Issue 2: Creativity in the Classroom
Did you know?
Research shows highly creative individuals possess unique traits that differentiate them from others. In a thirty-year longitudinal study of extremely creative individuals, Paul Torrance identified ten common characteristics that marked this select population:
- Delight in deep thinking
- Tolerance of mistakes
- Love of one's work
- Clear purpose
- Enjoying one's work
- Feeling comfortable as a minority of one
- Being different
- Not being well-rounded
- Sense of mission
- Courage to be creative*
"The trick is to create an environment that's purposely planned — and then step back and observe how the students are thinking. The planning takes a lot more time than moving from page to page in a textbook, but the reward is in the creativity." –Marian Peiffer, Educator
Performance Learning PLUS is a monthly e-newsletter by Performance Learning Systems (PLS), a comprehensive educational services company that has provided a full spectrum of programs, products, and consulting services for educators and business professionals since 1971.
The focus of this issue is CREATIVITY IN THE CLASSROOM.
Tips on how to encourage creativity in your students:
- Involve students in the development process: Have students choose a topic that interests them and then do the research, think about what materials will be needed, and write the directions for an activity they would like to do in class.
- Appeal to all of the senses: When possible, present new information so students can see it, hear it, taste it, smell it, touch it, and feel it. Encourage students to approach a problem in many different ways.
- Offer real-life experiences: Have students create their own useful inventions; connect learning to potential careers for your students; take students on field trips so they can experience hands-on learning.
- Lead activities that will allow your students to flex their brains: Do brain-teasers, puzzles, games, and other activities that encourage your students to "think out of the box." (See below for a creative activity example.)
Creative Activity: Word Play
Choose a word and write it on the board, arranging the letters in a way that pictorially shows the word's meaning. (For example, write the word "snuggle" with the letters tightly squeezed together in a hug, or write the word "totem pole" in a vertical line to represent a pole.) Then have your students follow this process with their vocabulary words. This approach often helps students better understand and remember words' meanings as well as their spellings.
The activity above is taken from the Performance Learning Systems graduate course Meaningful Activities to Generate Interesting Classrooms®.
Reference:
*E. P. Torrance (1993). The beyonders in a thirty year longitudinal study of creative achievement. Roeper Review, 15, 3 , 131-135.
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Related Graduate Course
Meaningful Activities to Generate Interesting Classrooms™
This exciting, hands-on course offers you the opportunity to learn about and acquire a multitude of engaging activities that go beyond the textbook and worksheet. Participation in over 60 activities will give you practice in creating, evaluating, and adapting ideas to your own specific curriculum needs — immediately useful in your day-to-day teaching at any grade level.
Meaningful Activities to Generate Interesting Classrooms®
