Are We Facing a Creativity Crisis?

Fostering Creative Thinking

through Classroom Activities. Eduardo Santos

Why Creative Thinking?

Creativity is thinking outside the box.

Unworkshop

• What would you like to discuss in this workshop?

• What aspects/concepts of creativity would you like to know more about?

Stefan Sagmeister TED Talk Oct 2009

“Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often overlooked value of

time off and shows the innovative projects inspired by his time in Bali.”

Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk June 2006

• “Creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.”

• “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

http://zhaolearning.com

Dr. Robert Fisher

We all have the capacity for creative thinking: generating and extending ideas, suggesting hypotheses, applying imagination, looking for alternative innovative outcomes

in any activity.

Fisher R. (in press), ‘Expanding Minds: Developing Creativity in Young Learners ', CATS: The IATEFL Young Learners SIG journal. Spring 2006

Open your eyes!

• Ss see things in different ways. Ask your ss to draw their classroom. What can they see?

• Compare drawings.

• How similar/different are they?

Context & Meaning

Create the context & meaning for one of the following lines:

• “The door is open.”

• “I feel tired.”

• “What are you looking at?”

Mosaic

A friend is coming to Paris for the first time and has no idea where to go/what to do.

What’s YOUR Paris like?

Idea from Ceri Jones: ‘Unleashing the Power of Images’

Mosaic

Mosaic Maker: http://bighugelabs.com/mosaic.php

ELT Picshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/

Photo Stories.

• What’s the story behind this image?

• Ask SS to bring their own pictures to the classroom and come up with short stories or anecdotes.

• Encourage them to be creative and to explore different possibilities.

Happiness Project

Exploring texts

• Read the text and guess from / to

• Think about other possibilities.

• Analyze different possibilities according to...

Conclusion?

Creativity is not about thinking outside the box,

it’s about thinking there IS no box.

Thank You!

@eltbakery eltbakery@gmail.com