Teaching Standards- Based Creativity in the Arts
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Teaching Standards-based Creativity in the Arts Issued by Office of Academic Standards South Carolina Department of Education Jim Rex State Superintendent of Education 2007 1 Table of Contents CONTRIBUTORS ................................................................................. 3 WHY CREATIVITY? ............................................................................. 5 CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN ARTS EDUCATION: MYTHS, MISCONCEPTIONS, AND PRACTICAL PROCEDURES………………………..7 DANCE: .......................................................................................... 100 GRADES PREK-K ............................................................................... 101 GRADES 1-2 .................................................................................... 111 GRADES 3-5 .................................................................................... 122 GRADES 6-8 .................................................................................... 139 GRADES 9-12 .................................................................................. 162 GRADES 9-12 ADVANCED .................................................................... 186 DANCE CREATIVITY RESOURCE LIST ........................................................ 208 MUSIC ............................................................................................ 213 MUSIC: GENERAL ............................................................................. 214 GRADES PREK-K ............................................................................... 215 GRADES 1-2 .................................................................................... 232 GRADES 3-5 .................................................................................... 253 MUSIC: INSTRUMENTAL ................................................................. 284 GRADES 6-9/9-12 INTERMEDIATE ......................................................... 285 GRADES 9–12 PROFICIENT .................................................................. 308 MUSIC: CHORAL .............................................................................. 331 GRADES 9–12 PROFICIENT .................................................................. 332 THEATRE: ....................................................................................... 340 GRADES PREK-K ............................................................................... 341 GRADES 1-2 .................................................................................... 358 GRADES 3-5 .................................................................................... 379 GRADES 6-8 .................................................................................... 404 GRADES 9-12 .................................................................................. 433 VISUAL ARTS: ................................................................................ 463 GRADES PREK-K ............................................................................... 464 GRADES 1-2 .................................................................................... 475 GRADES 3-5 .................................................................................... 488 GRADES 6-8 .................................................................................... 503 GRADES 9-12 .................................................................................. 518 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON CREATIVITY ................................ 536 2 Contributors Acknowledgements The South Carolina Department of Education extends its grateful appreciation to the South Carolina Alliance for Arts Education and the following arts educators for their conscientious work in writing and organizing this Teaching Standards-based Creativity in the Arts document. Dance Jennifer Bull-Richland School District Two Kara Conder, Richland School District One Veneshia Stribling, Richland School District Two Music Kathy Clark, Berkeley County School District Mary Lou Schweickert, Richland School District One Sheneice Smith, Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five Theatre Indira Cureton-Cummings-Richland School District One Jeffrey Jordan, Charleston County School District Adam Weiner, Darlington County School District Visual Arts Kevin Morrissey, Dorchester Two School District Linda Neely-Lander University Kimberly Sullivan, School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties Annotated Bibliography on Creativity Kristy Smith Callaway, Beaufort County School District Introductory Essay Nancy Breard, Ed. D., Converse University Cultivating Creativity Article Seymour Simmons, III, Ed. D., Winthrop University 3 Compilation and Facilitation Eve Walling-Wohlford, South Carolina Alliance for Arts Education R. Scot Hockman, South Carolina Department of Education 4 Why Creativity? By Nancy Breard, Ed. D. Converse College The quick, simple answer is that we are never more alive than when we are engaged in creative pursuits. This answer, of course, generates more questions. What are creative pursuits? What makes them creative? Why do we feel more alive when we are creative? Jane Piirto (2004) found that “the root of the words ‘create’ and ‘creativity’ comes from the Latin creâtus and creâre, meaning ‘to make or produce,’ or literally, ‘to grow’ (p.6).” Thus, when we are being creative, we are growing in knowledge and/or skill, but we are doing so independent of an algorithm or an authority figure. We are in charge of our own growth in the creative realm. There is a myth afoot that creative pursuits are those related to the fine arts. Certainly there are many ways to be creative in the fine arts, but the possibilities are much broader including all disciplines and everyday life. Csikszentmihallyi (1996) differentiates the “Big C” creative person from the “little c” creative person. The “Big C” people change the domain or field in which they work and they tend to be well known. For example, John Steinbeck (novelist); Albert Einstein (mathematician/scientist); Al Gore (politician/environmentalist); Spike Lee (film maker); Stravinsky (musician/composer); Lee Ioccoca (automaker). This list could go on and on, but these people significantly added to or changed their fields. The ‘little c” creative people are the ones in everyday life that seek and find innovative solutions to mundane problems. For example, the cook who can create a tasty casserole on the spur of the moment without a recipe, or the teacher who can create from scratch an eye-catching bulletin board related to the topic students are exploring. Most of us will never be “Big C” creators, but all of us are presented with opportunities to be “little c” creators. Now that we have established big and small creative pursuits, we need to examine what makes them creative. First, we freely choose to explore creative ways of approaching the task even though we may not have chosen the task, e.g. at work or at school. The process depends on our background knowledge and might include brain-storming, metaphorical thinking, and problem solving. During this phase we attempt to withhold judgment of our ideas. Next, after reviewing our range of ideas using pros/cons or advantages/disadvantages, we let them percolate or incubate in our 5 minds as we do other things. During this stage, we might have an “AHA!” when we settle on one or a combination of our ideas. Finally, we bring the task to fruition using our best idea or ideas. The process of being creative has energized and motivated us. During the process of creating we may have lost our sense of time because of our intense concentration and involvement. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) would say we were in “flow.” The results of big and little “c” creativity are personal satisfaction, increased self-esteem and confidence, self-recognition that we can be producers as well as consumers. There is a spiritual quality (not related to institutionalized religion) that we experience during the creative process. It is a feeling that we are, at least partially, fulfilling our destiny. Through the creative process and product, we are BECOMING, which leads us back to the Latin root of creativity, “to grow.” Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity. Piirto, J. (2004). Understanding Creativity. New York: HarperCollins Scottsdale, AZ: Great Potential Press 6 CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN ARTS EDUCATION: MYTHS, MISCONCEPTIONS, AND PRACTICAL PROCEDURES Seymour Simmons, III, Ed.D. Associate Professor Department of Fine Arts, Winthrop University Please address comments and suggestions to: [email protected] Preface and Acknowledgements: The intent of this paper is to encourage renewed emphasis on creativity in arts education while offering strategies for doing so in dance, drama, music, and visual arts using activities such as those found in Teaching for Creativity Using SC Standards (2008). It also places these activities within a larger conceptual framework, which includes arguments for the importance of creativity in today’s schools, alternative definitions for creativity, and a brief history of the role of creativity in arts education. The paper then reviews several misconceptions and “myths” associated with creativity that have long influenced teaching and practice in the arts. One of these myths links creativity with a radical view of originality assumed to be free of all influences. A second identifies creativity with suffering of various kinds, while the last two define creative people in terms of negative traits such as eccentricity and irrationality, as well as rebelliousness