Unlocked. Katie While

learner.

      The word analyze is also critical in our understanding of assessment, because by analyzing artifacts of student thinking, we as educators can ask further questions, consider options, and make decisions about next steps. It is important to be clear about the criteria against which we measure success and challenge, and the act of analyzing performances and products is an essential part of the creative process. The key is to realize that students could conduct this analysis just as often as teachers could. When both teacher and student undertake the analysis, they deepen thinking and support the opportunity for further exploration.

      The last part of this definition that needs some attention is the phrase against specific goals and criteria. Both goals and criteria for success are critical for learning and expressing oneself creatively. Students must ultimately own the goals and criteria, and teachers can use the forms of assessment in the preceding list to guide them in setting and reflecting on progress toward those goals.

      Engaging in assessment processes that advance and nurture this kind of personal meaning making and creative exploration for students will ensure that we protect both assessment and creativity, not as add-ons, but as major players in new kinds of learning within our schools. In fact, deeply considering the relationship between assessment and creativity is the key to maximizing their potential and developing the very human beings who engage in these processes. Assessment and creativity are deeply and intimately connected and are critical to the development of enriching and complex learning experiences.

      When working together, assessment and creativity have the potential to change the world both within and beyond the classroom. Together, creativity and assessment enhance the relationship between humans and their inner landscapes, fostering the search for new questions, new ideas, and new connections. They invite our students to think about solutions to problems greater than themselves and consider the needs of others and the world as a whole. When educators nurture creativity and assessment in their classrooms, they invite students to enhance the quality of their lives by moving past the mundane and the usual, and encourage them to look deeper, search wider, and explore multiple perspectives. When assessment fuels creativity, students move toward and through learning they didn’t anticipate when they began. They set new goals and ask new questions, which move them in new directions. Without assessment, creativity stops, and without creativity, our classrooms stagnate, locked into routines.

      While this book focuses on the kinds of assessment processes that move creativity and learning forward (formative assessment processes), it is important to note that assessment of learning, or summative assessment, is also part of the creative process. There is a time when students finish brainstorming, exploring prototypes and scenarios, and adjusting, and learners are ready to verify whether the products and processes in which they engage accomplish their desired goals. Teachers will work alongside learners to take part in this verification, and it is from this process that students ask new questions and set new goals, and new learning emerges. This is exactly how assessment becomes part of learning and creativity, instead of sitting outside of it.

      Many books that explore creativity imply but rarely name let alone unpack the process of assessment in terms of its essential relationship to creativity. Society has come to view assessment as separate from learning, and we have to rectify this if we are going to unlock all kinds of deep thinking, including creativity. Instead of assessment being something we do to learners, it has to be something we educators do with learners or something learners do with our guidance and support. Creativity comes from the creator. It is a very intrinsic process. As a result, the more often we can place responsibility and ownership with the students doing the creating, the better they will develop and refine these skills for the long term.

      To be clear, using assessment to unlock creativity is not the same as assessing creativity, nor is it assigning creativity a value to use as a grade. It is about using assessment to invite deeper and original thought—to advance creativity. Assessment, in this context, means that we need to put the learning in the learners’ hands and invite them to determine what they hope to accomplish and how they plan to do so.

How This Book Will Explore Creativity Through Assessment

      Unlocked is based on my experiences as a classroom teacher, as a community art instructor, and as a teacher of teachers. It is grounded in the belief that only when learners own their learning can they reach their potential. This book will explore the relationship between assessment and creativity, providing practical ideas for connecting the two processes within any classroom setting, and share processes for engaging students in the continuous goal setting and establishing of criteria firmly embedded within the creative process.

      Each chapter focuses on a key aspect of creativity in our classrooms. We begin with chapter 1, which examines the connection between creativity and assessment. Next, chapter 2 discusses the importance of establishing creative spaces that attend to learners’ intellectual, emotional, and physical needs. Finally, chapters 3 through 6 explore the four critical stages of the creative process: (1) exploration (students explore concepts and questions), (2) elaboration (students expand on a concept or question, developing skills and conducting research along the way), (3) expression (students choose a form for their creative output around the concept or question they have chosen to focus on), and (4) reflection and response (students examine the product of their work and the feedback they receive and decide how to move forward).

      The following recurring features will help make the connection between assessment and creativity clear and attainable in classroom settings.

      

Critical actions for teachers and students: A description of necessary actions required to explore, elaborate, express, and reflect and respond while immersed in creative pursuits.

      

Select and reflect reproducibles: Questions to guide student reflection when they are experiencing difficulty during a stage of the creative process. A reproducible list of supporting questions follows the discussion of each critical action. When we select a great question and pose it at the right time, we can move our learners’ creative processes forward. These questions can serve as a catalyst for students to reflect on their creative processes during each stage of the creative process and sustain ownership for their decision making and problem solving.

      

The role of the teacher: Important actions teachers must take to develop and sustain creativity in the classroom and practical ways to live out these actions.

      

Assessment and creativity stage: A section that explores ways to ensure that assessment unlocks creativity at each stage.

      

Observation and self-assessment reproducibles: Self-assessment tools for teachers to monitor the critical actions students must take during each stage and suggestions for how to respond when students experience difficulty.

      

Additional reproducibles: Assessment templates and processes teachers and students can use immediately within the classroom to unlock creativity in each stage of the creative process.

Final Thoughts

      In developing creative thinkers, we ask our students to consider what it feels like to learn, solve problems, innovate, and design. We ask them how it feels to be messy and experimental and to take risks, make mistakes, and solve problems. We want them to