CEP 818 has taught me to use my knowledge in a way that promotes creativity and allows one to expand on their thinking through creativity. Students have the natural ability to explore and question. As educators, we face the challenge to teach students required curriculum in a way that forces students to exercise these instincts. It may be less of a challenge and quicker to distribute paper materials, practice the concept, and assess students, it is not the most effective practice. Teaching of this manner puts the teacher in control over one’s learning at all times. It takes away the student’s control over their learning and fails to recognize that a specific method, even one that has proven itself to be effective with a number of children, will not lead to understanding for all of our students.
Individuals have their own take on the creative process. I feel that to create something couples our ability to alter our ideas into reality. The most notable aspect of the Root-Bernstein’s work is the explanation of the framework of creativity through essential thinking tools such as, observation, perception, abstract thinking, pattern recognition, embodied thinking, and even playfulness. I have provided my synthesis of what I have learned in this class; along with specific ways each thinking tool is used to spur creativity within my teaching.
Observation/Perception:
Observation and perception were the first tools that we were introduced to in this course. In order to reach more students, we must demonstrate to our students that we value creative thinking and let them help us to use creativity in our classrooms. “All knowledge begins in observation (30).” Observation requires patience and determination. This past week we have been studying the scientific method in my 4th grade classroom. When we studied observation I asked my students to write down everything they saw me do over a three-minute period.
Perception plays an important role in my content area topic. One of my objectives for content area is to get my students to connect prior knowledge and experiences to the pictorial representation of characters, events, or information in a book. As students make connections they way they observe, hear, and perceive information will influence their connections to the text, just as it did with the candle activity. It is interesting to hear the student’s perception of the experiment. I hope to relate this to thinking and digging deeper as my students read. Re-reading to really dig into the beef of the story!
Patterning:
Patterning was the next tool we were introduced to. Building upon one thing after the other creates a pattern and my realization was that some student’s don’t have opportunities to create life patterns. I noticed that making connections to text to better understand your reading is often a difficult task for young readers. It can sometimes seem out of focus for them or they are not recognizing they are even doing this naturally. It takes time, patience, and practice. When I was taking a children’s literature class in collage, I remember dissecting books to match them with life experiences. For me I felt this was fairly easy. However, I have been exposed to many different things and have had many life experiences. The area I am teaching in right now has a low socio
I cam up with a new pattern of learning, I would like to purpose that students make and have life experiences in my classroom that they may not have had the opportunity to experience. For example, tasting vegetable or exotic fruits. I would like them to create a list of things they would like to experience and I want to try to bring that into the classroom for them to experience. We have so much exposure to technology and there is so much that can be done with it. I would like to use it to being things to life for my students. Then, when it comes to making connections and developing an understanding of their text they will be able to recall their experiences. This exercise will force students to think about their experiences and what they have and have not been exposed to. I am excited to try this patterning approach with my class for many reasons. Like, giving them exposure to many things they may not have the opportunity to get a such a young age; using our new social studies program to take virtual field trips across the United States, and to make them more well-rounded individuals.
Abstractions:
The tool of abstracting allowed me to think about being creative and not always generalizing everything. Writing is a major component to literacy (reading/writing). I often ask my students write to respond to their reading. As they make connections to the world around them, they share their ideas though journals. This concept of writing and responding to their reading can be a difficult task. Pencils are used everyday, so my analogy and abstraction comes from pencils and the thinking process behind writing and how they relate.
Analogy: The formation a pencil makes when writing is much the same as the formation your brain takes as you change ideas, language, or thought. Pencils are used to express thought, and the direction the pencil goes depends on the direction the thought moves.
Abstractions are something that takes place everywhere. Sometimes I wonder if I even notice abstractions. As Sparks somewhat defines it, "Abstracting is a process beginning with reality and using some tool to pare away the excess to reveal the critical, often surprising essence." (90) After reading about abstraction it has forced me to think of examples around me in my work at school and my life. As I ask students to make connections, “What does this remind you of? Does think relate to anything you already know?” This can be difficult for my students individually, but when we work together as a group we are able to come up with connections. We are able to build from one another’s ideas or experiences.
Embodied Thinking:
Embodied thinking attaches the empathizing and kinesthetic thinking. Body thinking involves muscle movement, posture, balance, and touch (161). Moreover, the process of body thinking is exercised when an unfamiliar skill is initially being learned (161). As a skill becomes familiar, however, the process of body thinking becomes automatic and the body completes the skill without thinking (162). For example, when you first learn how to ride your bike, your mind and body have to focus on the completion of the task. As the skill becomes familiar, however, your body goes through the motions of riding your bike automatically without your mind having to think about how to complete the task.
Thinking with one’s body is frequently utilized as a means to express oneself across various artistic domains. For instance, dancers, painters, and musicians all claim utilizing their bodies to create their works of art. Henry Moore, for example, tried the positions of the item he was sculpting in order to increase his understanding of the sculpture (169-170). Non-artistic creators also use body thinking. For example, scientists, mathematicians, and engineers also use body thinking during their creative processes.
“Understanding is most complete when you are not you, but what you wish to understand” (201). This quote exemplifies the second thinking skill, empathizing. Empathizing is the process by which you can learn about another person or object by seeing the world through their eyes (182). This process of walking in someone else’s shoes is common for multiple professions. For instance, painters, actors, doctors, historians, hunters, and scientific researchers all assume the perspective of another person / object in order to better understand that person / object. Jane Goodall, for example, took the perspective of the gorillas that she worked with in order to better understand them (192).
Studying embodied thinking, which includes both body thinking and empathizing, has increased the potential for my own creative thinking. Within my current job, I find it challenging at times to remember to empathize with the families that I work with. This refresher about empathizing has been a nice reminder about the importance of taking the time to view the perspective of other people. Similarly, I tend to learn concepts best when I am able to use my body in some capacity. Therefore, learning about body thinking helped explain the seemingly automatic process of learning. Finally, I think that fostering empathizing and body thinking are both concepts that I can help encourage my students to explore. I think facilitating novel hands on learning opportunities will best promote their understanding of body thinking. As for empathizing, this is an essential tool that all of us need to remember to utilize. I think that having my students observe, interview, research, or question others will help them understand how and why it is important to empathize with others.
Modeling:
Modeling was a tool that I am familiar with and is how I teach. I am constantly "modeling" what to do, how should it look, the steps to complete a project. My students learn through the visual and audio experiences I provide during each of my lessons.
Models can be smaller than life, life-sized, or bigger; physical or mathematical; realistic or not, depending on their intended uses... In all cases the point of a model is to make accessible something that is difficult to experience easily" (229.)
When students are learning something new or doing something for the first time it can be difficult for them. Modeling provides them with the opportunity to develop their thought process and accomplish their new task. It is a thinking skill that my students and I already utilize so much. I often have my students model how to do things. They are required to consider what aspects were particularly difficult to grasp or conceptualize and gear their modeling towards their peers.
Playing:
Play was the tool I didn’t give much thought to. I assumed it to be natural, but I didn’t always know its capabilities. Playing throughout the school day becomes essential, not only for creative purposes, but also for the developmental aspects of young children. I am torn with this, because developmentally, I know my students need to play, but those above me suggest they need more structured educational, teaching time. With a heavily loaded curriculum it is very difficult to fit in play. The best alternative: incorporate play into the instructional time. “Play can be useful because, as psychologist Jean Piaget suggested, it strengthens various mental skills in on rot more of three ways (practice play, symbolic play, and game play)” (Root-Berenstein 248-249).
Though these three types of play are extremely important, I find it hard when students should be doing literacy centers (playing games and doing activities that are already created), and they begin to use symbolic play, by building forts and tents out of the cards. They aren’t getting the practice that they need, but they are being playfully creative, which is age appropriate. I have found that children need specific times in which they can play, even though sometimes they “can’t.” I try to have a few specific times of the day where students are given the freedom to play and be creative. By trying to find more ways to play during literacy has been difficult. “Transforming concepts from one form into another can yield discoveries in any field” (Root-Berenstein, 286). We want our students to feel as though they have the opportunity, drive, and ability, to create different things, things that could possibly take them places when they get older. My students work in groups today to create an assembly line at the “Hersey” factory in Hersey, Pennsylvania. This might not be a formal “play time,” but it allowed the students to be creative and use their imagination to pretend they were working in a factory. The purpose was to simulate what it was like to be a factory worker long ago.
“When we become aware of the transformations our ideas undergo, we are well on the road to awareness of creative imagining as a process we can play with and control” (Root-Berenstein, 293). In order for students to understand literacy, play must be involved. Hands on experiences, in helping students fully grasp the fundamental concepts. For example, learning new words. With each new word part that my students are presented with, the suffix/prefix is added to our word wall. We begin to create words based on the suffix/prefix they have. This word play helps them to realize that different parts can be in many different words. As we learn each new word, we’ve been looking at simple word searches to try to pull out the words in them.
“Different transformations of an idea or a set of data will have different characteristics and uses. The more unexpected the transformation, the greater the likelihood that a surprising insight will result” (Root-Berenstein, 285). Students don’t often realize that “play” is a part of their daily schedule. It is my job to get them to have a balance of learning styles. Play is crucial at this stage in their lives, so that they can physically understand the concepts, even if transforming them doesn’t make sense yet. “Play returns us to the presymbolic drives of gut feelings, emotions, intuition, and fun from which creative insights stem, thereby making us inventors” (Root-Berenstein, 267).
The tools that CEP 818 has provided me with have and will remain in my professional career and my personal life. I have come to the realization though this course, that it s easier then what I thought to provide students to use their natural instincts with a push of creativity.
