English Language Education Section Curriculum Development Institute

English Language Education Section Curriculum Development Institute
Developing Creativity in Students in the Upper Primary English Classroom English Language Education Section Curriculum Development Institute Education Bureau 26 & 27 October 2012

Experience Sharing by Seed Schools
Rundown October 2012 Time Content 2:00 – 2:10 Registration 2:10 – 2:40 Introduction 2:40 – 3:40 Experience Sharing by Seed Schools St Mary’s Canossian School Exploring Alternatives and Giving Expression to Imaginative Ideas with the help of Creative Thinking Tools 3:40 – 3:50 Break 3:50 – 4:50 St Anthony’s School Integrating Creative Thinking Skills into the Teaching of Reading and Writing 4:50 – 5:00 Q and A St. Mary’s Canossian School Exploring Alternatives and Giving Expression to Imaginative ideas with the Help of Creative Thinking Tools Ms Ivy Seto St Anthony’s School Integrating Creative Thinking Skills into the Teaching of Reading and Writing 1. Ms Whitney CHAN 2. Ms HO Ka-po 3. Ms KOO Ka-yan 4. Ms FU Ka-lee

Experience Sharing by Seed Schools
Rundown October 2012 Time Content 9:30 – 9:40 Registration 9:40 –10:10 Introduction 10:10 – 11:10 Experience Sharing by Seed Schools St Mary’s Canossian School Exploring Alternatives and Giving Expression to Imaginative Ideas with the help of Creative Thinking Tools 11:10 – 11:20 Break 11:20 – 12:20 St Anthony’s School Integrating Creative Thinking Skills into the Teaching of Reading and Writing 12:20 – 12:30 Q and A St. Mary’s Canossian School Exploring Alternatives and Giving Expression to Imaginative ideas with the Help of Creative Thinking Tools Ms Ivy Seto St Anthony’s School Integrating Creative Thinking Skills into the Teaching of Reading and Writing 1. Ms Whitney CHAN 2. Ms HO Ka-po 3. Ms KOO Ka-yan 4. Ms FU Ka-lee

A New Resource Package Introduce a variety of creative thinking tools & strategies to encourage imagination & creativity Provide learning & teaching resources for reference and adaptation for use Promote the sharing of innovative teaching strategies to integrate creative thinking skills into the teaching of reading and writing Nurturing Pupils’ Creative Thinking in the Upper Primary English Classroom is a resource package produced by the English Language Education Section, Curriculum Development Institute, the Education Bureau, Content of the resource package The resource package consists of a booklet and a CD-ROM.three chapters An Introduction to Creative Thinking Tools introduce a range of creative thinking tools that can be integrated into the regular English classroom to stimulate imagination Learning and Teaching Materials for Nurturing Pupils’ Creative Thinking in the Upper Primary English Classroom explores a variety of learning and teaching materials to be used together with the creative thinking tools to encourage free expression of ideas enhance motivation and confidence, ample opportunities are built in for the tryout of the tools to explore alternatives and solve problems in a supportive learning environment References provides useful references to further enhance teachers’ professional development on the use of creative thinking strategies. CD-ROM is an electronic version of the resource package materials are available in the MS WORD and the PDF formats user-friendly interface to facilitate printing, editing and adaptation of materials for classroom use online version of the CD-ROM at ELE website .

St. Mary’s Canossian School
Background Materials mainly developed in collaboration with two Seed schools participating in “Seed” Project on “Nurturing Pupils’ Creative Thinking through the Integration of Reading and Writing in the Primary English Classroom” St. Anthony’s School St. Mary’s Canossian School Level Primary 5 Primary 4 Teachers involved PSM(CD), English panel head & P.5 English teachers English panel head & P4 English teachers Modules Food and Drink Food Packaging We Love Hong Kong We Love Cheung Chau Happy Days An Unfair Game Changes Turning over a New Leaf Favourite Festivals We Love Reading A New Fairy Tale Background/ needs of school: The materials in this resource package are mainly adapted from the materials developed for the Collaborative Research and Development (“Seed”) Project on “Nurturing Pupils’ Creative Thinking through the Integration of Reading and Writing in the Primary English Classroom”. We would like to thank the following two schools for their participation in the “Seed” Project in the school year 2008/2009: St Anthony’s School St Mary’s Canossian School Special thanks are due to the seconded teachers as well as other project teachers who were involved in the project for developing and trying out the teaching plans and activity sheets included in this resource package. We are grateful to Longman Hong Kong Education and Educational Publishing House Limited for their permission to use the copyrighted materials included in this package.

Objectives Integrate creative thinking skills into the
teaching of reading and writing Promote creativity in the context of English language learning Explore strategies to encourage creative imagination

Creativity in the English Language Education Context
Creativity is an important but elusive concept. It has been defined in a variety of ways. Some people define it as an ability to produce original ideas and solve problems, others see it as a process, and yet other take it as personal qualities. English Language Curriculum Guide (Primary 1-6) 2004 P.75 Very often when pupils are asked to be creative, they worry that their ideas are not “creative” enough. In fact, there is no absolute standard to judge whether an idea is creative or not. What matters most is whether pupils have tried to exercise their imagination to think of something that is unusual to them. Barriers to creativity: Fear of ridicule / fear of mistakes / over-emphasis on form / low self-esteem Unable to see the finer details / intolerance of ambiguity / excessive need for balance & symmetry Need to know the future to before going forward To guide pupils to think creatively, teachers should teach them some useful methods to form new ideas. The learning and teaching activities in this resource package have been designed with reference to some creative thinking tools. This chapter aims at introducing the basic principles of these tools. They can be flexibly incorporated into many classroom activities to guide pupils to generate fresh ideas. To create a climate conducive to creativity, some principles can be employed …

Encouraging Creative Thinking
1. Go beyond the given information break away from traditional patterns of thought

2. Allow time to think encourage open discussion Thinking time needed for ideas to grow and incubate, and develop Trial the ideas

3. Strengthen creative abilities How? What?

3. Strengthen creative abilities Better Fluency produce many ideas in response to an open-ended problem / task We strengthen creative abilities by Improving fluency the production of many ideas

3. Strengthen creative abilities Better Flexibility look at a situation from several perspectives The objectives of today’s presentation is to share how we -integrate creative thinking skills into the teaching of reading and writing -promote creativity in the context of English language learning, and how we -encourage pps’ creative imagination through different strategies

3. Strengthen creative abilities More Originality break away from traditional patterns of thought Rules You can… You can’t… .. . X We strengthen creative abilities by encouraging the production of new forms

3. Strengthen creative abilities More Elaboration add details to a given idea for further development He is excited. He is excited as a puppy The girl cannot sit still. The girl is a spinning top. Use comparisons Use your five senses She was sad. She pulled the last tissue out to dry her tears. Show both feelings & actions

3. Strengthen creative abilities Greater Sensitivity to Problems identify problems, list out difficulties, detect missing information and ask good questions Developing in Ss ability Identify the REAL problem Isolate the important aspects of a problem Clarify and simplify the problem Identify sub-problems & missing info ASK gd questions e.g. In deciding on what rubbish bin s to use to replace the existing ones in school, Identify problems What brings about the change? bins too old / leaking? Rubbish not classified / too few rubbish bins, ss litter for convenience List out difficulties & detect missing info we may have to guide students to look at the missing info – Q: How much can be spent on the bins? Q: Do the bins need to have different parts for different rubbish to help recycling? Q: Do the bins need to be environment friendly? Q: Do they have to strong? Is weight a problem? The very act of asking gd Qs is an opportunity for a lot of language use

3. Strengthen creative abilities Better Transformation adapt something to a new use see new meanings and applications change an idea / object into another A creative person is gd at transformation Can combine previously unrelated components to form new ideas, processes and products

4. Reward creative efforts respect the novel and unusual reward imaginative ideas Be ready to recognise behaviour or ideas that are creative

5. Teach creative thinking techniques I Brainstorming II Mind Mapping III Morphological Matrix IV S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Techniques V Value Grid VI R.A.F.T. Strategy

Creativity in the English Language Education Context
To create a climate conducive to creativity, some principles can be employed … To develop learners’ creativity, we ask them to go beyond the given information, allow them time to think, strengthen their creative abilities, reward their creative efforts, value their creative attributes, teach them creative thinking techniques and the Creative Problem Solving model, and create a climate conducive to creativity. English Language Curriculum Guide (Primary 1-6) 2004 P.75 Very often when pupils are asked to be creative, they worry that their ideas are not “creative” enough. In fact, there is no absolute standard to judge whether an idea is creative or not. What matters most is whether pupils have tried to exercise their imagination to think of something that is unusual to them. To guide pupils to think creatively, teachers should teach them some useful methods to form new ideas. The learning and teaching activities in this resource package have been designed with reference to some creative thinking tools. This chapter aims at introducing the basic principles of these tools. They can be flexibly incorporated into many classroom activities to guide pupils to generate fresh ideas.

Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. Brainstorming
Example: Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. Brainstorming Building on students’ knowledge and experience a group thinking activity (Osborn, 1953) teacher acts as a facilitator students exchange ideas and form new ideas “Rules” of brainstorming Do’s Don’ts Do allow your imagination to run wild. Wild thoughts that appear to be impossible could be stepping stones to creative and practical ideas! Don’t criticise / object to people’s opinions. This will discourage people from giving more ideas. Do think of as many ideas as you can. A large number of ideas are more likely to yield a good idea. Don’t set aside the ideas that are mentioned. Early ideas serve to stimulate further thoughts. Existing ideas can be combined and improved to form better ones. In many cases, creative ideas are built upon the most common knowledge or suggestions. Therefore, it is always useful to elicit what pupils already know about a topic before asking them to think of something new. To begin with, teachers could conduct a group thinking activity called brainstorming (Osborn, 1953). The teacher acts as a facilitator to encourage pupils to voice any ideas related to a topic and jot them down quickly to make them visible to everyone in the group. Pupils may get the ideas from their previous knowledge of the topic and experience. They can also form new ideas based on what others have said. The teacher should ensure that the activity is conducted in a relaxed, non-threatening atmosphere and that all pupils are staying on-task. “Rules” of brainstorming The duration and group size of a brainstorming session are flexible. However, participants should bear in mind a few do’s and don’ts to make sure the activity is carried out effectively:

Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. Brainstorming
Example: Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. Brainstorming Brainstorming is like taking out everything from your wardrobe (the brain) to have a showcase of clothes and accessories (what you know about the topic).

What comes to mind when you think of summer?
Example: Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. Brainstorming What comes to mind when you think of summer? Topic: Summer hot and wet June to August summer holiday swimming beach sunny watermelons ice-cream mosquitoes summer courses Ocean Park Food Expo typhoons cold drinks summer holiday homework relaxing cartoons air-conditioners The brainstorming session will end up with … MANY / FEW ideas.

Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. & II
Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. & II. From Brainstorming … to Mind Mapping Example: Provide students with sub-topics to organise their thoughts Topic: Summer hot and wet June to August summer holiday swimming beach sunny watermelons ice-cream mosquitoes summer courses Ocean Park Food Expo typhoons cold drinks summer holiday homework relaxing cartoons air-conditioners Food

Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. & II
Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. & II. From Brainstorming … to Mind Mapping Example: Provide students with sub-topics to organise their thoughts Topic: Summer hot and wet June to August summer holiday swimming beach sunny watermelons ice-cream mosquitoes summer courses Ocean Park Food Expo typhoons cold drinks summer holiday homework relaxing cartoons air-conditioners Weather Food

Food Weather Activities
Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. & II. From Brainstorming … to Mind Mapping Example: Provide students with sub-topics to organise their thoughts Topic: Summer hot and wet June to August summer holiday swimming beach sunny watermelons ice-cream mosquitoes summer courses Ocean Park Food Expo typhoons cold drinks summer holiday homework relaxing cartoons air-conditioners Food Weather Activities

Food Activities Weather
Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. & II. From Brainstorming … to Mind Mapping Topic: Summer hot and wet June to August summer holiday swimming beach sunny watermelons ice-cream mosquitoes summer courses Ocean Park Food Expo typhoons cold drinks summer holiday homework relaxing cartoons air-conditioners Food Activities Weather Guide students to classify & prioritise ideas

Summer holiday homework
Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: II. Mind Mapping Help students narrow down their scope of thinking & focus on the relevant aspects Example: ice-cream cold drinks Food watermelons Summer in Hong Kong beach air-conditioners cartoons hot and wet Weather Activities Food Expo June to August Ocean Park mosquitoes sunny typhoons relaxing summer courses swimming summer holiday Summer holiday homework

A variation: brainwriting (Rohrbach, 1969)
Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: I. Brainstorming A variation: brainwriting (Rohrbach, 1969) write ideas on a sheet of paper pass on to the next student generate more ideas as more participants engage - too shy to speak up / very stressful to voice their opinions in a group / worry that their ideas will be neglected or rejected the more out-spoken pupils will dominate the brainstorming session. change the format of brainstorming  write them down on a sheet of paper passed on to the next pupil, who may refer to the ideas on the sheet for inspiration and come up with some more ideas This activity is known as brainwriting  allows even the least confident pupils to contribute their ideas comfortably.  an efficient method of generating ideas as more participants are making suggestions at the same time

Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies:
II. Mind Mapping Concentrating students’ thoughts by providing sub-topics a non-linear diagram with one focused topic at the centre for planning and organising information provide students with sub-topics to guide them to organise their thoughts (Buzan, 1994) help them narrow down their scope (Buzan, 1994) help them visualise ideas allow them to classify and prioritise ideas

Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: II. Mind Mapping
Example: Concentrating pupils’ thoughts by providing sub-topics the brainstorming session will end up with a blackboard full of ideas on the same topic, although not yet arranged in any clear order. Pupils may then find it difficult to locate some useful ideas later on. On the other hand, if pupils do not know the topic well enough, they will be stuck and will not even know where to start thinking about the topic. In both cases, the teacher can make use of a mind map (Buzan, 1994) which provides pupils with sub-topics to guide them to organise their thoughts or to help them narrow down their scope of thinking so that they know what aspects they should focus on when thinking. A mind map is a non-linear diagram with one focused topic put at the centre. Further details of sub-topics extend on branches from the centre. Apart from helping pupils visualise their ideas, a mind map also allows them to classify and prioritise ideas. It is particularly useful for planning and organising information. As in brainstorming, there should be no criticism. Pupils are encouraged to make as many suggestions as they can. Mind mapping is like categorising many pieces of clothing (ideas / what you know about the topic) into different drawers (sub-topics)

III. Morphological Matrix Combining ideas to explore possibilities and create unusual ideas

Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: III. Morphological Matrix
In groups, plan a few attractive activities to be organised in summer as part of the “Fun Learning Carnival” of your school. Show them on a poster. Balloons twisting Ice-cream making Water splashing game Science in Kitchen Treasure Fair

In groups, plan a few attractive activities to be organised in summer as part of the “Fun Learning Carnival” of your school. Show them on a poster. Balloons twisting Ice-cream making Water splashing game Science in Kitchen Treasure Fair Construct a morphological matrix for more possibilities and unusual ideas. Step 1 State clearly the topic (subject): Organise summer activities.

In groups, plan a few attractive activities to be organised in summer as part of the “Fun Learning Carnival” of your school. Show them on a poster. Balloons twisting Ice-cream making Water splashing game Science in Kitchen Treasure Fair Construct a morphological matrix for more possibilities and unusual ideas. Step 1 State clearly the topic (subject): Organise summer learning activities.

In groups, plan a few attractive activities to be organised in summer as part of the “Fun Learning Carnival” of your school. Show them on a poster. Balloons twisting art Ice-cream making Water splashing game Science in Kitchen Treasure Fair Construct a morphological matrix for more possibilities and unusual ideas. Step 1 State clearly the topic (subject): Organise summer learning activities.

In groups, plan a few attractive activities to be organised in summer as part of the “Fun Learning Carnival” of your school. Show them on a poster. Balloons twisting Ice-cream making Water splashing game Science in Kitchen Treasure Fair Construct a morphological matrix for more possibilities and unusual ideas Step 1 State clearly the topic (subject): Organise fun summer learning activities for classmates.

In groups, plan a few attractive activities to be organised in summer as part of the “Fun Learning Carnival” of your school. Show them on a poster. Balloons twisting art Ice-cream making Water splashing game Science in Kitchen Treasure Fair Construct a morphological matrix for more possibilities and unusual ideas Step 1 State clearly the topic (subject): Organise fun summer learning activities for classmates.

Step 2 Identify all important sub-topics What are all the important characteristics of “fun summer learning activities for classmates”? What types? What participants? What skills to learn? What places? Step 3 List all the sub-topics on the first row of a table in different columns e.g. Show Balloon twisting Classroom Students, guests Types of activities Skills to learn Places Participants Brainstorming elicits from pupils what they already know about a topic. Mind mapping helps them narrow down their scope of thinking and focus on the most relevant sub-topics. Based on what they have brainstormed, pupils should be further encouraged to think of something new and to explore more possibilities. How can we help pupils create unusual ideas based on what they know? Morphological Matrix --CREATE　ＵＮＵＳＵＡＬ　ＩＤＥＡＳ Combining ideas to explore possibilities Introduced by astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky (1969), this technique adopts the mathematical skill of graph-reading. To construct a morphological matrix, １　state clearly the topic (subject）２　identify all important sub-topics (characteristics) and list them on the first row of a table in different columns. ３　Apply the technique of mind mapping to write down as many ideas as possible in each column. .

Step 2 Identify all important sub-topics What are all the important characteristics of “fun summer learning activities for classmates”? What types? What participants? What skills to learn? What places? Step 3 List all the sub-topics on the first row of a table in different columns e.g. Show Balloon twisting Classroom Students, guest Types of activities Skills to learn Places Participants 1 talk language school P1 - P3 students 2 workshop singing beach P4 – P6 students 3 camp computer skills museum all students 4 competition first aid skills country park teachers 5 concert cooking street parents 6 show dancing Internet parents & students When all columns have been filled, mix and match ideas across the columns randomly to form new combinations. facilitates combination of characteristics or qualities of a specific topic (subject) helps explore a wide range of possibilities. useful for generating ideas for improvement and variation in products and processes　 applied in classroom situations to help pupils create unusual ideas by putting together different characteristics creatively

Step 4 Mix and match ideas across the columns randomly to form new combinations. Four-digit number Combination 3146 a camp for learning a language in a country park for parents and students

Step 4 Mix and match ideas across the columns randomly to form new combinations. Four-digit number Combination 3146 a camp for learning a language in a country park for parents and students 2564 a cooking workshop on the Internet for teachers

IV. S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Techniques Thinking outside the box SCAMPER an acronym for a list of words that represent a series of idea-generating methods. Thinking outside the box Combining characteristics of a subject is just one way to form new ideas. Pupils can let their thoughts run wild and think outside the box using the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. techniques (Eberle, 1971). The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. techniques were developed to stimulate people to cope with a problem from new perspectives. They can be applied to many creative classroom activities such as story-writing, creative reading of a text, or simply stimulating pupils to visualise a creative image in their minds. Teachers could guide pupils with questions to use some of the techniques to form new ideas.

Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: IV. S. C. A. M. P. E. R
Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies: IV. S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Techniques identify characteristics of a subject & make changes to form novel ideas stimulate students to cope with problems from new perspectives visualise a creative image in minds Magnify Wearing an oversized hat Eliminate Cutting the sleeves of a T-shirt Put to other uses Wearing a bow tie on head Using SCAMPER techniques to treat a piece of clothing differently

Using Creative Thinking Tools & Strategies
V. Value Grid Evaluating the pros and cons of ideas for a better solution It is Granpa’s birthday soon. Write an to Dad to share what birthday present to buy for him. A pair of shoes A ball pen A Watch Tea Dear Dad, It’s Grandpa’s birthday this Sunday. I am planning to buy a new watch for him because his watch is very old…. What would your students write to share with Dad? Value GRID Evaluating the pros and cons of ideas for a better solution The above creative thinking tools help us generate plenty of new, unusual ideas. However, not all ideas are practical and appropriate. We can use the value grid (Pil and Holweg, 2006) to  evaluate whether the ideas are suitable and feasible based on a list of values (qualities) we are looking for in an ideal solution to our problem. The value grid takes the form of a table. It helps us organise information and make comparisons between suggestions by looking at the pros and cons of each. It facilitates logical decision-making. What reasons would your students give? How do we encourage free expression of ideas to enrich the content? How do we help students explore alternatives and evaluate solutions?

V. Value Grid Explore alternatives and evaluate solutions Ideas 1 Flowers 2 Mobile phone 3 Photo album 4 Fountain pen Step 1 In the first column of the grids, list the ideas

V. Value Grid Explore alternatives and evaluate solutions Ideas A How much does it cost? B How long does it last? C Where can we get it? D What meaning does it have? 1 Flowers 2 Mobile phone 3 Photo album 4 Fountain pen Step 2 In the first row list the values to consider when finding an ideal solution

V. Value Grid Explore alternatives and evaluate solutions Ideas A How much does it cost? B How long does it last? C Where can we get it? D What meaning does it have? 1 Flowers ~$300 per bunch 1 week Florists People give flowers to show love 2 Mobile phone $500 to $6000 A few years Electrical appliance shops Grandpa can keep in touch with us easily 3 Photo album <$100 Forever Stationery shops Grandpa can keep sweet memories in album 4 Fountain pen ~$400 Forever but needs ink refill Grandpa can carry the pen wherever he goes to remember us Step 3 Fill the grid by looking at each idea for each value

V. Value Grid Explore alternatives and evaluate solutions Ideas A How much does it cost? B How long does it last? C Where can we get it? D What meaning does it have? 1 Flowers ~$300 per bunch 1 week Florists People give flowers to show love 2 Mobile phone $500 to $6000 A few years Electrical appliance shops Grandpa can keep in touch with us easily 3 Photo album <$100 Forever Stationery shops Grandpa can keep sweet memories in album 4 Fountain pen ~$400 Forever but needs ink refill Grandpa can carry the pen wherever he goes to remember us Step 4 Compare the pros and cons for all ideas

V. Value Grid Explore alternatives and evaluate solutions Ideas A How much does it cost? B How long does it last? C Where can we get it? D What meaning does it have? 1 Flowers ~$300 per bunch 1 week Florists People give flowers to show love 2 Mobile phone $500 to $6000 A few years Electrical appliance shops Grandpa can keep in touch with us easily 3 Photo album <$100 Forever Stationery shops Grandpa can sweet memories in album 4 Fountain pen ~$400 Forever but needs ink refill Grandpa can carry the pen wherever he goes to remember us Flowers won’t last! A photo album lasts forever & we can easily buy it at stationery shops How meaningful! Grandpa can keep sweet memories in the album! The photo album is the cheapest among 4 choices Step 4 Compare the pros and cons for all ideas

V. Value Grid Explore alternatives and evaluate solutions Ideas A How much does it cost? B How long does it last? C Where can we get it? D What meaning does it have? 1 Flowers ~$300 per bunch 1 week Florists People give flowers to show love 2 Mobile phone $500 to $6000 A few years Electrical appliance shops Grandpa can keep in touch with us easily 3 Photo album <$100 Forever Stationery shops Grandpa can keep sweet memories in album 4 Fountain pen ~$400 Forever but needs ink refill Grandpa can carry the pen wherever he goes to remember us Step 5 Choose the best idea and modify it

V. Value Grid With much more content input … From: Tom To: Anthony Subject: Grandpa’s birthday Dear Dad, It’s Grandpa’s birthday soon. I have thought for a long time about his birthday present. I came up with many ideas like a mobile phone, a photo album, a fountain pen and flowers. Isn’t a photo album the best of all? It lasts forever and Grandpa can keep all his sweet memories there. How meaningful! I am planning to buy the album at a stationery shop after school. It is also the cheapest . By the way, Father’s Day is coming soon. I have to get ready your gift too! My piggy bank is losing weight!! Love Tom

VI. R.A.F.T. Strategy Thinking from a new angle Role: Take on the role of someone or something (an object) to think about how to react to a situation Audience: Write to a specific audience, their background, knowledge, feelings and concerns Format: Write in different formats Topic: Write about a variety of topics Using the RAFT stratergy = looking into different mirrors in different roles from new angles. You will see a brand new image.

VI. R.A.F.T. Strategy Evaluating the pros and cons of ideas for a better solution Here is David’s case. David’s family is moving to a new house soon. His mum gave some toys to a charity and asked David to throw away some old ones. How do you help your students think from a new angle and understand a topic / situation more deeply? R.A.F.T. Writing Assignment 1 Dear David, I feel so sad that you are moving. You are a good master because you always look after me. I like playing with you. I know you don’t want to leave me behind. Will you find a new master for me? I hope you will give me to another good child. I will miss you! Love, Teddy R ole An old toy (A teddy bear) A udience David F ormat A letter T opic Feelings about being thrown away / Being sad The techniques mentioned in the previous parts mainly require pupils to think from their own point of view. Thinking from a new angle If pupils try to step into someone else’s shoes and think from a new angle they will be able to understand a topic more deeply and open up many more new opportunities. engages pupils in creative writing activities by requiring them to consider four important elements of every piece of writing. “R.A.F.T.” is an acronym for “role”, “audience”, “format” and “topic”. 1 Pupils should take on the role of someone (or something) other than that of themselves. 2 From a new perspective, they think about how they feel about or react to a situation. 3 They write to a specific audience taking into consideration their background, knowledge, feelings and concerns as well as their relationships with the writer. 4 The writing can be in different formats and about a variety of topics. Using the R.A.F.T. strategy, pupils approach their writing in an original way and produce a creative response using their imagination.

VI. R.A.F.T. Strategy Evaluating the pros and cons of ideas for a better solution Here is David’s case. David’s family is moving to a new house soon. His mum gave some toys to a charity and asked David to throw away some old ones. How do you help your students think from a new angle and understand a topic / situation more deeply? R.A.F.T. Writing Assignment 2 Dear David, I am now at the new home with my new master. I feel so happy because my new master plays with me most of the time and he loves me so much. I know that you don’t want to leave me behind but you have to. I had a nice time with you in the past I will miss you! Love, Top R ole An old toy (A spinning top) A udience David F ormat A letter T opic Feelings about being thrown away Even with the same topic,　ｐupils could produce different pieces of writing by  taking on different roles writing to a different audience in a different format. Teachers could make use of the R.A.F.T. strategy to cater for learner diversity by assigning different tasks to pupils of various abilities. In the example below, on the same topic about throwing away old toys, the less able pupils could be assigned to take on the role of the toys to write a letter to their master to share their feelings the more capable pupils could put themselves in the boy’s shoes to write a letter to a charity about donating the old toys.

VI. R.A.F.T. Strategy Evaluating the pros and cons of ideas for a better solution Here is David’s case. David’s family is moving to a new house soon. His mum gave some toys to a charity and asked David to throw away some old ones. How do you help your students think from a new angle and understand a topic / situation more deeply? R.A.F.T Writing Assignment 3 Dear Boys and Girls, Merry X’mas! Christmas is a time to give. I would like to share with you 3 boxes of toys. I played with them when I was young. The toys are still new. They are good for boys and girls. There are puzzles, toy cars, dolls and card games. I am sure you will find something you like. Best wishes, David R ole A udience A charity F ormat A letter / X’mas card T opic Donating old toys

Thank you Teachers are encouraged to select the appropriate creative thinking tools and adapt the learning and teaching activities to suit their pupils’ varied interests, needs and learning styles. Creative thinking skills training can be described on 2 levels: Learning the tools of creative thin king Using the tools to solve problems / in a specific context is another thing

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