To begin with this post, I thought I would copy all of my blog posts and put them into Wordle. Here is the result.

Let’s look at three of the big recurring words.

1. Classroom: I learned how to maximize the space in my classroom to emphasize collaborative and maker-inspired learning. I not only learned the principles behind this and designed a classroom in Sketchup, but I actually redesigned my real life classroom to match my designs. It has been a phenomenal success so far.
2. MakeyMakey: I actually learned how circuits worked. As part of our lessons, my students go to the Michigan Science Center four times a year to learn in the field. They conduct experiments with the museum staff and and learn principles of science. As a social scientist, I know very little about physical, biological, or chemical science. I am usually unable to help my students in their experiments. However, the last two visits have focused on using and creating circuits. With my experience in MakeyMakey, I was able to help guide my students through the learning and take some of the pressure off the museum staff.
3. Learning: Most importantly, I have come to understand that learning can be student driven. Learning by doing, while scary for a young teacher, is a valuable resource to a class. By allowing my students to learn through educational technologies such as Minecraft and MakeyMakey, I have made history come alive for them.

CEP 811 has taught me quite a bit about my practice. I will use what I have learned here for the rest of my life.

During the past seven weeks I have learned much when it comes to creating maker-inspired lessons for my class. These lesson plans and ideas will come in handy for my class. However, I am left with one final problem. How do I assess lessons based on creativity?

Creativity is not a static idea. It is very fluid. It is different in the minds of each learner.The question we must ask is whether or not we should grade creativity. In the minds of many people to do so would be at the risk of inhibiting student thought. However as Wiggins points out, allowing students to believe that their work is stronger than it is is a disservice to them. Students cannot grow in knowledge if they do not believe that they still have growing left to do. (Wiggins)

Wiggins example of using creativity rubrics in ELA classes is especially poignant for me.I teach writing to the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades at my school. As I have mentioned before, the majority of my learners are ESL and ELL students. As such, it has become easy to focus so much on writing mechanics that creativity has taken a back seat. I need to assess my students not just on mechanics, but on their ability to engage an audience. (Wiggins)

For my class, I am using writing as a process. If you are not familiar with it, it is a method which breaks down the writing process into five steps: Pre-Write, Draft, Revise, Edit, and Publish. This process allows students to create, or make, writing pieces at their own pace. The learning is student driven.

It has been pretty easy to assess mechanics, but to assess creativity will be more difficult. There can be no one standard assessment. It must be different for each assignment and for each portion of the writing process. To assess creativity, we will focus on revise. In revise, students reorganize their ideas and add or delete detail from their writing pieces. This would be the perfect spot to assess creativity.

I agree with Wiggins suggestion that creativity should be referred to as engagement. To assess this aspect, I will have students peer review each others work. Students will be asked to answer several questions about their peer’s work. Some of these questions could be:

1.) What part of this writing interests you?

2.) What would you like to know more about in this writing?

These questions will serve as a way to tell students whether or not their work is engaging their readers. From these assessments and from my own own input on engagement, students will work to revise their ideas into an engaging paper. Using these methods, I hope to incorporate engagement into my rubrics as suggested by Wiggins.

Resources

Wiggins, Grant. (2012). On assessing for creativity: yes you can, and yes you should.