As part of the Exploratory phase of our Creative Process during our How We Express Ourselves unit of inquiry, I am providing small daily prompt-tasks for students to experience some Arts they may not naturally choose, have interest in or be aware of.  

Today I asked each student to choose from a book any Visual Art piece which they felt connected to. We would use our PAINT strategy from Writer's Workshop to respond to the Visual Art piece to then create an original poem.  
My aim is for students to use responding as fuel for their creativity and to expose them to a freer more creative writing format for poetry.

Tomorrow I will repeat this task but use Music instead of Visual Art. In addition, Jennifer Pittaway, our Music teacher and co-collaborator for this unit, has taken this idea and replaced the words with the elements of Music. I will try to collect this idea and post it up too.

I hope that you enjoy this and find it useful.  Your comments and ideas are warmly welcomed.
 
 
Jen Pittaway, Leigh Ann and I have been collaborating again on our HOW WE EXPRESS OURSELVES Unit of Inquiry for this school year. Last year we learned a bunch and came up with a creative process to support students composing Music. Click HERE to read more.

This year we aimed to create a more Transdisciplinary Unit with a Creative Process for Arts including Drama, Music, Dance and Visual Art. We felt that students needed the freedom and opportunities to create, yet, they also needed some support or structure to help them along the way. We wanted something simple but effective for Primary age children. 



Reflection
Waves of reflection throughout the process, in an Arts Journal through drawing, writing, pasting etc, provide the opportunity for students to capture ideas and develop them. Students learn about how they are being creative eventually informing themselves of their own creative process. Reflecting on feedback from others during the three phases, formally or informally, will help students improve their ideas, expression and understanding of their own creativity.

Inspiration and Exploration
The child remains at the center and any inspiration (internal or external) he or she must feel strongly connected to. Exploration is free and open without structure and goes hand-in-hand with finding inspiration and being inspired. Towards the end of this phase, students capture their inspiration in their Arts Journal and catapult themselves to consider the Audience. Once they have done this the come back to continue into the next phase.

Audience
Student's consider what they want their Audience to feel. They describe what connections they intend to make with their audience and what connections they want the audience to make with them. Students need to understand the ideas they will convey to their audience.  They need to think of the messages they want their audience to leave with.

Expression
Which of the Arts or combination will best express their ideas, feelings, experiences, messages or make connections? Which elements of Arts will help them achieve this?

Record
Students make their expression permanent by writing their script, making their art, filming their dance, notating their music and so on.

Audience
Students perform and share. They reflect on the influence they have made on others through expressing themselves creatively.

 
 
I am sure you have heard about the importance of critical thinking in students. I know Natasha and I hear about it but we were always asking "That's great...but what does that look like?"  I came across the beginning of an answer while trying to deepen my understanding of something else. Funny how that happens! Anyway, I was trying to learn more about concept-based teaching by looking at H. Lynn Erickson's book,  Stirring the Head, Heart and Soul: Redefining the Curriculum, Instruction, and Concept-Based Learning.
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I totally recommend this book!
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I changed it to "Thinking Behaviours" to match up with our "Reading Behaviours"
   Like any great professional resource, it led me to MORE great professional resources. For example, Richard Paul and Linda Elder's Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning  and Your Life.  Now, this book is now on the Amazon order list so I haven't read it yet, but Erikson's book gave a bite-sized preview of what goodies may be inside. For example, it cites nine basic intellectual standards which are: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, fairness and significance. It even includes questions we can ask of ourselves and our students to develop these intellectual standards.
   Since I like things to have a bit of colour and pizazz, I have summarized the thinking standards below. I have added the definitions but the questions are taken from Paul and Elder (who were cited in Erikson). I'll update you on how I am using them in class. Also, if you find these useful in any way, do let us know how you used them! We are always on the hunt for new ideas to feature from fabulous fellow teachers!
9_thinking_behaviours.pdf
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9_thinking_behaviours.pages
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After an inspiring workshop by Kath Murdoch last weekend, I've updated the Spelling Inquiry approach we use for writing. For more information please read my original post HERE.
spelling_inquiry_cycle.pages
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spelling_inquiry_cycle.pdf
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