Creativity in the Classroom

1. Creativityin the Classroom By: Bruno Allard, Jared Holder, Kate H, Katie Brennan, Marie Odette, Mindy Goodine and Jessica Chapman

2. Creativity is: -valuable and beneficial -universally available -generates new, good, and relevant results -exploratory -divergent -open ended -flexible -whole brained -a lifelong development

3. Characteristics of the Creative Person 1.Metaphoric Thinking2.Flexibility and Skill in Decision Making3.Coping Well with Novelty4.Logical Thinking Skills5.Visualization6.Escaping Entrenchment7.Finding Order in Chaos

4. 9.Perseverance, Drive, Commitment to Task10.Curiosity11.Openness to Experience12.Tolerance for Ambiguity13.Broad Interests14.Value Originality15.Intuition and Deep Emotion

5. Bringing Creativity into the Classroom

6. Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Creating Evaluating Analysis Applying Understanding Remembering

7. Memory Pathways • Procedural • Episodic • Conditioned • Response • Emotional • Semantic

8. The Classroom

9. Empathy

10. - English - Math - History - Social Studies - Science - Music

11. Advantages creative, positive, interactive, enjoyable, exciting, flexible, productive, engaging, involving, encouraging, inspiring, stimulating, fresh, functional, comfortable, relaxing, informal, personal, active and fun! • Students have the motivation to explore, experience and discover • Doesn’t resemble the typical formal classroom space which encourages rather than diminishes children’s interest and participation • Encourages co-operation rather than competition and individualism • Takes away the “distant” lecturer appearance of teachers • No more class discussions dominated by a few students

12. Things to consider: • Some children appreciate the traditional “rows of desks” approach • What about analytical students?? • Could be distracting for some students or take-away from the lesson • Will creativity spur discipline or behavioural issues? • Vulnerability – “am I good enough?” and “I can’t do it” • ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’ • (Einstein, 1929)

13. Ashley’s Section

14. Evaluating Creativity • Grade 6 students were given the following project… • Discover Thanksgiving! • Today’s class we will be going to the library to research the history and traditions of Thanksgiving. The information you collect will be used to create a final project. Below are the choices for how you may pass in your work. • You may… • write a creative poem, • design a drawing of Thanksgiving, or • compose an essay that includes all of your research

15. Things to know - Students will remember 10% of what they read, 30% of what they see and 90% of what they see, hear, say and do! - Evaluation is the judgement placed on work - Assessment is the process of gathering information to plan for meaningful instruction - Grading is the attaching of a symbol to the results of the evaluation - Discussion helps students clarify their intentions. - Ideally structured conversations between the teacher and other students are the best way to evaluate works. It can help creators recognize that their classmates each bring something different to a work and hence respond differently. - Assessment in creativity need to provide feedback to students, allowing them to see evaluation as a source of growth rather than merely a label - Criteria for evaluating creativity NEEDS to be presented in advance You should be able to measure what you expect your students to learn

16. Self Evaluation - Understanding the criteria by which their work is evaluated brings students one step closer to effectiveself-evaluation - Effective self-evaluation requires students to measure their efforts against a scale or criterion and make judgements about how they measure up

17. Example of A Self Evaluation Form • Name : Date: • Project/Activity Description: • What was the most interesting of challenging thing about what I did? • What was the main problem that I had to solve while I was working? • How did I try to solve the problem? • What have I learned from this particular project? • What sort of effort did I put into the work • If working in a group, what did I contribute to the process or the product? • If I were to experience this project or activity again, what would I change or do differently? • What other project/experience might grow out of the one I just completed?

18. Example of A Peer Evaluation

19. Example of A Teacher’s Evaluation Student’s Name: Date: Often/Sometimes/Seldom Contributes idea to explore the theme or concept Contributes to brainstorming activities Extends the theme in a new direction Develops one aspect of the theme in detail Transfers knowledge of the theme or concept into his or her artworks Explores several ideas Takes risk by exploring something new to him or her Shows interest in the arts experience Show commitment toward the experience of creating Challenges himself or herself Describes what did and did not work in his or her arts experience Identifies what he or she would like to change in order to improve the arts expression Describes what his or her own art expression means personally Maintains awareness of his or her intentions in arts expressions Shows concentration in arts experiences Discuss why choices were made Describes images and sensations evoked by the arts experience Contributes ideas when working in groups Works cooperatively within the group Works independently

20. Sources Starko et al. Creativity in the Classroom: Schools of Curious Delight. Longman Publishers: New York, 1995. 69-90. Allam, C. (August 2008). Creative activity and its impact on student learning – issues of implementation. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. Vol. 45, No. 3, p 281–288. Atlay, M. and Jankowska, M. (August 2008). Use of creative space in enhancing students’ engagement. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. Vol. 45, No. 3, p 271–279. Crow, B. (September 2008). Changing conceptions of educational creativity: a study of student teachers’ experience of musical creativity. Music Education Research. Vol. 10, No. 3, p 373-388.