Homework: With my new class I am still setting up the reading groups and beginning again to teach the Ground Rules for Talk and the critical analyst roles. So I have not been observed yet for the group critical discussion based on a provocation. I have that partially planned, and should do it in the next couple of weeks.
My class did complete a task that required them to find a news article or opinion piece about Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they created a shared slideshow where each student summarised and linked their article, and said whether it presented a negative or positive view of AI:
I felt that this task went really well, and students had to present it orally to practise their speaking skills also.
Like me, many of the teachers in my breakout group have not done the homework from Day 7 and are planning on catching it up in the coming weeks – it is definitely a busy time. We have senior Derived Grade exams for NCEA starting next week, so have been busy preparing for that. Other schools had trips and school-wide activities happening as well.
Opportunities to respond to text by creativity deepens learning and engagement and enables students to think in new ways. We need to plan opportunities in our programmes for the creativity, and that is our responsibility as teachers. When the creative opportunities are provided, the students will take agency and fly with them.
Being creative has been a defining characteristic of humans since the beginning of time.
A well-accepted definition of creativity is the generation of a new product that’s both novel and appropriate in a particular scenario. (A product could be an idea, an artwork, an invention, or an assignment in your classroom.). BUT there isn’t just one way for a person to “be creative,” or one set of characteristics that will differentiate “the” creative person. Instead, many experts think of creativity as a set of skills and attitudes that anyone is capable of: bringing one’s personality (or flair) to an activity, redefining old problems in new ways, tolerating ambiguity, finding new problems to solve, taking sensible risks, and following an inner passion. Vygotsky wrote about “everyday creativity” and it was his view that creativity is fundamental to the development of all individuals.
With digital tools, we can create like never before: Not only can we use ever-increasing ways to harness digital innovation in creative ways, but we can digitise and share what we create with our hands in the ‘real world’. Media which include sight, sound, and motion – SiSoMo – coined by Saatchi and Saatchi pioneer, Kevin Roberts, engage the viewer and remain in the memory. An example of this is the Toyota ‘Bugger!’ ads, which we all remember.
Technology offers a mess-free, engaging way to support creativity with tools such as AI content generators, digital video editing, podcasting, 3D printing, and Google Earth, empowering students to create and innovate with minimal physical setup. The use of AI tools (including chat GPT and others) should be paired with critical thinking to ensure accuracy and thoughtful engagement. It is important to create student experiences with digital tools to develop critical digital literacy and resistance to misinformation and deep fakes.
A detailed spreadsheet tracking AI app privacy, ethics, and suitability for classroom use was shared to support safe and responsible AI integration.
Dorothy introduced resources like Adobe Express, Gemini, and Wondercraft.ai to facilitate creative projects such as podcasting in class, and suggested a range of AI tools which can be used for students to create in response to text, such as generating an illustration of a character, or the student creating a podcast.
I liked the look of GoogleLitTrips: virtual Literary field Trips where students become virtual traveling companions traveling right alongside characters in stories commonly taught in schools. As students move through the story, Google Lit Trips supplement the learning experience as story locations are mapped on Google Earth, “just in time” resources “3-Dimensionalize” geographical, historical, and cultural influences the characters’ experience, with relevant media, thought-provoking discussion starters, and links to supplementary information about “real world” references in that portion of the story.
Janet led a creative task involving recording voice readings, adding illustrated backgrounds, and comparing with published illustrations to deepen multimodal literacy and engagement. The learning activity integrated use of voice recording tools, Canva AI illustrations, and classroom discussions to connect reading, writing, and creativity.
We were challenged with creating an AI generated illustration of a text. This is my illustration of the poem Te Marama, by Kelly Joseph:
I also had to create a short podcast of me reading the text, and link that on the slideshow.
We were then asked to compare our design with the published original and reflect on it:
I actually prefer my generated image. Firstly, I like the the emphasis on the moonlight (“silvery light”). The original clearly shows a young girl inside a room (“floods my room”) but my new image takes her outside. I like the way the hair is styled with Maori design elements. I also like the ambiguity that the young woman could be the persona of the poem (“Tonight I can’t sleep”) or she could be te marama, the moon, herself.
Kiri began her session by asking us to reflect using Padlet on the enablers and constraints to creativity in our classrooms.
Kiri presented on the critical integration of arts, STEM, and enterprise with creativity to prepare students for future challenges, emphasizing social intelligence, cultural communication, and environmental awareness. The fusion of arts, technology, and sciences reflects contemporary creative industries trends, with increasing economic and cultural significance.
The importance of empowering students to produce creative work to become critical consumers of media, particularly in digital spaces, was highlighted. She stressed that students need to be creators of text, not just consumers of text.
The good news is that teenagers in New Zealand are among the most creative thinkers in the world, according to the latest edition of OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Volume 3 results released in June 2024. PISA measures the creative thinking skills of 15-year-old students across the world. Students sat an innovative test that assessed their capacity to generate diverse and original ideas, as well as to evaluate and improve upon others’ ideas in creative tasks. These ranged from written and visual expression to scientific and social problem solving.
New Zealand ranked fifth in the world out of 81 countries, with an average score of 36 points per student, which is higher than the OECD average of 33 points.
Link – https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/new-pisa-results-on-creative-thinking_b3a46696-en
A multimodal communication model was discussed to support lesson design incorporating modes such as visual, auditory, linguistic, musical, and spatial to address diverse learner strengths.
The session ended with a collaborative sharing of effective creative classroom practices, ranging from digital tools to hands-on activities, demonstrating diverse successful approaches.
Naomi introduced the concept of using creative tools to deepen learning across subject areas, emphasizing the need for base texts for activities. Tools like Google Drawings, Slides, Adobe Creative Cloud Express, and Canva were highlighted as options for both teachers and students.
The idea of designing ‘tight’ versus ‘loose’ creative tasks was introduced to manage time and creativity, with tighter designs acting as stencils or graphic organizers helping scaffold student creativity. Naomi challenged us to think about short, sharp, ‘Create’ opportunities in our classrooms.
Several examples of tight design stencils linked to environmental themes and fiction texts were presented, illustrating how to scaffold creative tasks effectively. We were asked to contribute our stencil designs to a shared register for collaborative use across cohorts.
I got sidetracked into creating the Kahoot activity below, and haven’t yet created a stencil design. We need to create one of those activities for our homework from today’s meet.
Kiri emphasized integrating choice and collaboration into creative tasks: students could choose tools, task foci (like character or setting), or the final product format.
Tools such as Storyboard That, Book Creator, and Pixton were recommended for storytelling and collaboration. StoryboardThat can also be used to show stages and process in non-fiction text. Kiri encouraged involving students in creating quizzes to deepen learning.
Collaboration skills were stressed as essential soft skills; suggestions included group projects with individual components and activities using green screen technology to simulate real-world actions like a beach cleanup.
Data from observations highlighted the need to increase opportunities for student choice and collaboration in classroom creativity.
I created this activity for my Y10 Humanities film study:
Fiona introduced the ‘One-Shot Film’ concept as a quick, simple video creation method that students can use to share learning confidently with minimal editing. The film could be anything from a talk-to-camera presentation to role-plays, demonstrations, or book trailers.
Tips included standing while filming, ensuring good lighting, stable device setup, and using available digital tools (Google Slides recording, Google Meet backgrounds, QuickTime).
Fiona emphasized building student confidence with filming and sharing, co-constructing success criteria, self and peer review, and appropriate use of vocabulary. She provided several links and guides for video creation tools, including the option of vertical video formats for social media styles. The aim is to harness creativity with speedy sharing beyond the classroom.
Janet guided us through creating a one-minute book trailer as a practical application of the One Shot Film concept. Examples she showed from previous participants highlighted the use of props, eye contact, and engaging dialogue to recommend books effectively. Here is a link to the Google Drive folder of Book Trailers created by RPI participants.
Here is my One-Shot Book Trailer: Turncoat by Tihema Baker:
Naomi presented a model of longer ‘Create’ units using a website format to curate and organize content related to extended texts or topics (e.g., novel studies, language weeks, science units) with modular chapters that can be updated independently.
Websites can include varied learning activities such as reading chapters, comprehension questions, AI-generated additional information, videos, fact files, vocabulary exercises, multiple-choice questions, and recording oneself reading. The approach allows for learner self-pacing and supports catch-up for students who miss certain chapters, providing flexibility.
Emphasis on collaboration was shown in activities such as character interviews scripted with a buddy, and learners are encouraged to use voice-to-text tools to create texts, instead of writing on novel pages directly. The website model also supports embedding collaborative tools like digital word walls and shared slide presentations, fostering community learning.
Participants shared ideas for using websites for poetry anthologies, science experiments, cultural events (e.g., Treaty, ANZAC, Olympics), and extended reading projects. Digital word walls and tools like Canva were mentioned as great ways to share ideas and create collaborative digital content embedded in the website.
The importance of including multimodal content and making the sites easy to navigate was emphasized. Someone suggested using a website for students to showcase their poetry. Recommendations for reading and sharing external news articles on class websites were shared to encourage broad reading habits outside class.
Kiri recapped the day’s themes focusing on the importance of giving learners choice, collaboration, and opportunities to create across subjects, highlighting the value of self-efficacy and agency.
Emphasis was placed on the teacher’s role as the “Gatekeeper for creativity,” responsible for scheduling and embedding creative opportunities in lessons. To extend learning impact and motivation, we were encourage to enable students to share creations with authentic audiences, including parents and the wider public.
Reference was made to various teaching models and resources to design creative learning experiences, including tighter constraints (templates, outlines) and looser free-form creations. We were encouraged to reflect on ways to incorporate these approaches in our own classrooms in the coming weeks.
Reflection
I think my main takeaways from today are:
- The reminder that it is up to us as teachers to make the space for creativity in our programmes. We should make it a key part of the learning, not an extra which can happen at the end after all the ‘real learning’ is done!
- That creating is engaging and key to learning, and I have appreciated this because the things I have most enjoyed today were creating the poetry slide, the podcast recording, designing the ‘Create a Kahoot’ activity, and making the one-shot video.
- That ‘create’ opportunities can be small and quick, not always tasks that will take a whole lesson (or several lessons), so I should be looking for places to incorporate these throughout the learning programme.
- That I should continue to include ‘create’ opportunities for my seniors as well as my junior classes, because being creative shouldn’t be something we stop doing when we get to Year 11!
We need to create a ‘tight’ i.e. short and structured ‘Create’ opportunity using a stencil design, as demonstrated by Naomi, and implement that for homework. It needs to incorporate student choice and opportunity to work collaboratively. I think that will be a fun activity both for me to create and for the students to carry out.
We were also asked to repeat the Reader Profile Survey. In fact, I have already done this a couple of weeks ago, because I have a completely new class and was ‘starting over’ with them. I haven’t yet had time to compare the results with the previous class, and will do that over the next few weeks.
