis. Once a student jumps into trying a creative approach it seems significantly less intimidating for them as writers.
Creative thinking can come in numerous forms and it is different at varying grade levels. At the secondary level, creativity can come from such methods as: thinking differently about a particular topic being discussed, producing something creative in class in terms of a posterboard, video demonstration, etc. or coming up with a fascinating storyline based on an historical event. Yes, creativity should be graded but carefully and with a clear rubric so as to not leave room for ambiguity. However, I also agree with what Brookhart says when she mentions that at times, teachers tend to (and I am as guilty as anyone) confuse creativity in thought with visual creativity. For example, if I am asking students to create a posterboard of ancient civilizations, I can give one grade because the board looks nice, has varying color patters, and numerous pictures but what if they did not follow directions and there is no indication they understood the subject matter? At all grade levels, I assign creative work at various points throughout the year. But particularly at the secondary level, students should be under the impression from the beginning that the bulk of the credit will still be centered around how well they translated what they learned about the topic into their creative work, not just the ability to make something "different".
ReplyDeleteCreative thinking is a component that I feel really is in every grade level, but seen more in the primary grades, especially in a kindergarten classroom. Children are starting to become comfortable with their thinking in the lower grades and begin thinking about their answers to a question. They are able to get creative when you give them a certain topic. For example, we created a word web after reading a literature piece today and the children helped me to make a web about soccer. Once they were done watching me, they ahd to draw their own word web with pictures since many do not know how to write the words. They were so creative in their drawings about their favorite sports that it was so great to listen to them explain. Now here’s something daily: We do Calendar Math in class where the children come to the board and take part in our daily calendar, counting the days of school, our weather graph. I tend to ask them questions just to see their creativity. For example, I may say something like “What would happen if it always rained on the weekends? Where would you go? What would you do? This open ended question would lead to a class discussion of children being very creative. The kids love these kind of questions because they make it their priority to try and answer it.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, its nice to see how creative they are in their art work. I try to send home a project a month and I give them very simple guidelines to follow but I tell them to add their own creativity. They had to make turkeys for Thanksgiving and used so many different art supplies to create big beautiful bright feathers on their turkeys. They are definitely thinking out of the box especially in these kinds of projects. There are many practices the teacher can use to promote creativity for all grade levels especially with the use of technology. Finger paint activities are always great in class to promote creativity as well. They are super creative during our centers as well. Love the creativity in my classroom!
There are many ways to get students to think creatively. I think that a great age for this is K-1. This is what Piaget calls the Preoperational stage of life. It lasts from the age of 2-7. At this stage, kids learn through pretend play but still struggle with logic and taking the point of view of other people.I think it is a good idea to promote creative thinning at this age to get the students to understand otic and thinking more. You can show them a picture and have them tell you a story about what is going on in the picture. This offers them the time to use their imaginations and think creatively. You can also tell a story and have them draw their interpretation of what the story looks like to them in their minds. We can also read them a book and have them come up with an alternate ending. I have done this in older grated and this allows for creative thinking and offers them to opportunity to think outside the box and use higher order thinking skills as well.
ReplyDeleteCreativity is promoted in my class. It starts by making sure the classroom environment feels comfortable and safe for students, so that they are encouraged to take risks. While we discuss topics, I may say "This is what works for me" or "This is how I remember it", but then I remind them that what works for one person may not work for another and I encourage students to do what works best for them. Especially in elementary school, students are used to having one particular way to do every task. Being a 5th grade teacher I encourage all my students to do what works best for them. You need to give them freedom where possible, for instance, they have the freedom to take straight notes or add pictures or hints to help them out. Guidelines for projects need to be minimal, just enough for students to understand what they are responsible for, and all the rest needs to be chosen by the students. By giving them more freedom, and encouraging students to find other ways to learn the material allows them to think "outside the box". You can grade creativity, but since it is not the focus of the subject matter, it is often just one small part on a rubric for an assignment. The students are encouraged to be creative and it counts for 20 points on their project, so those that are very creative will receive the 20 points, where those that do not have them will be penalized, but only marginally so, losing 10-15 points max. Creativity covers so many different areas, however, as Brookhart mentions, teachers tends to focus just on coloring and visual appeal. Creativity can go much further, by allowing students to take their research and knowledge and apply it to any numbers of opportunities for others to learn. For example, my students are working on making commercials and print advertisements for the various body systems. They will be rewarded for aesthetic appeal of their poster, but the real emphasis is how they take their research and come up with a way to sell it in a simple to understand, yet entertaining manner.
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