Key Information
It Works for Me, Creatively: Shared Tips for the Classroom, By Hal Blythe & Charlie Sweet
2011 [ISBN: 1-58107-214-7; 176 pages; 7 ½ x 9 ¾ inch; soft cover] $17.95
The authors’ purpose in this seventh book in the “It Works for Me” series is to demonstrate that “everyone possesses creative talent, though it may be latent in some and difficult to bring out in others. It’s not just a talent possessed by artists and engineers, mind you, but everyone.” Furthermore, “Creative people have figured out consciously or un- that a small seed of creativity can be made to grow by having the proper environment and a minimal set of skills. And people can be taught or self-taught this process.”
The authors/editors also believe that “all creative ideas link themselves to other creative ideas to develop something new and useful, be it a concept, a process, or a product. In order to disseminate and perpetuate [their] belief that the creative impulse resides in all of us, [they] have asked a host of friends to demonstrate it with essays and practical tips touching on supportive creative environments, strategies that foster and enhance creativity, and assessments that demonstrate creativity has indeed taken place.”
The Contents
Introduction: Creativity R Us
I. Overviews
>Creativity—Defining the Undefinable
>Dispelling Some Myths of Creativity
>A Good Question
>Teaching Creativity: A Call to Action
>Collaborative Creativity
>The Meddler in the Middle
>Developing a Space for Creativity
II. The Creative Process
>Introduction: Process
>Creating Acronymic Processes
>How To Expand Without Losing Focus
>Creativity in Faculty Development: EXPLORE
>Design Thinking is Creative Thinking
>Creative Strategies Inherent to Scholarship
>What Makes Creative Writing Creative
>Communication Fosters Creative Thinking
>Creative Connections in a Graduate Advanced Health Assessment Course
>Bending the Realities of Iron
>Inventing Parables to Use as Pedagogical Tools
>The Creative Classroom: A Model for Developing Creative Students
>Sorting It Out: A Hands-On Approach for Promoting Higher-Order Thinking
>The Play’s the Thing: Being Creative in the Teaching of Lit
>Wait … You Want To Do What?
>Creative Use of Film: Students as Hollywood Consultants
>Hey! My Dad Takes That: Making Pharmaceuticals Relevant to Non-Majors
>Using Guided Imagery To Cultivate Creativity in Learners
>Unlearning Rules and Embracing Creativity: Using Prezi to Rethink PowerPoint
>An Online Debate
>A Creative Exercise: A Joke-Telling Simulation to Learn About Capitalism
>Le’go My Ego: An Exercise for Ego Separation and Team Building
>Creative Options for Characterization
>Engaging with Text and Eliminating Highlighting
>A Creative Way to Choose a Research Topic
>“In Which Ways” Can You Foster Creativity?
>Beach Ball
>Center Managers
>Natural Disasters
>Field Connections
>Changing Perspectives: A Negotiated Agreements Scavenger Hunt
>Using Inquiry to Spark Creativity
III. The Creative Environment
>Introduction: Environment
>But I’m Not Creative
>Practicalities in Teaching Creativity
>Unleashing Student Creativity by Unveiling the Mystique of General Education
>Developing a Creative Environment
>Going Green: Creating a Creative Environment
>Trust as a Foundation of Creativity
>A Creative Use of Student Evaluations
>Building Creative Learning Environments in Higher Education
>Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy to Create a Bridge to Learning
>The Reality-Based Approach to Learning
>Channeling Your Inner Ms. Frizzle
>Something New and Imaginative in Student Learning
>Modeling the Creative Process in the Classroom
>Finding the Strength in All Types of Learners
>Creativity as a Disposition
>Creative Networking
>Roleplaying as Creativity
>Music in the Key of See
>Got Character?
IV. The Creative Product
>Introduction: Product
>Creating Musical Group Names to Aid Student Memory
>“It’s Only Words, and Words Are All I Have …”
>Creating Theory Stories
>Challenging Developmental Writers to Use Their Creativity
>A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Bucks, But Maybe Not in Creative Writing Classes
>What’s Wrong With This Picture
>Promoting Creativity in the Learning Process
>Creneology
>TIP for a Creative Summary Project
>Shifting Perception
>Changing Student Perceptions: The Family History Museum
>An Exercise for Creating a Poem
>Discovering Creativity Through Color Exploration
>Fundamental and Powerful Concepts
>Play It Again: A Creative Technique for Creative Writing and Literary Analysis
V. Assessing Creativity
>Introduction to Assessment
>Assessing the Creative Environment
>Assessing Creative Strategies
>Assessing Instructors of Creativity
>She Blinded Me with Science
>Obtaining Mid-semester Feedback from Students
>Issuing Creative License
VI. Afterword
The Authors
Hal Blythe, Ph.D., is a Foundation Professor of English at the Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY. He has authored three non-fiction books dealing with writing and over 100 critical scholarly articles. He has ghost-written over 30 Mike Shayne novellas and over 100 short stories in popular magazines to include Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Woman’s World. He also has produced seven television scripts for EKU-TV’s Keys to Communication Series, and over 25 articles in Writer’s Digest dealing with pedagogy.
Charlie Sweet, Ph.D., is a Foundation Professor of English at Eastern Kentucky University. He formerly taught at Florida State University.