CD21

Chapters 1, 2, 11

Creativity, Creative Thinking, and Responding to Creativity

Creativity is …(pg 6)

Why should we care about creativity?

Yani Wang

Creativity is …

Attitude

Be willing to try new things

Skills

Practice being creative

Sets of traits

Curious

Flexible

Sensitive

Original

Insightful

A Creative Environment

1. If creativity is an inherent potential, there must be things that can be done to enhance or retard its development.

2. Children need a source of inspiration or an experiential background from which to draw.

3. The greater one’s background of experiences with people, places, and objects, the greater the range of possibilities to draw from in creative activity.

4. Children need adults who empower them to exercise responsible freedom to do things on their own and to make things happen.

5. Having responsible freedom develops competence and enhances self-esteem.

Obstacles to Creativity• Parents• School• Gender• Attitudes

So what is a teacher to do?

Facilitate creative expression!1. celebrate creativity

2. value creativity

3. be a creative partner

4. provide time/space for creative expression

5. provide creative toys and materials

6. provide the psychological climate for creativity

7. weave creative thinking throughout the curriculum

Consider the following• Divergent thinking

• Intelligence – How much is needed?– Drawing development

• Scribbling• Lines and shapes• Combinations of lines

and shapes• Symbolic shapes• Representational shapes

– Animals who paint

Personality and Natural Skills

• Multiple intelligencesBody Music Interpersonal Naturalist

Verbal Logical Intrapersonal Spatial

• Gifted? Talented? Genius? Savant?– All children are creative but not all children are

labeled “gifted and talented”– Idiot Savants

• Who are they?• What are they?

Creative Thinking• Lateral thinking

– Finding unusual solutions to problems– Similar to free association and day dreaming

• The brain (table 2.1, p. 25)– Left brain– Right brain– Whole brain

• Divergent thinking– Fluent– Flexible– Original– Elaborate

It’s Time to be Creative!

• Finish my picture

• What would happen if?

• Unusual uses – shoe, cork, golf tee, TP

• Descriptives – hand-clapping circle game

• Tell me why: man, bus, bus stop

Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating Art

• PIE Model– Why should teachers plan?– How should teachers implement?– When should teachers evaluate?

• What are our society’s values?– About creativity– About the arts– About individualized self-expression

Five Strategies for Including Art

• Art as a separate activity

• Art used to extend or reinforce learning in another curricular area

• Arts for integrating several curricular areas

• Art as an integral part of an extended unit of study

• Art as a child-directed pursuit

A Big Question:

What will you do differently tomorrow as a result of what you have

learned today?