Teaching Standards-based Creativity in the Arts (PDF)

Issued jointly by the South Carolina Alliance for Arts Education and the Office of Academic Standards of the South Carolina Department of Education January 2009 Teaching Standards-based Creativity in the Arts  2 The South Carolina Alliance for Arts Education is a member of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network and receives funding from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the South Carolina Arts Commission and the South Carolina Department of Education  3 Table of Contents WHY CREATIVITY?...................................................................................................7 CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN ARTS EDUCATION: MYTHS, MISCONCEPTIONS, AND PRACTICAL PROCEDURES.......................................9 DANCE:.......................................................................................................................99 GRADES PREK-K.............................................................................................................................. 100 GRADES 1-2 ..................................................................................................................................... 109 GRADES 3-5 ..................................................................................................................................... 118 GRADES 6-8 ..................................................................................................................................... 133 GRADES 9-12.................................................................................................................................... 151 GRADES 9-12 ADVANCED ................................................................................................................. 172 DANCE CREATIVITY RESOURCE LIST................................................................................................. 191 MUSIC.......................................................................................................................195 MUSIC: GENERAL ............................................................................................................................. 196 GRADES PREK-K.............................................................................................................................. 197 GRADES 1-2 ..................................................................................................................................... 210 GRADES 3-5 ..................................................................................................................................... 226 MUSIC: INSTRUMENTAL.................................................................................................................... 251 GRADES 6-8/9-12 INTERMEDIATE...................................................................................................... 252 GRADES 9–12 PROFICIENT ................................................................................................................ 270 MUSIC: CHORAL............................................................................................................................... 288 GRADES 9–12 PROFICIENT ................................................................................................................ 289 THEATRE:................................................................................................................295 GRADES PREK-K.............................................................................................................................. 296 GRADES 1-2 ..................................................................................................................................... 312 GRADES 3-5 ..................................................................................................................................... 331 GRADES 6-8 ..................................................................................................................................... 349 VISUAL ARTS:.........................................................................................................397 GRADES PREK-K.............................................................................................................................. 398 GRADES 1-2 ..................................................................................................................................... 407 GRADES 3-5 ..................................................................................................................................... 415 GRADES 6-8 ..................................................................................................................................... 428 GRADES 9-12.................................................................................................................................... 439 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON CREATIVITY............................................455  4  5 To the readers and facilitators of this document: While creativity is inherit in the arts and in the South Carolina Visual and Performing Arts Academic Standards (SCVPAAS), it is the intention of this document, Teaching Standards-based Creativity in the Arts, to enable teachers to foster a heightened creative experience for their students. Much is currently being written about the importance of creativity in our lives. This document emphasizes the importance of this concept. Richard Florida, Daniel Pink, and Thomas Freeman have brought the notion of creativity to the attention of constituents not only in the arts however, throughout all areas our existence. Teaching Standards-based Creativity in the Arts is aligned with each of the SCVPAAS content standards and their indicators. Strategies are given for the teacher to use to enable students to foster their creativity through activities in each of the four arts forms. In addition, resources are provided to give teachers further information to research concerning the implementation of the standards via creativity. This document also provides readers with an Annotated Bibliography of Creativity compile by Kristy Callaway. Twenty-two different titles are provided with a description about the publication‘s content. This will help readers investigate further study of creativity. Dr. Nancy Breard has provided an essay titled Why Creativity?. Dr. Breard defines creativity and addresses various levels of creative process. Dr. Seymour Simmons has provided a comprehensive overview of creativity in his article Cultivating Creativity in Arts Education: Myths, Misconceptions, and Practical Procedures. His article presents topics of interest that reflect the various nuances that comprise our creativity. It is essential that we focus our teaching on facilitating our student‘s education toward being more creativity both in the arts and in other content areas. This will provided them with the competitive edge they will need to compete in a global community and economy. The development of creativity in our students‘ minds will also help them to solve complex problems that we meet daily as an individual and as a society. This document will provide guaranteed experiences in that development. R. Scot Hockman Education Associate for the Visual and Performing Arts South Carolina Department of Education  6 Contributors Acknowledgements The South Carolina Department of Education and the South Carolina Alliance for Arts Education extend their grateful appreciation to the following arts educators for their conscientious work in writing and organizing this Teaching Standards-based Creativity in the Arts document. Dance Jennifer Bull-Richland School District Two Kara Conder, Richland School District One Veneshia Stribling, Richland School District Two Music Kathy Clark, Berkeley County School District Mary Lou Schweickert, Richland School District One Sheneice Smith, Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five Theatre Indira Cureton, Cummings-Richland School District One Jeffrey Jordan, Charleston County School District Adam Weiner, Darlington County School District Visual Arts Kevin Morrissey, Dorchester Two School District Linda Neely-Lander University Kimberly Sullivan, School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties Annotated Bibliography on Creativity Kristy Smith Callaway, Beaufort County School District Introductory Essays Nancy Breard, Ed. D., Converse University Seymour Simmons, Ed. D., Winthrop University Compilation and Facilitation Eve Walling-Wohlford, South Carolina Alliance for Arts Education R. Scot Hockman, South Carolina Department of Education  7 Why Creativity? By Nancy Breard, Ed. D. Converse College The quick, simple answer is that we are never more alive than when we are engaged in creative pursuits. This answer, of course, generates more questions. What are creative pursuits? What makes them creative? Why do we feel more alive when we are creative? Jane Piirto (2004) found that ―the root of the words ‗create‘ and ‗creativity‘ comes from the Latin creâtus and creâre, meaning ‗to make or produce,‘ or literally, ‗to grow‘ (p.6).‖ Thus, when we are being creative, we are growing in knowledge and/or skill, but we are doing so independent of an algorithm or an authority figure. We are in charge of our own growth in the creative realm. There is a myth afoot that creative pursuits are those related to the fine arts. Certainly there are many ways to be creative in the fine arts, but the possibilities are much broader including all disciplines and everyday life. Csikszentmihallyi (1996) differentiates the ―Big C‖ creative person from the ―little c‖ creative person. The ―Big C‖ people change the domain or field in which they work and they tend to be well known. For example, John Steinbeck (novelist); Albert Einstein (mathematician/scientist); Al Gore (politician/environmentalist); Spike Lee (film maker); Stravinsky (musician/composer); Lee Ioccoca (automaker). This list could go on and on, but these people significantly added to or changed their fields. The ‗little c‖ creative people are the ones in everyday life that seek and find innovative solutions to mundane problems. For example, the cook who can create a tasty casserole on the spur of the moment without a recipe, or the teacher who can create from scratch an eye-catching bulletin board related to the topic students are exploring. Most of us will never be ―Big C‖ creators, but all of us are presented with opportunities to be ―little c‖ creators. Now that we have established big and small creative pursuits, we need to examine what makes them creative. First, we freely choose to explore creative ways of approaching the task even though we may not have chosen the task, e.g. at work or at school. The process depends on our background knowledge and might include brain-storming, metaphorical thinking, and problem solving. During this phase we attempt to withhold judgment of our ideas. Next, after reviewing our range of ideas using pros/cons or advantages/disadvantages, we let them percolate or incubate in our minds as we do other things. During this stage, we might have an ―AHA!‖ when we settle on one or a combination of our ideas. Finally, we bring the task to fruition using our best idea or ideas.  8 The process of being creative has energized and motivated us. During the process of creating we may have lost our sense of time because of our intense concentration and involvement. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) would say we were in ―flow.‖ The results of big and little ―c‖ creativity are personal satisfaction, increased self-esteem and confidence, self-recognition that we can be producers as well as consumers. There is a spiritual quality (not related to institutionalized religion) that we experience during the creative process. It is a feeling that we are, at least partially, fulfilling our destiny. Through the creative process and product, we are BECOMING, which leads us back to the Latin root of creativity, ―to grow.‖ Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity. Piirto, J. (2004). Understanding Creativity. New York: HarperCollins Scottsdale, AZ: Great Potential Press  9 Cultivating Creativity in Arts Education: Myths, Misconceptions, and Practical Procedures © Seymour Simmons, 2008. Copying, reproduction or other uses, including on other websites, beyond quotations for scholarly purposes without the expressed written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. Seymour Simmons, III, Ed. D. Associate Professor Department of Fine Arts, Winthrop University Please address comments and suggestions to: [email protected] Preface and Acknowledgements: Wherever we find it, creativity enthralls us, and we find it almost everywhere we look. As a natural phenomenon, creativity is perceivable at every level of the cosmos from the birth of stars, to the evolution of ecosystems, to the growth and development of each individual plant, animal, or person. As a human phenomenon, it is evident in the imaginative play of children throughout the world, as well as in the passionate pursuits of certain adults who devote themselves to advancing what is given to us by nature, whether through innovations in the arts and sciences, the education of the young, the improvement of society, or the resolution of challenges that face us at any given moment. Yet, even as we assume that creativity is innate to nature and essential to human kind, we also know that creativity cannot be taken for granted, for it is all too often lost in the passage from childhood to maturity. It is thus the job of educators to sustain and cultivate creativity, a task that encompasses both what we teach and the way we teach it. The process of cultivating creativity among students with different backgrounds, abilities, and levels of interest can be daunting in any era, but it may be especially the case today, with education constrained in so many ways, ranging from ongoing high-stakes assessments to more recent economic setbacks. Taking all these issues into account, my intent with this paper is to encourage renewed emphasis on creativity in arts education while offering strategies for doing so in dance, drama, music, and visual arts based on activities such as those found in Teaching for Creativity Using SC Standards (2008). In addressing these topics, I will focus primarily on four ―myths of creativity‖ that I believe have long impeded effective teaching in the arts and elsewhere. One myth links creativity with a radical view of originality assumed to be free of all influences. A second identifies creativity with suffering of various kinds, while the last two define creative people in terms of what are widely considered to be negative traits such as eccentricity and irrationality, as well as rebelliousness and alienation. As I will show, each myth reveals important facts about creativity, but also conveys misleading fictions that can, when taken seriously, derail educational efforts to foster creativity in schools. My goal, then, in addressing the four individual myths is to free us from the  10 ultimate myth: that creativity cannot be taught! Following what was said above, I contend the opposite, and use discussions of the myths in question to propose ways arts educators can help students develop and apply their creativity, not only within their particular arts discipline, but in educational arenas outside the arts as well as in other aspects of their lives. Creativity is therefore presented here, not as an add-on to other aspects of arts education, but as integrally linked to mastering technique, producing and performing, as well as learning about the domain from historical, critical, and aesthetic perspectives. In this way, it follows Teaching for Creativity Using SC Standards (2008), which applies creativity to the full range of standards. Similarly, this paper presents creativity as related to each facet of the learner: the physical body through skill development and perceptiveness, the emotions through empathy and self-expression, and the intellect through problem-solving and critical thinking. The paper also touches upon a fourth facet, often called the spirit, through which many creators feel they get in touch with a ―higher‖ source of creativity, within or beyond them. Thus conceived, creativity is part of a ―holistic‖ approach to arts education, one that addresses the needs of the whole person and contributes to each student‘s comprehensive and integrated development. Further, as opposed to ―student-centered‖ learning, which might be misinterpreted to focus on the student in isolation, the cultivation of creativity as considered in this context is a means to foster ―student-connected‖ learning, in which the individual is integrally linked to other people, to society, and to the environment. All these are spheres in which creativity can be applied. I initially presented my views on ―the myths of creativity‖ at conferences of the South Carolina Art Education Association (SCAEA) and the National Art Education Association (NAEA). Currently, I am preparing a chapter on creativity based on arguments made in this paper for an NAEA publication on holistic, student-connected visual arts education (Simmons, in press). I am grateful for the opportunity to present these ideas here, to educators across the arts. In that regard, I want to thank Dr. Linda Neely, Interim Dean, College of Education, Lander University, who suggested I be invited to write this paper. I also want to thank Scot Hockman, Education Associate for the Arts, South Carolina Department of Education, and Eve Walling-Wohlford, Executive Director of the South Carolina Alliance for Arts Education, for issuing the invitation and for generously allowing me the time to organize my disparate thoughts. Finally, I want to express my appreciation to the numerous friends and colleagues who shared with me their perspectives on creativity, as well as to Marilyn Montgomery, Beverly Simmons, and Laura Gardner, each of whom edited the paper and offered many valuable suggestions. This paper is dedicated to Dr. Israel Scheffler, Professor emeritus of Philosophy and Education, Harvard University, from whom I learned critically to examine my own assumptions about educational issues, and whose article, ―Ten myths of metaphor‖ (1986), provided the  11 premise for the present work. Equally, Scheffler‘s example of fair-minded inquiry; his concern to integrate intellect, emotion, and action; as well as his capacity to connect philosophical theory to educational practice, all serve as models toward which I aspire here.  12 TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION 0: INTRODUCTION: CREATIVITY: WHY, WHAT, AND WHEN Section 0.1: More on ―why?‖ Section 0.2: More on ―what?‖ Section 0.3: Creativity in arts education – past and present Section 0.4: Notes on myths SECTION I: CREATIVITY AS ORIGINALITY : THE UNTUTORED GENIUS VS. DEVELOPING CREATIVE HABITS Section I.1: Roots and attributes Section I.2: Educational implications Habits of hand and body Habits of attentiveness and receptiveness Habits of heart and mind Habits of preparation Additional suggestions PRACTICAL PROCEDURE FOR CULTIVATING CREATIVITY I: NOTEBOOK OF CREATIVE INQUIRY SECTION II: CREATIVITY AS SUFFERING: THE TORMENTED ARTIST VS. POSING PROVOCATIVE PROBLEMS Section II.1: Roots and attributes Section II.2: Educational implications Creativity in the arts as self-expression Studying fine arts as self-expression Studying popular arts as self-expression Assessing self-expression Reaching out to suffering artists Debunking the myth PRACTICAL PROCEDURE FOR CULTIVATING CREATIVITY II: SHAPING CREATIVE PROBLEMS SECTION III: CREATIVITY AS IRRATIONALITY: THE MAD SCIENTIST VS. THE CREATIVE PROCESS Section III.1: Roots and attributes: Section III.2: Educational implications Safeguarding the mystery. Inviting the non-rational Safe havens for creative eccentricity and self-exploration PRACTICAL PROCEDURE FOR CULTIVATING CREATIVITY III: THE CREATIVE PROCESS SECTION IV: CREATIVITY AS ALIENATION: THE UNAPPRECIATED VISIONARY VS. A CREATIVE CULTURE Section IV.1: Roots and attributes: Section IV.2: Educational implications Countering academic alienation: Connecting to students‘ cultures: Connecting to the environment: Creating continuities across disciplines Connecting creatively to the community Connecting to the domain Debunking the myth PRACTICAL PROCEDURE FOR CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IV: AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT SECTION V: CONCLUSION REFERENCES  13 SECTION 0: INTRODUCTION: CREATIVITY: WHY, WHAT, AND WHEN. The topics addressed below have been matters of interest and concern throughout my career as an artist, educator, and researcher. Among other things, my first academic presentation over thirty years ago examined the association of creativity with suffering and irrationality in the life and work of Vincent Van Gogh, while my recent talks have taken on several other myths, as was previously mentioned. Despite this prior preparation, the process of writing the present paper has been challenging for several reasons. First was the complexity of the subject, which expanded before my eyes even as I wrote. Second was the need to address creativity, not just in my own field, visual arts, but also in drama, dance, and music education, as well as in other disciplines. The greatest challenge, however, derived from my growing realization of how important this topic has become and my desire to communicate this importance in the most compelling way possible. Indeed, current social, economic, and ecological problems urgently press us to develop our capacity for constructive creativity, not only for the wellbeing of our children and the success of our state or nation, but for the future of humanity and the survival of our planet. Faced with such facts, leaders from business, industry, and government now identify the cultivation of creativity as an international priority. For example, Bill Gates (2008) recently urged businesses to use ―creative capitalism‖ to address the needs of the world‘s poor. Turning to our domain, Daniel Pink, a former presidential speechwriter, emphasizes the role of the arts in promoting creativity because, he says, they engage creative functions attributed to the right hemisphere of the brain. Pink elaborated on this topic in the introduction to his 2005 publication, A Whole New Mind, asserting that: … the last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind – computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers – will now reap society‘s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.‖ (p. 1) Speaking at a recent NAEA Conference, Pink went on to say, ―art is the single most important class that students can take because the art class is one of the few places in schools where creativity is being nurtured‖ (Rushlow, 2008, p. 1). Statements like this do more than just reinforce the value of arts in education. As NAEA President Bonnie Rushlow (2008, p. 1) points out, they also identify arts educators as exemplars in cultivating creativity and invite them to take a leadership role in helping to foster creativity in their schools  14 and communities. Rushlow, of course, welcomes this long-awaited recognition, but she also adds a note of caution: With all the attention that is currently being placed on arts education, it is our responsibility to ensure that our art programs are of a caliber worthy of being promoted. If we expect for our visual arts classes to be taken seriously, they must be rigorous and challenging. We must take a leadership role in providing our students with high quality instructions that merits being placed in the limelight – as front and center – of the educational stage! (p. 1) Certainly, representatives from music, dance, and drama education would concur, and Teaching for Creativity Using SC Standards (2008) supports such efforts with a set of age-appropriate activities in each arts area. This essay, written as a complement to that document, seeks to help arts teachers encourage creativity in their own classrooms, then to bring their creative expertise to a wider audience. Toward these ends, it will analyze and, in part, debunk the myths of creativity mentioned earlier, while responding to them with some ―implications for teaching creativity in the arts.‖ Each myth will also conclude with a ―practical procedure for cultivating creativity‖ (PPCC) that can be applied to teaching in each of the arts, while also being adaptable to almost any type of creative endeavor. My hope is that, by sharing these ―practical procedures‖ with fellow educators, arts teachers will encourage the spread of creativity across the curriculum. They may also teach similar approaches to others in their community who are working to address the challenges of daily life as well as the larger issues facing society. To facilitate dissemination of these approaches, I provide illustrations in each section of creativity applied in a various domains, professional, social, and personal. Before addressing these practical concerns, however, I want to reflect for a moment on the general significance of the topic, based on Nancy Breard‘s (2008) article, ―Why Creativity?‖ I will also expand on her discussion of what creativity is, then review the history of creativity in arts education to consider where we came from, where we are now, and where we need to go. Section 0.1: More on “Why?” For many arts educators today, the title of Breard‘s (2008) article ―Why Creativity?‖ might better be put in a more pointed way: ―Why add yet another item to our already long list of responsibilities, especially one that is so notoriously difficult to teach?‖ Breard‘s answer recalls the wonders of creativity cited in the preface of this document. More specifically, she argues that creativity energizes us, motivates us, and revitalizes us, thereby benefiting students and teachers, alike. This is a compelling response, especially at a time when there are so many reasons for discouragement inside schools and out. But to make the case for creativity in arts education more convincing and to promote more immediate action on its behalf, personal considerations such  15 as these must also be reinforced by cultural and biological arguments such as those alluded to earlier on. Cultural arguments include the increasing importance of creativity in numerous careers and its role in advancing every field from art and science to economics and politics. Biological arguments include the role of creativity in solving problems and adapting to changing conditions. They also include the fact that creativity is one of the unique and essential attributes that distinguish human beings from other species. Both sets of arguments converge to demonstrate that cultivating creativity can no longer be considered merely an attractive educational enhancement. Instead, it emerges as a necessity to help us realize our potentials and so make us all more fully human. Teaching for Creativity Using SC Standards (2008) reflects the humanizing aspect of creativity with activities that emphasize connectivity among people and between people and their environments. For example, in its section on acting and theatrical presentation it states that students will: ―Describe and compare ways that people react to other people and to internal and external environments using [a] creative strategy…. The teacher will guide students in acting exercises and games that focus on reactions to people and to environments‖ (p. 365). As it has been described above, creativity is part of the pantheon of remarkable qualities that define us as a species. Others include our abilities to reason, to use tools and symbol systems, and to thrive in all kinds of climates. But creativity is not just one significant capacity among the many; it is arguably the most important of them all. This is true, in part, because creativity allows us to apply our other abilities to new and useful ends. In addition, creativity enables us to compose music, choreograph dance, write plays, and make visual art (along with other forms of meaningful expression) that shape our cultures and define us as individuals. Creativity, employed in these ways, has been essential to humanity since its earliest beginnings, making it possible for us to advance in a relatively short time from an animal-like existence – living in caves and eating roots and berries – to a world of space travel, computers, biotechnology, and continuing change. If anything, the need for creativity has accelerated in recent years, especially in industrialized countries like the United States, where there seems to be a constant demand for innovation in every sphere, whether to address the current financial crisis, or to help us solve such life-threatening problems as global warming and international terrorism. Popular enthusiasm for creativity has recently given rise to a number of clichés in which people are encouraged to ―push the envelope,‖ ―think outside the box,‖ and ―get out of their comfort zone.‖ Though these terms already sound more than a little trite, they actually indicate important aspects of creative practice as it is used, both on personal and professional planes. Personally, ―pushing the envelope‖ beyond our usual