Bookmark

Sign up or login to use the bookmarking feature.

44 Thinking Creatively

Page
377
from
Write Ahead

Start-Up Activity

Ask your students if they ever read any of the Harold and the Purple Crayon books. Have one available to show them in case they haven't, or show them this Youtube video. In these books, Harold wanders the pages with his purple crayon, literally drawing the world in front of his feet. The purple crayon simply makes marks. Harold's imagination makes rockets and monsters and palaces and dreams.

Ask students what they would do if they had a crayon like Harold's—if they could draw reality in front of them as they went along. What would they draw? Why? What if their drawings got out of control? What would they do to save the situation?

Help them understand they do have the same power as Harold. They can imagine whatever they wish and work to make it real. That's the power of creativity. In fact, every single aspect of human achievement, from the cell phones in their pockets to the cinderblocks in the walls, were imagined and created by human beings.

Think About It

“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.”

—Edward de Bono

State Standards Covered in This Chapter

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.10

LAFS Covered in This Chapter

LAFS.910.W.1.3

TEKS Covered in This Chapter

110.36.c.9

110.36.c.10.A

110.37.c.9

110.37.c.10.A

110.36.c.10

110.37.c.10

TEKS Covered in This Chapter

Page 378 from Write Ahead

Becoming a Creative Thinker

Use this page as a poll to get a baseline for students' creative-thinking abilities. Turn each numbered item into a question, and ask for a show of hands:

  1. "Do you actively seek out new things to think about?"

Lead a discussion about the question, using the material in regular type for support and inspiration. Then move on to the next question:

  1. "Do you seek out interesting people to spend time with?"

Continue in this way right through to item 10. Then have students choose two of the tips on this page and write a paragraph describing how they will use the tips to improve their creative thinking.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.1.3
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.9, 110.36.c.10.A, 110.37.c.9, 110.37.c.10.A
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.1.b, LA 10.2.2, LA 10.2.2.a

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
21st Century Skills:
Creative Thinking

Page 379 from Write Ahead

Using Creative-Thinking Strategies

Introduce your students to the four creative thinking strategies on this page and the next. Anyone can use these strategies to think creatively, quickly developing many original ideas. Creativity isn't just for artists and novelists. It is also for engineers, doctors, politicians, and students.

Metaphorical thinking requires the student to find similarities between dissimilar things. By using simile, metaphor, symbolism, and personification, the student can see a subject in a whole new light. Using these figures of speech in writing also helps students recognize and understand them in reading. Ask students to select an object in your room and write an example of each type of metaphorical thinking about the object. Then have students share their examples with the class. (Watch the "ah-hahs" on students' faces as they see an object in a new way.)

Conceptual blending takes the next step, purposely combining dissimilar things to force new outcomes. Lead students through the two examples. Then give them a sentence of your own, with the topic filled in: "How could (cars) be more like ______________ ?" Challenge students to fill in the blank with an idea of their own, and then answer the question in as many ways as possible. Encourage them to come up with even outlandish answers. Then have students share their creative ideas with each other.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.1.3
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.9, 110.36.c.10.A, 110.37.c.9, 110.37.c.10.A
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.1.b, LA 10.2.2, LA 10.2.2.a

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
21st Century Skills:
Creative Thinking

Page 380 from Write Ahead

Socratic Questioning and Trait Evaluation

Introduce the two creative-thinking strategies on this page, modeling them in class discussions.

First, lead students through the material on Socratic questioning, outlining the different types of questions and their purposes in discussion. Then write a policy statement on the board: "We need to increase parental involvement in our school." Ask a volunteer to use one of the Socratic questions to spark conversation. After the question is asked, require students to answer it and discuss it. Then have another student offer another Socratic question to move the discussion along. Continue working through the idea, with questions providing new directions and considerations. After the discussion, let students know that you will be using Socratic questions to guide class discussions going forward, and you want students also to use them as they explore ideas.

Then introduce students to the concept of trait evaluation. They should be quite comfortable with the concept, because they use it all of the time to evaluate their writing according to the traits of effective writing. However, this strategy asks students to first define the key traits of any topic before evaluating them. Lead students through the explanation and example. Then distribute the Trait Evaluation Chart and have students perform a trait evaluation of a subject of their own choosing.

Downloads:
State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.1.3
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.9, 110.36.c.10.A, 110.37.c.9, 110.37.c.10.A
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.1.b, LA 10.2.2, LA 10.2.2.a

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
21st Century Skills:
Creative Thinking

Page 381 from Write Ahead

Creative Thinking in Action

Hand out the Creative-Thinking Skills checklist and have students fill it out to get a sense of their current abilities. Then challenge them to improve their creative thinking during the semester, focusing on two or more of the items on the checklist. Near the end of the semester, have students fill out the checklist again, and afterward compare it with their original answers. For any item that changed, have them write a sentence reflecting on the change. Then have them write a paragraph about how they will work to improve their creative thinking going forward.

Downloads:
Related Minilesson:
State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.1.3
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.9, 110.36.c.10.A, 110.37.c.9, 110.37.c.10.A
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.1.b, LA 10.2.2, LA 10.2.2.a

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
21st Century Skills:
Creative Thinking