28/03/2011
Of my many strengths, coming from the backgroud that I do, the one I struggle with the most has been bringing acting into the classroom. I feel like I don't understand where to start, because I work at such an advanced level these days.
One thing that has really helped this has been the concept of scaffolding. I took my first scaffolded creative writing lesson the other day. It took some hard thinking and didn't go as well as it could have, but now that I've done it, I'm stoked, and ready to have another go.
One thing that has surprised me has been children's instinctive copying response. I always thought that children just automatically were 'creative' - that they lived on imagination. Now I see that while kids may be more prepared to suspend disbelief, creative thinking is still a learned skill.
One issue, of course, is that children are being introduced to lots of ideas at the same time. They don't know what is derivative and what is not. It's hard to think outside the square when you are seeing this brand new amazing square for the first time.
Provoking children's imagination is just like Helen says in our litteracy lectures - they need guided experiences to help them imagine.
So where to from here?
Well there are two issues that interest me:
1) How do I introduce creative thinking into more factual curriculum areas, like ICT, maths and science?
2) What place does drama have in a curriculum that is already packed full? What does it add that other subjects don't?
I'll blog more on these thoughts next time...
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