Submitted by: Amy Ropple, Parker Middle School in Reading,
Massachusetts
Lesson Plan: How to Stay Creative?
Grade Level: Middle School (could use for high school)
See also How Artists Get Ideas
See Creativity and Early Childhood Education
How to Stay Creative?
Introduction: Amy heard an artist speak about creativity the
night before she she did this assignment who included a list of her own
ideas that was quite similar to similar to what Amy's students came up with. The
speaker's presentation sparked the idea for this lesson with her 8th grade
art elective classes. See Twyla
Tharp's Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life:
The Problem: List rules that artists should remember in order to
stay creative with their work, and to keep challenging themselves.
Students came up with the list below without input from Amy or
paraphrasing on her part.
13 Rules for Artists:
How to Challenge Yourself and Stay Creative
by Grade 8 Art Elective, Spring 2003
- Do
something new each time you make a piece of art.
- Try
new materials and processes. Don’t limit yourself!
- Keep
an open mind.
- LOOK
around you.
- Don’t
get upset about the artwork you make. If you aren’t
happy with a project, don’t throw it out. When you are done
with it, someone else might like it and then you will too.
- After
mastering one way of working with an idea, try doing it a different
way – you might get a better result.
- Try
never to do the exact same thing twice.
- Learn
background information and do research about the idea you are
interested in working on.
- Keep
the fun of art alive!
- Get
opinions from others.
- Do
something original. Copying is for learning only. Use your own ideas
in your art.
- Practice
= growth.
- Stay
focused. If you don’t, you will lose track of your idea and
your project won’t come out as well as it could.
Some
Links for Creativity:
Link to
Creativity Web sites - Marvin Bartel , Goshen College
Teaching
Creativity - Marvin Bartel, Goshen College
Creativity
Killers - Marvin Bartel, Goshen College
Creativity
and Early Childhood Education from Early Childhood
News:
For full article, go to:
http://www.brightring.com/creativity.html
Fostering Creativity
by MaryAnn Kohl
Copyright © 1999-2001 Earlychildhood.com LLC.
There's no doubt about it: Creativity is as natural and necessary for
children as fresh air and sunshine! By exposing children to creative
experiences, we give them the gift of a rich and memorable childhood while
laying the foundation for a lifetime of creative expression - all topped
off with a heaping helping of important learning skills.
What Is Creativity?
Creativity focuses on the process of forming original ideas through
exploration and discovery. In children, creativity develops from their
experiences with the process, rather than concern for the finished
product.
Creativity is not to be confused with talent, skill, or intelligence.
Creativity is not about doing something better than others, it is about
thinking, exploring, discovering, and imagining. Creativity is found in
the
obvious art and music, but can also be found in science and play. Because
we think of art, music, dance, and drama as examples of creative ideas, we
may have forgotten that creative thought is found in all aspects of a
growing child's life and can be learned from daily. Just look at how
creativity shows itself when a scientist discovers a cure for a disease,
how a business owner decides to increase sales, how the grocery clerk bags
the groceries, or how a parent finds a way to entice a reluctant child to
head off to bed.
Getting Started: Inviting Creativity
Providing the opportunity for creativity is as easy as allowing children
to draw with crayons on blank paper, to bang a pot with a wooden spoon in
time to music, to build an inviting reading area with blankets and
cushions, or to hop and bop to a favorite children's recordings. Something
as easy as drawing on a blank surface is surprisingly important. Research
shows that children who draw frequently do better in reading and math and
will shine at focusing on learning tasks. Choosing their own drawing
materials empowers children and opens their eyes to the world around them.
What can we do as teachers to help creativity take hold? When a child
presents you with a drawing and says, "Look at what I made!",
respond by saying, "Tell me about your drawing," or ask,
"What do you like about your drawing?" These open-ended
responses let the child evaluate his own creativity while initiating
conversation about the work at hand. Try not to guess what that gooey
green glob of paint is supposed to be because it may only be a gooey green
glob of paint. By not assuming anything about the child's work of art, the
door to self-evaluation and communication opens.
How Can Teachers Encourage Creativity?
...more at website...
http://www.brightring.com/creativity.html
Twyla
Tharp's Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life:
Editorial
Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Perhaps the leading choreographer of her generation,
Tharp offers a thesis on creativity that is more complex than its
self-help title suggests. To be sure, an array of prescriptions and
exercises should do much to help those who feel some pent-up inventiveness
to find a system for turning idea into product, whether that be a story, a
painting or a song. This free-wheeling interest across various creative
forms is one of the main points that sets this book apart and leads to its
success. The approach may have been born of the need to reach an audience
greater than choreographer hopefuls, and the diversity of examples (from
Maurice Sendak to Beethoven on one page) frees the student to develop his
or her own patterns and habits, rather than imposing some regimen that
works for Tharp. The greatest number of illustrations, however, come from
her experiences. As a result, this deeply personal book, while not a
memoir, reveals much about her own struggles, goals and achievements.
Finally, the book is also a rumination on the nature of creativity itself,
exploring themes of process versus product, the influences of inspiration
and rigorous study, and much more. It deserves a wide audience among
general readers and should not be relegated to the self-help section of
bookstores. This information Copyright 2003 Reed Business
Information, Inc. (I copied this without
permission - but I am sure they won't mind)
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