Creative Classrooms How purposeful work transforms educators and students Mayfield, 2012 –

The Case for Creativity 1. Creativity is complex, and the best thing we may do is model our process for it in front of our students (Clark, 2002, p. 109)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Modeling and Creativity Test

The Case for Creativity 2. Choice and perceived control are important in a child’s academic achievement and self-concept (Hall 1987)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Genre Slips (choice in the projects that are done within the class)

The Case for Creativity 3. Wallas’s four steps: preparation, incubation, illumination, verification (as cited in Dacey & Lennon, 1998, p )

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Silent sustained time to write and think – and then time to collaborate

The Case for Creativity 4. Schools suppress creativity (Dacey & Lennon, 1998, p. 69)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? The “No great work of Western Civilization was ever created in a classroom” theory of generating both work and ideas

The Case for Creativity 5. Award-winning creative teachers use student-centered activities to help students make real word connections through the use of technology and media (Horng et al 2005)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Lego project Current events

The Case for Creativity 6. Albert (1996a) argued that the most important element in families in terms of nurturing creativity is whether they are primarily concerned with conventional success, acceptability, and status or whether they are willing to take risks and allow children to learn from experience what sparks their interest and leads them to be creative (as cited in Dacey & Lennon, 1998, p )

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Rubrics that encourage risk taking (add creativity to the rubric or add plus/minus system to paper)

The Case for Creativity 7. Creativity is enhanced when it is intrinsically motivated (Dacey & Lennon 1998, p. 79)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Don’t have to tell kids to be creative – also, you shouldn’t have to grade everything (but I never told you this and so you never saw this slide – this slide doesn’t exist)

The Case for Creativity Peak Periods for Creativity (Dacey) second most critical to earlier childhood years

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Point of view stories Morphological sandwiches Recipe cards (formulas, events, books)

The Case for Creativity 9. The best evidence indicates that one of the traits most critical to the creative process is the tolerance of ambiguity (Dacey & Lennon, 1998, p. 98)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Host debates and have the students never know which side they are defending

The Case for Creativity 10. “Common sense suggests a relationship between efficient metaphor use and creativity (Dacey & Lennon, 1998, p. 163)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Metaphor lists – common objects and their matchup (Oak Mountain and Day after Thanksgiving Shopping)

The Case for Creativity 11. Creative thinking will become more important as the world changes to an information-based society (Dacey & Lennon, 1998, p. 226)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Take data and DO something with it (example, research projects having a particular end in mind other than a trash can after it’s been given back)

The Case for Creativity 12. Teachers may be responding to the conformist subset of creative children, called the briefcase creative, but they are failing to respond to the less conforming children, called the bohemians (Dawson 1997)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? How inviting is your room to the creatively gifted child? How many times a week to do yell at the kid that is way, way, way out there?

The Case for Creativity 13. While gifted adolescents are more creative, their creativity does not move off into randomness that makes no sense, rather their originality is tied to the peripheral properties they add to a central concept, not the design of anew central concept itself (Ward et al 1999)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Adding to stories (deleted scenes, outtakes), theories, or stories Don’t reinvent the wheel

The Case for Creativity 14. While a standards-based curriculum meets the learners’ need for a knowledge base, a curriculum that includes creativity, opportunities for students to practice nonconventional modes of thinking, is a much fuller and beneficial path for educators to traverse (Burke-Adams 2007)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Cross-application of studies, the left-to- right-brain switchovers Fake Nine Weeks Test Write things down!!!

The Case for Creativity 15. Schools now value equality over excellence, and creativity will not come forth nor be encouraged when students are expected to be at the same equal level (DeLacy 2004)

Practical – How does it look in the classroom? Open-ended responses v. close- ended responses