Yes, You Can Teach and Assess Creativity!
A recent blog by Grant Wiggins affirmed what I have long believed about creativity: it is a 21st-century skill we can teach and assess. Creativity fosters deeper learning, builds confidence and creates a student ready for college and career. However, many teachers don't know how to implement the teaching and assessment of creativity in their classrooms. While we may have the tools to teach and assess content, creativity is another matter, especially if we want to be intentional about teaching it as a 21st-century skill. In a PBL project, some teachers focus on just one skill, while others focus on many. Here are some strategies educators can use tomorrow to get started teaching and assessing creativity -- just one more highly necessary skill in that 21st-century toolkit. Quality Indicators If you and your students don't unpack and understand what creativity looks like, then teaching and assessing it will be very difficult. Activities Targeted to Quality Indicators Model Thinking Skills
7 Tenets of Creative Thinking
In school, we learn about geniuses and their ideas, but how did they get those ideas? What are the mental processes, attitudes, work habits, behaviors, and beliefs that enable creative geniuses to view the same things as the rest of us, yet see something different? The following are seven principles that I've learned during my lifetime of work in the field of creative thinking -- things that I wish I'd been taught as a student. 1. Artists are not special, but each of us is a special kind of artist who enters the world as a creative and spontaneous thinker. 2. You must show passion and the determination to immerse yourself in the process of developing new and different ideas. 3. When producing ideas, you replenish neurotransmitters linked to genes that are being turned on and off in response to challenges. 4. Your brain is a dynamic system that evolves patterns of activity, rather than simply processing them like a computer. 5. Aristotle believed that things were either "A" or "not A."
Create Online: Sites to Spark Kids' Creativity
Get our best picks for movies, apps, TV shows, books, and more, customized for your kids. Get the App Get the App No thanks close(x) Don’t Miss Out You’re all set! Look out for our weekly updates soon. Connect with us Jump to navigation "Best of" Lists "Best of" lists Get age-appropriate ideas and inspiration for every interest: Poll Did this specific Top Picks list help you decide to do any of the following? Let your child watch/play/read/listen to a particular media title 41% (739 votes) NOT let your child watch/play/read/listen to a particular media title 13% (240 votes) Buy, rent, or download a particular media title 24% (423 votes) Did not impact my decision 22% (391 votes) Total votes: 1793 About our rating system ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids of any age. Find out more Learning ratings Share this List Storybird csm_website We Make Stories
Best Creative Apps
Get our best picks for movies, apps, TV shows, books, and more, customized for your kids. Get the App Get the App No thanks close(x) Don’t Miss Out You’re all set! Look out for our weekly updates soon. Connect with us Jump to navigation "Best of" Lists "Best of" lists Get age-appropriate ideas and inspiration for every interest: Poll Did this specific Top Picks list help you decide to do any of the following? Let your child watch/play/read/listen to a particular media title 41% (739 votes) NOT let your child watch/play/read/listen to a particular media title 13% (240 votes) Buy, rent, or download a particular media title 24% (423 votes) Did not impact my decision 22% (391 votes) Total votes: 1793 About our rating system ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids of any age. Find out more Learning ratings Share this List Best Creative Apps Beck and Bo by Avokiddo
Mad Hot Ballroom (Age 8+)
At first, it might seem strange to see such young people working so seriously on ballroom dancing. But within minutes, Marilyn Agrelo's documentary convinces viewers that this is exactly the right activity for these dedicated, enchanting fifth-graders. As they work with their teachers and each other to learn the difficult steps and postures for the rumba, tango, swing, merengue, and fox-trot, they also reveal much about themselves as thoughtful, dynamic young people. As they dance, they are exposed to various cultural traditions and begin to learn traditional gender roles (the boys are instructed, "Take care of your partner"). More than anything else, the movie impresses by the respect it affords its subjects.
Pollock (Age 16+)
Frida (Age 16+)
Beautiful Oops
Art Lab for Kids
Steal Like an Artist (Age 16+)
Imaginets Magnetic Shapes (Age 3+)
Imaginets Magnetic Shapes from MindWare inspire kids to create and imagine. The fifty, full-color design challenge cards allow kids to recreate figures on the magnetic white board using a combination of colorful Imaginets shapes to make a dog or a dragon, a castle or a car, and much more. Or, they can make up their very own magnetic masterpieces. Imaginets can provide children with an opportunity to build their confidence by creating shapes and abstract objects and build their hand skills and eye-hand coordination by manipulating the magnetic shapes. Skill areas: Sensory Motor DevelopmentCognition and Problem Solving WARNING:CHOKING HAZARD - Small parts.
Flowpaper (Adult)
