Assessing Creativity

This semester I have been pushed outside my comfort zone and made to exercise creativity in a variety of formats that I never would have explored on my own. All of these activities not only promoted my creativity, but led me to think about how I could do this for my students as well. To wrap it all up, this week we learned about assessing creativity, how to go about it and why it’s important.

To do so, we were tasked with finishing the following sentence “As an educator charged with the assessment of student learning, I would assess creative problem solving during maker-inspired lessons in the following ways…” At first, this was overwhelming for me to process because how can I assess creativity and problem solving without using bias or judgment. Upon reading a blog post by Grant Wiggins (2012), it became clear to me that as long as you have clear criteria, it can be done. He discusses looking at writing and deciding whether it’s engaging or not, which is very easy to identify which was an example that really helped me. I think for me, the GRASPS model Wiggins uses would be extremely helpful in giving students clear criteria and understanding of a task and in turn, giving me clear criteria for assessment and feedback. G-the goal of the project, R-the role the student is taking, A-who is your audience, S-the situation the task is taking place in, P-product/performance and purpose (what are you doing and why) and S-standards and criteria for success (Wiggins, 2012). By making all of those very clear to students, you give them the freedom to be creative but also the structure of knowing what to do, who it is for and why they are doing it.

From what I’ve gathered this semester, freedom to choose and freedom to represent knowledge how students see fit can be a very powerful teaching tool. The GRASPS model would allow for this, while still giving students a rubric of sorts. I would begin my year my modeling this whole group, showing students how I am going to decide whether they are doing what is expected and gradually scaffolding it onto them. It’s important that students get feedback as soon as possible, which is very difficult in a typical classroom with 20-30 students to one adult. Learning how to take the expectations and decide if they are meeting them is a complex and difficult skill, but it also is a great skill for them to be building starting from the very beginning of their schooling. This would also lead to them understanding their learning process more fully and being able to self advocate for their learning needs when necessary. James Paul Gee discusses immediate feedback in relation to games and attempting to beat a level (2008), but translating this into the classroom is extremely easy. If students know what they need to do to be successful, they should be able to go back and try again until they meet their goals and can move forward. This puts the learning and assessment together, which makes it feel less like assessment and more like successful learning for students (Gee, 2008). Overall, I will try to open my students options up more during assignments and guide them towards learning goals and criteria as a basis for their learning so that they start to understand how to be successful without being told what to do for each and every step, which is what a lot of them strive for in kindergarten! This will lead to more successful, confident and creative learners!

 

Resources

GEE, J. P. (2010, JULY 20). RETRIEVED FEBRUARY 19, 2018, FROM HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=JU3PWCD-EY0

Wiggins, G. (2012, February 3). On assessing for creativity: yes you can, and yes you should. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/on-assessing-for-creativity-yes-you-can-and-yes-you-should/