[quote=“In a rather self-effacing way, in another thread, tatterdemalion”]…and my book, yet another teacher resource book, The Creative Classroom, is now on sale at Caves Books. Take a look:
I got the idea for the book when I was a full-time instructor at a university in central Taiwan. I was given a course to teach called Creativity and Writing, so I started reading up on the subject. I found books such as Creative Teachers, Creative Students by John Baer and Cracking Creativity by Michael Michalko that provided a lot of inspiration for some lessons and activities on developing creative skills. I have used this material at several universities, and usually get a very positive response.
The book contains many classic activities that are used in creativity training, such as brainstorming, as well as some of my own ideas. The material is most suitable for intermediate or advanced level classes. It’s very useful in courses where you want to encourage students to speak more or write more on a subject.
In addition to language learning activities, there are some extras in the book, such as creative suggestions for teachers, a list of recommended books and websites, and two interviews with well-known creativity experts.
[quote=“tatterdemalion”]Earlier this month, I had an article published at the Developing Teachers website. It contains some extra activities that are not in my book:
Not bad for advanced level students. Much to difficult for low level and a struggle with intermediate level.
Is the teacher meant to explain this using English only ? If so then the explaining will be more difficult than the doing.
It never ceases to amaze me when I watch a teacher teach. The teacher will often explain a simple activity with words more difficult than the activity. The students are just baffled as to what the teacher is talling about. Or a teacher explaining a basic level grammar structure in a way that is more difficult than the actual grammar structure. Those excersices that the link refers to would be very difficult to explain. How would you expalin “rank in order of creativity” to a lower or intermediate level class, without speaking their language ? What if you couldn’t speak their language ? What if you were not allowed to speak their language ? Would you look it up in a dictionary ? What if that were not allowed ? There are plenty of schools in Taiwan where a teacher is not allowed to use English. If students speak a higher level of English then it is not hard to make creative activites anyway, it is at the lower levels that it becomes more difficult especially explaining what is required of the student if you are not allowed to speak their language.
Interesting points, Fenlander, though I feel that your perception of what is possible/practical may be limited by what you’ve seen in Taiwan. There’s a balance to be maintained in terms of teachers’ perceptions. If we approach these kinds of task-based activities in the right way and with adequate preparation, students can often surprise us by with their capabilities.
[quote=“fenlander”][quote=“tatterdemalion”]Earlier this month, I had an article published at the Developing Teachers website. It contains some extra activities that are not in my book:
Not bad for advanced level students. Much to difficult for low level and a struggle with intermediate level.
Is the teacher meant to explain this using English only ? If so then the explaining will be more difficult than the doing.[/quote]I’ll quibble with your definition of levels. I think the bar is set unusually low here, so what is called “intermediate” level would only qualify as pre-intermediate level elsewhere. For me, a broad definition of intermediate level would be from Council of Europe B1 to B2 level (Cambridge PET to FCE). However, I think there is “level inflation” going on in Taiwan so that students around A2 or A1 level are sometimes described as intermediate.
So intermediate students as I would define them are certainly capable of understanding the activity instructions on the linked page. Even with lower-level students, a careful combination of description and demonstration should be fine for them to get the hang of most of those activities.
[quote=“fenlander”]How would you expalin “rank in order of creativity” to a lower or intermediate level class, without speaking their language ? [/quote]I couldn’t find the activity you’re referring to here. That sentence isn’t used, anyway. Which activity did you mean?
[quote=“fenlander”]What if you couldn’t speak their language ? What if you were not allowed to speak their language ? Would you look it up in a dictionary ? What if that were not allowed ? There are plenty of schools in Taiwan where a teacher is not allowed to use English. If students speak a higher level of English then it is not hard to make creative activites anyway, it is at the lower levels that it becomes more difficult especially explaining what is required of the student if you are not allowed to speak their language.[/quote]It’s certainly possible to conduct creative activities with lower-level students using English only. There’s a valid question, however, as to whether it might be more efficient for the teacher or students to make some use of the students’ first language. Here’s an interesting article by Paul Nation on this topic: asian-efl-journal.com/june_2003_PN.php
I agree this would be hard for a beginning level student. Most of the activities in my book are more suitable for intermediate-advanced level students, although there are a few activities that would work with beginners.
Personally I’m not against using the students’ first language in class, if it helps students understand better.
[quote=“Maoman”]I don’t think anyone should be teaching “outside the box” until they are already champions within the box.[/quote]Sounds fair enough in principle. But what exactly does that mean in relation to Tatterdemalion’s book? Which of the activities do you think are unsuitable for non-experts?
Maoman, actually I agree. I suggested several other titles to my publisher, but “teaching languages outside the box” is what she liked the best.
One advantage to using a cliche’ in the book’s title is that it’s easy to understand what the book is about. If I gave the book some really “creative” title, something bizarre and surreal, it might be confusing.
I feel the same way about the book’s cover. The image of a light bulb connected with creativity is very cliche’, but at the same time it communicates the subject of the book well.
