Creative Work as Learning and Student Inquiry
I am passionate about the use of creative work for two reasons.
The first reason is that I not only love teaching and have a passion for working with youth, but I also love and have a passion for what I am teaching. Although English is largely a skills based course, especially in terms of how success or failure is assessed, I view myself as an arts educator as well (joining the ranks of music educators, visual arts educators, drama educators, etc.). In my teaching practice, I will always make a point of never losing that and never forgetting the beauty, artistry, and deeper meanings about the human soul that are embedded in the literature that I study with my students. In my experience during my practicum, I found that students were more engaged when we discussed the artistic merits of the literature, as well as the conventional aspects that they also must address in their literary analysis. I also found success in using creative work to encourage to help my students create new meaning and demonstrate a critical understanding of the bigger ideas that were being presented in what we were reading. I know that the students must learn the content and skills that are determined by the curriculum, but I always want to make sure that we aren't missing out on the initial artistic purpose of what we are studying.
As a Social Studies teacher, I found that one of the most effective ways for my students to find meaning and relevance in the material we study in class is by providing them with authentic as well as creative ways to represent their understanding. This ranged from creative/reflective written pieces (such a journal entries from the point of view of someone from that time in history) to more artistic pieces such as flyers and posters. In completing these assessments, students needed to put themselves in the time and place we were studying, imagine what it would feel like to be that person, and thoughtfully represent what they learned from that process.
The second reason is that I feel that creative work can be as informative (if not more so, in some cases) of a student's understanding of a skill or concept than what is demonstrated in their academic work. For example, it is tradition in high school English classes to teach the five-paragraph essay because it is easy to teach, easy for the students to follow, and easy to mark; however, on provincial exams, the student who writes the standard five-paragraph essay is not necessarily going to be given the highest mark. On these exams, the highest marks are awarded to students who go beyond that template and present their ideas in a way that is actually interesting, engaging, and pleasurable to read; the style and interest factor of writing is not something that is always taught and it is left up to the individual student to develop on their own. I have even witnessed teachers explain to parents that their child's writing would improve and develop more "maturity" if they read more complicated books and examples of more sophisticated writing. While providing students with exemplars to follow is a good thing, to assume that is all the student needs and that they will be able to write in a stylistically-engaging without given explicit instruction or space to practice and refine their craft, only a privileged minority of students will be able to achieve those higher marks when the opportunity to succeed should be made available to all students. I argue that a strong starting place to have students develop a sense of voice and expression in their writing is by having them write creative work that is given the same time, effort, and seriousness that is presently only given to academic writing.
The first reason is that I not only love teaching and have a passion for working with youth, but I also love and have a passion for what I am teaching. Although English is largely a skills based course, especially in terms of how success or failure is assessed, I view myself as an arts educator as well (joining the ranks of music educators, visual arts educators, drama educators, etc.). In my teaching practice, I will always make a point of never losing that and never forgetting the beauty, artistry, and deeper meanings about the human soul that are embedded in the literature that I study with my students. In my experience during my practicum, I found that students were more engaged when we discussed the artistic merits of the literature, as well as the conventional aspects that they also must address in their literary analysis. I also found success in using creative work to encourage to help my students create new meaning and demonstrate a critical understanding of the bigger ideas that were being presented in what we were reading. I know that the students must learn the content and skills that are determined by the curriculum, but I always want to make sure that we aren't missing out on the initial artistic purpose of what we are studying.
As a Social Studies teacher, I found that one of the most effective ways for my students to find meaning and relevance in the material we study in class is by providing them with authentic as well as creative ways to represent their understanding. This ranged from creative/reflective written pieces (such a journal entries from the point of view of someone from that time in history) to more artistic pieces such as flyers and posters. In completing these assessments, students needed to put themselves in the time and place we were studying, imagine what it would feel like to be that person, and thoughtfully represent what they learned from that process.
The second reason is that I feel that creative work can be as informative (if not more so, in some cases) of a student's understanding of a skill or concept than what is demonstrated in their academic work. For example, it is tradition in high school English classes to teach the five-paragraph essay because it is easy to teach, easy for the students to follow, and easy to mark; however, on provincial exams, the student who writes the standard five-paragraph essay is not necessarily going to be given the highest mark. On these exams, the highest marks are awarded to students who go beyond that template and present their ideas in a way that is actually interesting, engaging, and pleasurable to read; the style and interest factor of writing is not something that is always taught and it is left up to the individual student to develop on their own. I have even witnessed teachers explain to parents that their child's writing would improve and develop more "maturity" if they read more complicated books and examples of more sophisticated writing. While providing students with exemplars to follow is a good thing, to assume that is all the student needs and that they will be able to write in a stylistically-engaging without given explicit instruction or space to practice and refine their craft, only a privileged minority of students will be able to achieve those higher marks when the opportunity to succeed should be made available to all students. I argue that a strong starting place to have students develop a sense of voice and expression in their writing is by having them write creative work that is given the same time, effort, and seriousness that is presently only given to academic writing.
"Inter-War Years" Diary Entry (Social Studies 10)
This was an optional enrichment assignment that I gave to the students in my Social Studies 10 class during my practicum. The purpose of this assignment was to allow students the opportunity to create a human connection to the events that we were covering. By looking into how the different historical events that took place in Canada during the "Inter-War Years" might have impacted the life of the average person, my hope was that my students would recognize why learning about this period in Canada's history is important.
Click here to see a detailed description of the assignment and my reflection on its effectiveness.
Click here to see a detailed description of the assignment and my reflection on its effectiveness.
Social Justice Poetry Project (Senior English)
This is a project that I would like to try with an upper-level English class (English 11 or 12). This project would be a wrap-up assignment as part of a larger unit on the relationship between Social Justice and literature. Student would apply the poetic devices that we would be using over the course of the unit to a poem that they would write about a social justice cause of their choice. Ideally, the students would pick a cause that interested them and that they cared about so that they could experience what it was like for the poets we studied who used their medium to give a public voice to those issues.
Click here to see a detailed description of the assignment.
Click here to see a detailed description of the assignment.
Design a Video Game (ELA New Media 10-12)
This is a project that I initially designed during my practicum for my work with a Communications 12 class. I have since refined and modified this assessment with the ELA New Media 10-12 Curriculum in mind with a specific focus on new media design processes and conversations around diversity in popular media (such as video games). In their projects, students are expected to create a conceptual design of a video game of their choice that incorporated two examples of meaningful and authentic diversity. They were to present their video game concept in the form of a PowerPoint presentation that also included a design for a map or screencap of what a typical level in their game would look like.
Click here to see a detailed description of the project and its execution.