1. “Sparking student creativity: Practical applications and strategies”
Presentation by Loice Amanya on a professional development course undertaken
Offered by: ASCD online institution .
Date: Wednesday 8,May,2019

2. Presentation outline Background & Introduction
Understandings creativity
Targeting Creativity Skills
Creativity and Standards
Why creativity
Conclusion
References

3. Background & Introduction
A six module intensive brain-cracking course, yet captivating
If this came as a result of training needs assessment, I thank management for identifying it and supporting me to undertake it.!
It did open to me new realities of global challenges that should influence our approaches to teaching in the 21st century….

4. Understanding creativity
Definition: Steven Pfeiffer (2013): To be creative is to produce something original and useful. Alane Starko (2010) “that creativity involves the ability to produce something novel (not in an absolute sense, but new to the student) and appropriate.
Csikszentmihalyi (1996) described two types of creative people: “big C” creative people, those who are eminent in their field or domain and whose work often leads to change, and “little c” people, who use their creativity to affect their everyday lives.
We need both. Students need motivation to realize that they can become either.

5. First things first: Create a vision for your class
The beginning of creativity is crafting a vision for your class. What kind of children/learners do you want to produce; standard thinking learners or creative ones??
Then you craft a road map to lead you to the “product” (the kind of child) you want.
This is the creativity road map with 4 roads.

6. Creativity Road Map
The starting point in the creative learning experience is the classroom and the classroom environment.
Basic conditions of a creative learning classroom include:
providing a safe environment,
supporting unusual ideas,
providing choice,
utilizing creative strategies and techniques,
encouraging multiple solutions,
incorporating novelty, and providing constructive feedback (Drapeau, 2011, p. 30)

7. The Creativity Road Map
Entrance: The Classroom
A safe environment where the teacher supports unusual ideas, provides choice, uses creative strategies, encourages multiple interpretations and solutions, and provides constructive feedback.
Trip Preparation: Identifying non negotiables
Identify standards, critical content, skills, and essential questions.
Road 1: Creative thinking verbs and phrases
Road 2: Creative strategies
Road 3: Innovation and creative problem solving
Road 4: Creative products

8. Road 1: Targeting Creative Thinking Verbs
There are 4 levels of creative thinking starter verbs
Fluency
1. List many ways to inform the public about malaria.
2. List many things people can do to avoid malaria.
Flexibility
1.What would happen if the world was free from malaria?
2. What are different ways we can eliminate mosquitoes from Rwanda?
Originality
1.How might you design an original antimalaria campaign?
2. Invent an original machine that can kill malaria causing mosquitoes.
Elaboration
1.Add to your ideas on controlling malaria by brainstorming ideas with a team.
2. Expand your knowledge base about malaria spread by interviewing experts

9. These four skills can be taught and assessed
• Fluency. The ability to generate many ideas focuses on the key word many.
• Flexibility. The ability to generate different kinds of ideas focuses on the key word change.
• Originality. The ability to generate a one-of-a-kind idea focuses on the key word unusual.
• Elaboration. The ability to add detail or extend ideas focuses on the key phrase add on.

10. Road 2: Focusing on Creative Strategies
The second road to creative instruction is to design (or redesign) a lesson by using an instructional strategy or tool that enhances students’ creative thinking skills.
Instructional strategies that promote more than one answer, different kinds of answers, or unusual answers often require group activities to spark ideas.
brainstorming,
• problem solving,
• visualizing,
• considering points of view,

11. Road 3: Using Creative Processes
Road 3 focuses on creative thinking in the procedures and processes that students use when they are focusing on creative problem solving and innovation. These processes follow certain steps that may or may not include creative activities but always include creative thinking. (think of an example)

12. Road 4: Applying Creative Products
Creative products can be simple or sophisticated; they allow for a variety of different responses through multiple modalities (e.g., written, kinesthetic, visual, verbal, PowerPoint presentations, posters) and may incorporate technology.
Utilizing Multiple Roads
When trying to go from one place to another, we often take more than one road. This is also true with instruction. Teachers may decide to use one or more roads in a lesson; they are not exclusive.

13. Creativity and Standards
Deconstruct and Reconstruct Standards
To deconstruct deals with understanding the standard as the first step. It works with words of first level thinking; without deeper level thinking. When learners have not yet conceptualized the text in terms of for example content, topics, subtopics, concepts; a teacher can not proceed to reconstruct. To reconstruct is to take the students move to a level of deeper thinking using creative words. Substitute, compare, analyze as examples away from low level thinking words like identify, outline….
Students should leave the standards alone to improve their understanding and creativity. Standards leave students in a box or straight-line thinking without looking at the bigger picture and alternative ways of looking at the same issue. Its at this time that there is need and the teacher should adopt “creatical thinking” – integrating thinking and creativity.

14. Why teach creativity?
The right mix of creativity along with curriculum helps students to be innovative and also encourages them to learn new things. Students can grow up as good communicators in addition to improving their emotional and social skills. ... In fact, creative expression plays a key role in a student's emotional development.

15. Conclusion
This is about teaching students Imagination, creativity, and innovation which are interrelated. Imagination sparks innovation. Creativity helps us to produce ideas. Innovation allows us to both generate and apply creative ideas in a given context. According to Robinson, “Innovation is the process of putting original ideas into practice”
As our students head further into the 21st century, they’ll face extraordinary challenges to make the world a safe, inspiring place. Better test scores may not help them meet those challenges.
Video Creativity in the classroom (in 5 minutes orless!)CatherineThimmeshTEDxUniversityofStT homas

16. References
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper and Row.
McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Ohler, J. (2009). Orchestrating the media collage. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 8–13.
Pfeiffer, S. (2013). Serving the gifted: Evidence- based clinical and psychoeducational practice. New York: Routledge.
Robinson, K. (2011). Out of our minds: Learning to be creative. Oxford, UK: Capstone Publishing.
Starko, A. (2010). Creativity in the classroom (4th ed.). New York: Routledge.
Zhao, Y. (2012). World class learners: Educating creative and entrepreneurial students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.