Creativity starts
with thinking. Students must be thinking in order to be creative.
Brainstorming, for example, is an activity that gets students thinking and
promotes the creativeness and diversity of ideas. Collaboration and group work
is another strategy to get students thinking and often results in students
becoming more creative, sharing their ideas, and respecting the contributions
of others. Students who work in groups are often more incline to share their
own original work and take value when other students utilize it. It is crucial
that creative ideas originating from students be exploited into something
important and useful to other students in the classroom.
Critical thinking
and problem solving occur when students are taught how to and required to
reason effectively using inductive, deductive, etc. throughout the curriculum.
Students will also be thinking critically when they use systems of thinking to
analyze how many different parts of information interact to produce a whole
idea.
Students who use
critical thinking to make judgments and decisions will be practicing and
developing their problem solving skills. Problem solving skills play a key role
in a student’s abilities to solve problems using various methods and innovate
and adapt strategies to meet each problem.
Communication,
discussion, and collaboration exist in some classrooms more than others. Many
effective teachers choose to use discussions and collaboration so that students
develop a sense of clear communication. This occurs when students articulate
their thoughts and ideas and listen to others in a group setting. Collaboration
among students is most effective when each student is given a responsibility
during the collaboration and when all students are required to demonstrate
their abilities to work with others.
Information literacy is supported through the easy and efficient access
of accurate information. Students who learn how to use and manage information
have more understanding of the issues surrounding topics. The flow of
information in class is very important for students. It is imperative to teach
students how to sort through massive amounts of information common to our society.
Media literacy can
be taught through media messages and activities during class. Many students may
interpret media messages very differently and the teacher must be prepared to
have class discussions with regards to this. Some class discussions should
focus on the ethics and legal issues behind the media messages.
Students
can research using various tools the classroom. In some classrooms iPads are
available for students to perform research. Otherwise teachers can opt to go to
the computer lab and have students work on school computers. By using computers
and other research tools, students can effectively see many positions on issues
and evaluate and criticize the information they find.
To
teach students to work individually, teachers can ease into assigning
individual assignments so that students inch their way toward gaining the
ability to work alone without support. Students who complete tasks individually
will learn to work alone more and be more confident in the work they produce.
Students
who work in groups to complete class assignments learn how to interact
academically with others. After students learn to work effectively with others,
teachers can assemble diverse teams of students and students will begin to respect
culture differences and learn tolerance. Open-minded responses will then begin
to show within the class and valuable discussions can be had.
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