Creatively Speaking

What is Creativity? What does it mean to be Creative? How do I teach creativity? These were questions to which I thought there were no answers. However, when I enrolled in a PD on Creativity, these were the exact questions that I wanted answered.

To kick off the PD, we were asked to bring along a unit of work that we could develop. I chose a Year 3 unit because they were my youngest class and my starting point to changing the way I added creativity to my units. I thought this PD was going to be about me being creative. Creative in the way I planned units of work and the way I delivered those units, but it was more than that.

I’d been teaching this unit for a couple of years and there some good learning had happened. From a Design Technology point of view, the students were learning skills with tools and machinery as well as working with and learning about materials. I had also included in my planning opportunity for the students to design and be creative. However, I was about to realise there was room for students to be even more creative in their designing.

Usually the way I had taught this unit was to:

• Have the kids frame up the base
• Design the outside shape
• Attach and decorate the ply 

The overarching idea was for the students to use the product to convey a personal message. I was very chuffed that all of the products achieved there desired purpose, but when I was asked why the kids all make the base the same, the only response I had was “because that’s how we do it.” …There it was! The most dangerous phrase in Education! Because that’s the way we’ve always done it! In that light bulb moment, I realised that I had to change this unit and I was now starting to think I needed to reflect on all the other units I taught!

Conveying the message was still the overarching idea of the unit. We were using the same materials, tools and machinery and had the same time frame. I was uncertain about so many things. Did I have enough time to get through it? Would the kids run with it? How was I going to teach how to construct all the individual designs that would come from this? However, I was excited about the possibilities and was willing to jump in and give it a go and that was essentially the key!

The big difference with this revamped unit was the kids were now going to design their own bases. One of the strategies I used to help them visualise their ideas was to model in cardboard. I cut cardboard pieces the exact size of the materials they would be using for the base. They spent time playing with the cardboard, manipulating it into shapes and designs. Lots of shapes and designs and they photographed each one. They loved this process and wanted to share each step with their peers and me. We then had a lesson where they had the opportunity to discuss/share/critique each other’s ideas and this was the moment I realised how powerful this learning strategy is. 

The kids had conversations about:

• How suitable each other's designs were
• How strong they thought they would be
• How to best construct them
• Good and bad aspects of each and what improvements could be made

Reflection and cooperation – such valuable tools for learning!

In yet another departure from my ‘usual’ practice was that I let go of the reins. The kids experimented with how materials joined and worked together. Literally, we had boxes full of scrap materials that they joined and glued together, then they broke them apart. Again, the kids analysed what worked and what didn’t and why. Conversations about their learning flowed and there were no correct answers. These were conversations that I would normally facilitate. Was I doing myself out of a job?!

In the end, every student came up with a different solution to the problem. Every child had worked through the design process, drawn on their own experiences and created a unique solution to suit his or her situation. But more than that, they had an explanation of why they designed and made it like that and could and would explain this.

What stood out the most for me were:

• How engaged the kids were in this task.
•  How giving them more freedom to design allowed individual creativity.
• The ownership they had of this task
• Through play/experimentation kids were learning more deeply than they would from me lecturing.
• How they were teaching each other
• And how by standing back or letting go allowed more critical, meaningful learning that also naturally fostered learning dispositions.

·        Don’t get me wrong. Not everything was plain sailing. There were lessons I had to change on the run. Sometimes I cut things and other times I extended things to take advantage of the quality of learning. I still have to make changes for next time I use this unit and, in fact, creatively speaking, this unit and I will continue to change and evolve with each new set of students.