“Creativity is the permission to be original all day, every day.” – Peter Reynolds
“If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never create something original.” – Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Ken Robinson is one of a growing chorus of experts who help us to see that the education process in America stigmatizes wrong answers so much that we rob our students of the opportunity to be genuinely creative. Yet we know that creativity is the highest level of intellectual behavior (see updated Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives). Any opportunity that we as teachers can present students to honor their innate willingness to put new ideas out for consideration should be embraced.
There is a rich palette of technological tools available to students in schools today for creating the types of products we have never experienced before. Drawing and painting software, presentation tools, video cameras, audio recorders, sound editing tools, word processors, these are all opportunities for a student to express their learning in a differentiated ways.
When focused on creativity, you might benefit from NOT discussing what kind of product students will make, instead focusing on what they intend to communicate to their audience. Once that is established, discuss possible modes of delivery. Bernajean Porter is a thought leader in this area, and you can find more information on this type of instructional process at her site http://www.digitales.us/evaluating/index.php .
Porter also focuses on the evaluating of projects that rely upon creative thinking. She suggests that we do not get distracted by the quality of the product. Instead, we should assess the rigor of learning on display within the product. You want to look for examples of original thought, fluency, elaboration, brainstorming, modification, imagery, associative thinking, attribute listing, metaphorical thinking, forced relationships, formulation, design, and development.
