Sparking Student Creativity (PDF)

Patti Drapeau P R A C T I C A L W A Y S T O P R O M O T E I N N O V A T I V E T H I N K I N G A N D P R O B L E M S O L V I N G Creativity Student Sparking Sparking Student Creativity PRACTICAL WAYS TO PROMOTE INNOVATIVE THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING Patti Drapeau Education Browse excerpts from ASCD books: www.ascd.org/books Alexandria, Virginia USA Many ASCD members received this book as a member benefit upon its initial release. Learn more at: www. ascd.org/memberbooks Teaching isn’t merely transmitting knowledge to students; it’s also about teaching students to approach learning in engaging and unexpected ways. In Sparking Student Creativity: Practical Ways to Promote Innova- tive Thinking and Problem Solving, author and researcher Patti Drapeau explores and explains research related to creativity and its relevance in today’s standards-based, critical thinking–focused classroom. The book vividly and comprehensively shows • How creative lessons can meet and extend the expectations of curriculum standards such as the Common Core State Standards, • How to incorporate creativity and assessment into daily class- room practices, • How to develop a “Creativity Road Map” to guide instruction, and • How to design lessons that prompt and support creative thinking. In addition, the book includes 40 “grab and go” ideas that infuse lesson plans with a spirit of exploration. No matter what grade levels or content areas you teach, Sparking Student Creativity will help you to produce creative lesson components that directly address critical content, target specific standards, and require thoughtful products from students as they grow into independent learners and become successful adults. $26.95 U.S. SparkingCreativity_front_back_F2pages.indd 1-3 8/13/14 12:02 PM  Sparking Student Creativity P R A C T I C A L W A Y S T O P R O M O T E I N N O V A T I V E T H I N K I N G A N D P R O B L E M S O L V I N G   Sparking Student Creativity P R A C T I C A L W A Y S T O P R O M O T E I N N O V A T I V E T H I N K I N G A N D P R O B L E M S O L V I N G Patti Drapeau P R A C T I C A L W A Y S T O P R O M O T E I N N O V A T I V E T H I N K I N G A N D P R O B L E M S O L V I N G Alexandria, Virginia USA  1703 N. Beauregard St. • Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 USA Phone: 800-933-2723 or 703-578-9600 • Fax: 703-575-5400 Website: www.ascd.org • E-mail: [email protected] Author guidelines: www.ascd.org/write Judy Seltz, Executive Director; Richard Papale, Acting Chief Program Development Officer; Stefani Roth, Interim Publisher; Julie Houtz, Director, Book Editing & Production; Lorraine Sobson, Editor; Ernesto Yermoli, Project Manager; Thomas Lytle, Senior Graphic Designer; Mike Kalyan, Manager, Production Services; Valerie Younkin, Production Designer Copyright © 2014 ASCD. All rights reserved. It is illegal to reproduce copies of this work in print or electronic format (including reproductions displayed on a secure intranet or stored in a retrieval system or other electronic storage device from which copies can be made or displayed) without the prior written permission of the publisher. 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If you notice a deactivated or changed link, please e-mail [email protected] with the words “Link Update” in the subject line. In your message, please specify the web link, the book title, and the page number on which the link appears. PAPERBACK ISBN: 978-1-4166-1935-2 ASCD product # 115007 Quantity discounts: 10–49, 10%; 50+, 15%; 1,000+, special discounts (e-mail programteam @ascd.org or call 800-933-2723, ext. 5773, or 703-575-5773). Also available in e-book for- mats. For desk copies, go to www.ascd.org/deskcopy. ASCD Member Book No. F15-1 (September 2014 PSI+). ASCD Member Books mail to Premium (P), Select (S), and Institutional Plus (I+) members on this schedule: Jan, PSI+; Feb, P; Apr, PSI+; May, P; Jul, PSI+; Aug, P; Sep, PSI+; Nov, PSI+; Dec, P. For current details on membership, see www.ascd.org/membership. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Drapeau, Patti. �Sparking student creativity : practical ways to promote innovative thinking and problem solving / Patti Drapeau. ��pages cm �Includes bibliographical references and index. �ISBN 978-1-4166-1935-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Creative thinking—Study and teaching. 2. Creative ability in children. 3. Critical thinking—Study and teaching. I. Title. �LB1062.D68 2014 �370.15'7—dc23 2014018287 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14������1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix Chapter 1 Intentional Creativity: Fostering Student Creativity from Potential to Performance . . . . . . . . . . .1 Chapter 2 Practical Creativity: Making It Work in the Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Chapter 3 Creativity and the Common Core: Matching the “What” to the “How”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Chapter 4 Creativity and Imagination: Unlocking the Power of Imagination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Chapter 5 Creativity and Innovation: Cultivating Innovative Ideas and Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Chapter 6 Creativity and Problem Solving: Working It Out Creatively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Chapter 7 Creativity and Assessment: Realizing What Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Sparking Student Creativity P R A C T I C A L W A Y S T O P R O M O T E I N N O V A T I V E T H I N K I N G A N D P R O B L E M S O L V I N G   vii Acknowledgments Thank you to Lenny Drapeau, first and foremost, for supporting me in all of my work projects. I always know you are there for me. You are my creative spark. I’d like to thank Sara Drapeau Bodi for calling me on her way home from school and for listening to me talk, almost daily, about this book, chapter by chapter. I’d like to thank Kip Bodi, Kasey Drapeau D’Amato, and Steve D’Amato, who all model a “can-do” attitude; you inspire me to push forward. I’d like to acknowledge Sandy Gerber; everyone needs a personal cheerleader and you are mine. I’d like to thank Lenore Burokoff, who continues to remind me the value of love and family. I am fortunate to teach at the University of Southern Maine, where I have met so many wonderful graduate students who have shared such great ideas with me. They inspire me in more ways than they will ever know. I’d like to thank Lee Worcester, my colleague at the Maine Department of Education. She is always willing to listen to my ideas and offer suggestions  viii Sparking Student Creativity in such a thoughtful way. I’d like to thank Diane Heacox for her friendship. It is wonderful to have someone to talk shop with who gets it. I’d also like to acknowledge Ourania En Baslis, my Australian colleague, who awakens my creative spirit. I’d like to recognize Meg Bratsch, who convinced me there was a need for this book. I am grateful to the ASCD staff, especially Stefani Roth, who believed in the book and made it happen. I’d like to acknowledge the reviewers who helped drive the direction of this book. I am thankful for my editor, Lorraine Sobson, who said she wasn’t creative but took on this book project anyway. Her edit- ing skills helped to make this book what it is. Thank you, too, the reader, for acknowledging the importance of creativity in schools and making a difference.  ix Preface I wrote this book for three very specific reasons: to help teach- ers reach more students, especially those who are disengaged in school and do not find what we teach interesting; to suggest strategies and tools that encourage creative thinking and creative products; and to show teachers how to intentionally use creativ- ity in their classrooms. Some students have interesting ideas but are unable to express them because many of our instructional activities do not lend themselves to such ways of thinking. It is my hope that the tools and strategies presented in this book provide teachers with tangible ways to promote creativity—resulting in an increase in student achievement and love of learning. Through creativity, we can reach more of the learners more of the time. Creative thinking can be integrated into any content area. This book brings together research, theory, practical applications, and current thoughts about the role of creativity in education. In writing this book, I reflected on all that I have read  x Sparking Student Creativity and learned, combined this with my own practical experiences, and translated the result into practice. This book also includes what I have learned about creativity from other educators who have shared their thoughts and ideas with me. Consider a teacher who, as part of her master’s program in gifted education, learns about the four creative thinking skill areas: fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration (Torrance, 1987a). She does not think of herself as particularly creative, so she is happy to learn some concrete ways to use creativity in her lessons. The more creative thinking skill lessons she presents, the more she grows to believe in her own creative ability. A year later, she takes the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1987b). She realizes that the test assesses all four areas of creativ- ity, so she makes sure her responses reflect fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Her score comes back in the 99th percentile. Would the teacher have done as well on the test if she never learned about creative thinking skills and never practiced them with her students? This teacher doubts it; she feels quite certain the information she received and the practice she did with her students made a difference. I can state this definitively, because I am that teacher. This is my story, and it was the begin- ning of my pursuit of knowledge in the field of creativity. This experience taught me that if I can learn to be more creative, so can my students. I encourage you to conduct creative thinking lessons even if you think you are not creative. Actually, it is really not about whether you are creative or not but whether you want to teach more creatively and are willing to try new ideas. Sparking Student Creativity will provide you with a rationale as to why creativity in education is important and with tools and strategies to help you make creativity intentional in your classroom. This book includes a “road map to creativity” that begins with the classroom environ- ment and moves along four roads: one focusing on thinking-skill  Preface xi verbs and phrases, another on strategies, a third on innovation and creative problem solving, and a fourth on products. The book includes 40 “grab and go” strategies, aligns creativity lessons with standards, suggests different ways to design creative lessons, and shows how you can redirect lessons to promote creative thinking. This book is a practical resource that will guide you in your efforts to promote creativity in your classroom. I hope the ideas pre- sented in this book will help you unlock your students’ creativity, will serve to motivate your students, and will result in an increase in their performance and achievement.   1 Intentional Creativity Fostering Student Creativity from Potential to Performance Teachers and administrators throughout this country are focused on ensuring that both students and schools make adequate yearly progress and show growth. We order new textbooks, address cur- ricula, concentrate professional development efforts on ways to increase student achievement, investigate new strategies to enhance students’ academic progress and improve their behavior, and meet throughout the year in our professional learning commu- nities to discuss what is and is not working. We do everything right. However, at the end of many an academic year, schools see negligible improvements in achievement scores. Many students still act out and do not care about school. Teachers become disil- lusioned. Administrators face both low-performing, unmotivated students and disheartened staff. Do we need a miracle? Perhaps it is simply that the scripted lessons teachers use are not motivating students. Veering from the scripted lesson— asking questions that promote critical and creative thinking, 1 1  2 Sparking Student Creativity encouraging students to use divergent thinking to generate ideas to analyze and evaluate—might just be the key to changing stu- dents’ attitudes and enhancing achievement. What many class- rooms seem to be missing is creativity: creatively questioning to spark student inquiry and “hooking” student interest by using unusual images; asking students to connect content to unrelated ideas; and fostering hands-on, small-group, problem-based learn- ing. What would happen if all teachers encouraged students to think creatively and produce creative products? Could this be the “miracle” we seek? The idea that our educational system could use an infusion of creativity is one that has garnered much attention in recent years (e.g., Bronson & Merryman, 2010). Sir Ken Robinson’s YouTube video Do Schools Kill Creativity? (2007) has had over 5 million video hits. Teachers are reading up on the basics of cre- ativity (e.g., Beghetto & Kaufman, 2013) and watching videos that compare traditional lessons to those that require creative thinking (e.g., Ali, 2011; Maine Department of Education, 2013). Still, many educators feel that a piece is missing: precisely how to “teach” creativity and incorporate creative thinking in their classrooms. What does creativity look like, and how can schools foster it? Creative instruction can be used to promote achievement across content areas, establish long-term learning (Woolfolk, 2007, as cited in Beghetto & Kaufman, 2010), encourage cre- ative thinking and problem solving (Treffinger, 2008), and foster motivation and engagement. Creative thinking lessons build on critical thinking and go beyond simple recall to consider “what if” possibilities and incorporate real-life problem solving; they require students to use both divergent and convergent thinking. As Robinson has noted, “Creativity is not only about generating ideas; it involves making judgments about them. The creative pro- cess includes elaborating on the initial ideas, testing and refining them and even rejecting them” (2011, Chapte r 6).