What is creativity and how can we use it in social studies?
Creativity is very important area of emphasis in gifted education. Creativity goes beyond artistic expression because it plays a crucial role in problem solving and critical thinking. Its importance cannot be overstated in the experience of a gifted learner.
As teachers, we often want our students to do creative activities. However, if you are like me, you notice now and again that students don't seem to perform on the creative activities like you wanted. Why is that? Often teachers are not teaching the creativity skills needed to produce the evidence of their creative learning experience. Hopefully, these creative teaching strategies will help to reinforce your creative teaching process.
Creative Teaching Strategy: Brain Storming
Brainstorming is an activity that most students are familiar with. Most people have had it as a pre-writing experience in their English classes The basic idea behind brainstorming is that the more ideas you generate, the more likely you will be able to come up with contextual, functional, and creative ideas for the task at hand. When brainstorming, keep in mind: Quantity is key, no criticism, unconstrained ideas are encouraged, and combine & improve ideas.
The most common way that I use brainstorming in my classroom is mapping. I use bubble maps that allow students to visualize themes in 7th grade social studies. If I am about to do a writing prompt or an essential question I will have students map out their brainstorming time. The example below is for the question, What are the elements of culture and how are the interrelated? If you want to see that activity click here
Creative Teaching Strategy: SCAMPER
SCAMPER is a mnemonic device that stands for: