After going over the Hobbs and Seeing & Writing reading,
I decided to search on google for an image that represented creativity and then
come up with a witty statement to hook the reader into my comments. But instead I found the quote above that
states “I prefer to entertain people in the hope that they learn, rather than
teach people in the hope that they are entertained.” We don’t teach in classroom in the hopes to
be the most entertaining teacher that all the students love. But rather we should focus on entertaining,
and holding our students attention that they can learn through the mediums they
enjoy. After all why does the human race
enjoy being entertained and watching creativity? In my opinion it’s because we enjoy learning when
it is entertaining and then we can be inspired to be creative.
The
Hobbs reading suggests that as teachers we “give students a combination of
structure and freedom, where they can develop communication skills and exercise
their creativity but have some constraints that limit and shape their work”
(86). It is our responsibility as the
educator to allow our students to use their creativity under a set of
guidelines and rules. Creativity's purpose is to make a solution to a problem or to establish an answer. But Hobbs also warns that if we impose too
many restrictions, or take too long to get to the point of the lesson students
will lose interest and often give up on the assignment (97). Education is all about balance between rules
and creativity and how they fit together.
In the learning system Hobbs
suggests that “Romance comes first.
Emotional involvement with the subject matter compels our interest. Then we develop a need for precision, where
we acquire a shared vocabulary, systematic knowledge, and an understanding of
how new ideas are created within the discipline. Finally, generalization happens when we
connect our romantic involvement with ideas with the precision of deeper
exploration to formulate new knowledge ourselves or apply ideas in ways that
are serviceable in a particular context or setting” (89). I love this idea
about how we must first spark our students’ curiosity and through their
interest in a material they will come to desire to know how this new material
can and should be used. This can be
accomplished through media. For instance
if you want to teach Shakespeare, a topic often shunned by students because
they can’t find how it relates to them, you have to teach it in a way that
appeals to their interests and curiosity.
This is where ideas from seeing and writing come in. Have the students assigned to groups and be
required to go out and take pictures what places/events are interesting for
them at school. After they take these
pictures have assign each group a scene from a Shakespearean play to read and
analyze. Then they have to create a
performance of that scene using the script but incorporating the images that
they took. They can either physically
use the images as scripts or make the photos their setting, etc. As they perform discuss you can discuss with the
students how Shakespeare might apply to their lives and how they were able to
incorporate this “ancient” dialogue into their modern day world.
An image is worth a thousand words,
and Seeing & Writing suggests photographs are a way to keep a record of our
world. Students take pictures all the
time because it is their way of, whether they realize it or not, keeping their
own journals. With this in mind it would
be interesting to have students create a photo journal for a character that
they want to portray in a show. Then
they could swap photo journals and analyze each other’s images in an essay and
explain how the image represents the particular character.
I think the most crucial element to
keep in mind with creativity through lessons ideas like the ones I have
previously described and the countless others we will have throughout our careers
is to not overwhelm our students but provide them with broad but direct
guidelines. If we overwhelm them with tireless instructions and outrageous details the assignments become busy work. But if we create projects that provide specific details but allow the students reign to use their creativity they are able to apply the material we are teaching to mediums they are interested in.
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