How do you teach your students creativity?

[Laura J]

HELP!

I've decided I need to do more to teach my students specific techniques to help them come up with creative ideas for their art. I'm putting together a slide presentation..so far I have brainstorming, mind maps, and the "SCAMPER" technique. What other ideas do you have/use in your art classrooms? I would love to hear any ideas you have or resources you know of....

Thank you!

[kendra Farrell]

judging from your blog you do an amazing job getting your kids to be creative.  I start by establishing a classroom atmosphere from day one that is exploratory and knows and respects one another. We do a portrait party and learn each others names and faces. The kids love it as they realize that everyones drawings are respected and that "exactness is not the truth". Afterwards they begin to understand personal style. The initial fear evaporates as the party takes over. The culture in the art classroom is so important to foster creativity. No one person is exalted but everyone is respected. To be creative one has to have fun, willing to play with ideas and to take risks. Music is essential and I always have music on and allow students to use their ipods as well. Critiques never attack but always are concerned with "what works" in the piece and "what if"... Kendra

[David]

I'm a huge fan of Nick Rouke's Operational Techniques for transformation.  I've been using them in my IB class, and I just put this presentation together for our Surrealistic Meproject (shameless plug).

 

Transformation: Operational Techniques

View more presentations from dsgran

[rsbecca sentgeorge]

I have been a fan of synectics for years.  Thanks for sharing the presentation.  I really loved it.

[Brian Reverman]

Great site I just stumbled onto " The Creativity Post"

[Kristen Jones]

One lesson I have found to be really successful was based around the question, "Can Art Change the world?"   I then showed art from Ai Wei Wei, showed a few TED conference videos that dealt with the same topic, then showed the class the movie Wasteland with Vic Muniz.  It really got the students charged up.   Then I asked them to think about something personal to them, something they think is important and needs to have a spotlight put on it because it needs to be changed, or people need to know that it needs to be changed.  Then communicate it visually.  Consider how the materials help to communicate your idea (like Vic Muniz does, or Ai Wei Wei does) They had to write on their blog about it, they had to do numerous sketches, they had to explain it to the class in a pre project critique where they were graded on how well they thought out and presented their idea.  They had to work in 2D but it could have 3D elements only if it was crucial to the topic/issue. I feel it was my most successful assignment last year and the kids are so proud of the work they did for it. They were so creative in their ideas, their approach, and they all put in extra effort around the topic because they really cared about it on a personal level.  

Maybe that can give you some ideas but the other thing is make sure your students draw as much as possible.  Drawing is the key to developing creativity because as their skills build from practice they then want to use it in a more effective way to do more than just observational drawings.  Building skills through practice will lead to more creative and imaginative ideas.  

Lastly push them to look at art however they can, learn art history, and know how to speak about art.   Those are some of my methods.  I hope they help you!

[kendra Farrell]

these techniques make sense and are very useful when students are trying to come up with more than basic responses to assignments. Thanks for the slideshare!

David said:

I'm a huge fan of Nick Rouke's Operational Techniques for transformation.  I've been using them in my IB class, and I just put this presentation together for our Surrealistic Meproject (shameless plug).

 

Transformation: Operational Techniques

View more presentations from dsgran

[kendra Farrell]

BINGO love the lesson you did with your students and agree 100% about the value of drawing. Check out this slideshow and article by Michael Graves in the NYTimes... he feel the same way.

thanks.. kendra
Kristen Jones said:

One lesson I have found to be really successful was based around the question, "Can Art Change the world?"   I then showed art from Ai Wei Wei, showed a few TED conference videos that dealt with the same topic, then showed the class the movie Wasteland with Vic Muniz.  It really got the students charged up.   Then I asked them to think about something personal to them, something they think is important and needs to have a spotlight put on it because it needs to be changed, or people need to know that it needs to be changed.  Then communicate it visually.  Consider how the materials help to communicate your idea (like Vic Muniz does, or Ai Wei Wei does) They had to write on their blog about it, they had to do numerous sketches, they had to explain it to the class in a pre project critique where they were graded on how well they thought out and presented their idea.  They had to work in 2D but it could have 3D elements only if it was crucial to the topic/issue. I feel it was my most successful assignment last year and the kids are so proud of the work they did for it. They were so creative in their ideas, their approach, and they all put in extra effort around the topic because they really cared about it on a personal level.  

Maybe that can give you some ideas but the other thing is make sure your students draw as much as possible.  Drawing is the key to developing creativity because as their skills build from practice they then want to use it in a more effective way to do more than just observational drawings.  Building skills through practice will lead to more creative and imaginative ideas.  

Lastly push them to look at art however they can, learn art history, and know how to speak about art.   Those are some of my methods.  I hope they help you!