Contact+Zone--Creativity+&+Assessment

= Creativity and Assessment: Notebook Handout   By Imtiaz Alam and Uriah Renzetti  = = =


 * Concerns on fostering creativity (Goshen) **

__ Borrowing Ideas __ Very often, borrowing and stealing are synonymous in creative endeavors. It is seldom that someone borrows an idea and “gives it back” when it comes to an original creation. Most brand new ideas stem from personal experience, memory, imagination, etc. Many ideas are adapted and made more creative. One example is Shakespeare plot lines. They are rarely his own, but he creates characters and dialogue which place a unique stamp on his work. It will be important to encourage original thought when students are //only// adapting other work and providing their personal twist.

__ Making Suggestions versus Asking Open Ended Questions __ When attempting to explain a particular concept, it can be simple, and natural, to provide suggestions on how to properly gain the intended understanding. Often, it becomes easy to provide examples and let thoughts ponder in the heads of those trying to learn. If we learn to ask open ended questions, students can become self reliant instead of being dependent on us. When asking questions, starting them with “Why” and “How” inherently requires students to formulate their own thoughts about a topic. Typically, “Where”, “Who”, “What” questions lead to a dead end in thought processes.


 * Concerns about Assessment **

__ Normative versus Longitudinal Assessment __ We should attempt to include elements of longitudinal assessment wherever possible. Longitudinal assessment rewards students who have grown and achieved the most based on //their own// starting points. If we can implement this idea, we will be challenging our growing students as well as our highly performing students to make greater strides. On the flip side, normative assessment forces a foundation for all students to work towards. While this has been the traditional method of assessment, it does not take into account the great strides that our growing students will have achieved throughout the year.

__ Assessment without Feedback __ Students may look for teacher feedback on assignments for guidance in the future. If teachers do not provide a rationale for their grades, students can either rebel against assignments in the future or even lose motivation. As teachers, it will be important to use assessment as a positive model that values growth and development. On the opposite end, assessment is sometimes used and/or viewed as a punishment. Providing positive, useful, and thoughtful feedback will show students that teachers genuinely care for submitted work.


 * Creativity Coupled with Assessment **

__ Measuring Creativity __ (European Commission - Center for Literacy in Primary Education) The thought of measuring creativity in assessment can be daunting; however, it can prove valuable for students who thrive on a creative structure in the classroom. Students become critical thinkers, learn to experiment, take risks, and reflect on intellectual endeavors. Recognizing and valuing our students’ talents makes the process of assessment a creative function. When attempting to make creativity an integral part of your assessment, think about the following questions:


 * Is the endeavor imaginative in nature?
 * Does the task generate further ideas, questions, and make connections?
 * How have students used what they already learned to create something unique?
 * How have students taken risks? What kind of evidence are you looking for when it comes to risk taking?
 * Has the student expressed his/her own creative ideas?
 * Is your method of assessment truly capturing the vision of critical thinking and problem solving needed to succeed in the 21st Century?

__ Looking at Common Core Standards Creatively __ Unfortunately, national standards are the basis of many teachers’ assessments. Since creativity is not valued, it is not found in standards. By no means does that negate the value of creativity in the classroom. As you cite standards in your unit and lesson plans, consider how to incorporate creative applications in them. It is common for students to simply read a text, analyze it via the “literary elements treasure hunt” method. Teachers may assign a “treasure hunt results” essay afterwards. This approach lacks interest and engagement from both student and teacher. Think of creativity in the verb form, //create//. For example, consider how writing can be a response to reading a text. Have students decide where their written responses will go. Make writing prompts open-ended so that students can take their ideas and reactions and create a thesis/direction for the exploration of their reading. Asking students questions like, “If you were the author...?” gives students the opportunity to construct their own narratives, not just talk about those already written (See Reading Standards for Literature #5, Grades 11-12). A focus on student autonomy in text-response can equip students to create meaningful, relevant, and intelligent applications in English classrooms.

__ Making a Creativity-conducive Classroom __ We all want to make our classrooms safe, nurturing environments for our students. We have already explored how to do this on the personal, social, and intellectual levels. But we encourage you to extend that to creative ventures. Just as we need to value risk taking, we should value creativity in our students. Remember, //reward the act of risk taking, not the results of it.// For students who are “doing school,” creativity is risky and not important to achieve academic success. We must value and reward students in their creative endeavors. Our students will feel safe to think “out of the box,” for that is where creativity exists. Any students who are trapped in the cage of “in the box” thinking will suffer greatly in the 21st century. If we are to equip our students for jobs that do not exist yet, we must invest in expanding their creativity and remove the boundaries of the box in their minds.

__ Risk-taking __ (Harvard University - Everday Classroom Tools - The Keys to Inquiry__)__ In order to have an environment that fosters risk-taking, teachers must be the starting point for how this looks in the classroom. Teachers should model risk-taking so students see teachers as a living example of how to step outside of their own comfort zones. A large part of this process involves inquiry-based learning. This style of learning lends itself well to risk-taking and can be used to change the learning dynamic in a classroom. This new dynamic is how teachers bring creativity into the classroom. Some ways to promote this idea include:


 * Valuing mistakes as a process of understanding
 * Allowing for open-ended questions to/from teachers and students
 * Recognizing there may be more than one possible answer
 * The ability to explain the methods in which one arrives at “an answer” is more important than obtaining “the right answer”
 * All ideas are encouraged to be shared
 * Questions, examples, problems, and solutions all lend themselves to further inquiry. In other words, the process of exploring does not end when class is over

A few other key elements can foster risk-taking in the classroom. The ideas of being open-minded, exploring alternatives (when they may contradict with your point of view), and being alert to narrow ways of thinking are initial pathways to taking risks. However, it will not end here. Teachers can challenge students to see other points of view, dispute “generally accepted” assumptions, look for opposite sides of an argument, be genuinely curious, create questions and problems from an initial endeavor, and ask “What if” questions to stir the pot on a given topic. We should work with students to determine how assessment will play into this idea of risk-taking. Creating assessment goals //with// students is one way to align the creativity ideas listed above with the end result of a student’s growth.

__ Out of the Box Thinking __ (Harvard - The Thinking Classroom) Inherently, in the box thinking in a classroom implies that teachers are telling students how to think. Conversely, out of the box thinking is not about brainwashing, but rather equipping students with the tools they need to work through questions and problems in different ways. Students rarely absorb and transfer information when studying subjects in traditional ways (like reading a chapter and answering post-chapter questions). Instead, teachers can teach thinking to create self-regulated learners who use knowledge to construct meaning.

Students who have been taught in a “traditional” manner their whole lives struggle with loose guidelines. These students tend to desire a cookie-cutter, explicit way of writing a paper or completing a project. To combat this way of learning and performing in the classroom, teachers can design their units, lessons, and assessments in a way that makes it nearly impossible for students use the Industrial Era “Input-Output” model to complete assignments.

__ Resources __

European Commission: Center for Literacy in Primary Education - Creative Learning Assessment (CLA): A Framework for Developing and Assessing Children’s Creative Learning [|http][|://][|ec][|.][|europa][|.][|eu][|/][|education][|/][|lifelong][|-][|learning][|-][|policy][|/][|doc][|/][|creativity][|/][|report][|/][|cla][|.][|pdf]

Goshen University - Ten Classroom Creativity Killers [|http][|://][|www][|.][|goshen][|.][|edu][|/][|art][|/][|ed][|/][|creativitykillers][|.][|html]

Harvard University - Everday Classroom Tools - The Keys to Inquiry [|http][|://][|hea][|-][|www][|.][|harvard][|.][|edu][|/][|ECT][|/][|Inquiry][|/][|inquiry][|2][|text][|.][|html]

Harvard University - The Thinking Classroom [|http][|://][|learnweb][|.][|harvard][|.][|edu][|/][|alps][|/][|thinking][|/][|intro][|.][|cfm]

University of Leicester - The Interplay Between Creativity and Assessment in Initial Teacher Education [|https][|://][|lra][|.][|le][|.][|ac][|.][|uk][|/][|bitstream][|/2381/9510/1/2011][|ComptonAEdD][|.][|pdf]