Creativity in Teaching English Reading and Writing The Royal Thai Distance Learning Foundation with support from the American Embassy RELO Office and TOT

Overview of Series 6 sessions, every 2 weeks Session 1: Poetry Session 2: Haiku and other poetry forms Session 3: Short short stories Session 4: Forms of story creation Session 5: New (and old) American music Session 6: Wrap up and “Poetry Slam”

Overview of Session #1 What is creativity? Key ideas in reading and writing teaching theory Experiences with poetry Implications for your own teaching

What does creativity mean to you? First, write for one minute. How would you describe “creativity”? Then, discuss with a partner to see their response and to compare. We’ll hear some of your responses in the whole group.

Creativity Resources “Flow” - Mihály Csíkszentmihályi Social Creativity - Alfonso (Monty) Montuori Lateral Thinking / Parallel Thinking – Edward De Bono ethinkingcontents.html ethinkingcontents.html other_trivia_quizzes?Lateral_Thinking_Quiz_2/ other_trivia_quizzes?Lateral_Thinking_Quiz_2/

A Sample Challenge Mr. and Mrs. Jacks have five children. Half of them are boys. How is this possible?

One Response... The other half are also boys.

Another Challenge A window cleaner is cleaning the windows on the 25 th floor of a skyscraper when he slips and falls. He is not wearing a safety harness and nothing slows his fall, yet he suffers no injuries. Explain.

Response? He was cleaning the inside of the windows.

Outside of the box

What is inside the box?

And what is outside? Why is this an important idea? How does this relate to your work as teachers?

Creative thinking activity Each of you have 2-3 common office objects. Think of a way to use them together that is completely new – that has never been done before? Think “outside the box” (e.g. imagine you are at a park or the zoo or on an airplane – and not in an office.)

Concepts to inform the teaching of reading and writing Schema theory. Schema building. Schema activation. Top-down and bottom-up processing. Process writing and product-oriented writing.

How does schema theory work? Michael Jackson Barack Obama Susan B. Anthony Robert Frost Madonna Marti Anderson

Try it out Choose one name. Brainstorm with a partner everything you know about that person.

Schema Activation This is finding out what you already know about a topic – before reading or writing anything about the topic.

Schema Building Now think of 5 questions you would like to ask this person. And/or. Think of where you might go to find out more about the person. Books? Internet?

A Thai Poem Some clues Poet: Sunthornpoo Phra Apai Manee Think of schema activation Predictions?

Translate With a partner, translate some or all of this poem. Some groups will share one or two lines. What English vocabulary do you need? What is the meaning of this poem? What is most important about it?

Translation? When is this useful? When should it be avoided? How does translation help to serve schema activation and/or schema building?

A Poem by an American Writer Mary Oliver The poem is titled “The Summer Day” What vocabulary might you expect? What topics?

Read the poem With a partner, read aloud the poem. Take turns reading one or two sentences each. Discuss, using English and Thai, the meaning. What is the most important message of the poem? Why do you think so?

Look at the translation What new interpretations can you make when you see the translation? How does this help you understand Oliver’s poem?

A cross-cultural perspective What does Sunthornpoo’s poem tell us about Thai culture? What does Mary Oliver’s poem tell us about American culture?

Implications for your teaching? What new ideas or perspectives are you taking away from today? What will you try in your classes over the next 2 weeks? Be prepared to share next time.

Thank you! And see you soon... Don’t forget to share your ideas and questions on Facebook: on the DLF and American Embassy RELO pages.