Annotated bibliography paper

Ashley Baustert

Megan Keaton

Eng 112-12

27 March 2013

Creativity in Schools

Scherer, Marge. "Who's Creative?."Educational Leadership 70.5 (2013): 7.Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.

In this article, Scherer tells us that there is different ways of learning the words for a spelling test. Scherer says that “My colleague Reece still sings that to herself when she writes that word” the word she is talking about it beautiful. When Reece was in second grade her teacher split her class up into groups. Each group had to learn all the spelling words for that week. The groups also had all different types of readers some that were great at it and some not so much. “Reece was skeptical – such long words plus she had to work with kids who couldn’t even read.” After being in the groups and seeing that the kids that could not read so well were doing so great on the spelling test everyone wanted to know how they were doing so great. Scherer also talks about different examples of creativity. “Mini-c creativity, defined in this issue by Ronald A. Beghetto and James C. Kaufman (p10.) as interpretive creativity, or having a new insight into how to solve a small problem.” Scherer goes and learns different ways that teachers are using to teach creativity in schools.

In the last few paragraphs as the article winds down Scherer talks about there being another message in the articles that talks about “creative learning: schools cannot afford to leave creativity on the back burner” In the first part of the article Scherer tells the reader that her colleague stills signs words that she learned to spell every time she uses the word. There are many of different creativity thoughts in the article. Scherer could have not had so many different thoughts but could have only had a few and talked more about just those thoughts.

This article will help me in my research because she talks about how there are different ways to learn and they can even be fun. Scherer lets us see four different ways that creativity works in schools. I think this could help me knowing that there is more than just one way to be creative in schools.

·         “The latter method, Reece remembers, was suggested by one of the kids in the lowest reading group.”

·         "There were aha moments going on in that classroom all the time," Reese remembers.

·         "Teachers who understand that creativity combines both originality and task appropriateness," Beghetto and Kaufman write, "are in a better position to integrate student creativity into the everyday curriculum in ways that complement, rather than compete with, academic learning."

Keeter, Meredith. "Let Your Students Do The Talking." Knowledge Quest 41.3 (2013): 34-35. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Mar. 2013.

            In this article Keeter argues that people who like text only books they judge the ones who like graphic novels. This article lets the reader know that being in the library can be fun not just for studying and doing work. Keeter did a comic book for the whole school to make up the story. Keeter got a friend that is a graphic novel illustrator to make up the pictures than the school was to come up with the words. The comic book was outside the library and every day the students would put their thoughts of what the comic would say. At the end of the day Keeter would look at them all and pick winner. The winner would get a piece of chocolate delivered to their class in the morning. Everyone liked the idea and all the kids at the school joined in on the fun.

            While the children at Keeter school had to make up a story line to a comic book the library was doing, the article gets close to the end and Keeter talks about how a boy that did not really like the library but wanted to win the candy. The little boy would try and try to win but never did. He got upset and stops trying, Keeter saw this happening and tried to help. The first part of the article the reader sees how a librarian feels about the library and the children at that school.

            I can use this article for my research because of how Keeter uses the comic book as an example of creativity in her school. This is another way why creativity is a good thing to have in schools. It lets the students think and have a good time doing it. The article shows how the students really liked the comic books and got them into the library. I think that this could really help my argument about creativity in schools.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

·          "You know this story and these characters. You have been following along every day. What do you think Joe would say next?" 

·          "These people are simply not aware of the diversity and depth of graphic novels."

·         “Alex called the pages "a doodle," but I was blown away by his artistic ability, and the students recognized that the pages could have been straight from a comic book.”

"Student Voices." Technology & Learning 33.8 (2013): 34-36. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.

This article is different than most articles. It talks about how different schools use digital skills to learn. The first part of the article is about having AV equipment to video tape there schools athletics department. This was good for the students to learn how to use the equipment and that they can be creative with taking the video. The students at Marianapolis Prep School were happy to have the chance to be a part of this. The next part of the article was about photo editing. New Milford High School in New Jersey art class learns how to use the pictures they took at the museum to help with their project back at school. One student used the pictures he took to make a collage New York. The Student, Tariq Khan, uses photo montaging, color theory, composition, and digital mastery to help make his collage perfect. The last part of the article is about how students in a kindergarten class from Istanbul Turkey used digital games to help them learn and teach materials with their skills. The students first colored the two main characters for their game. The boy’s name was bubble and the girl’s name was pebble. After they got the characters done then they spoke in English to help me with pronunciation they recorded themselves. This helps the students with their creativity.

This article goes from one thing to the next. There is never just one main point to the argument. All the parts of the article talks about creativity helping the students and how digital equipment can help the students learn. While the author is talking about how digital things help the students with creativity the reader loses what the main point of the article really is.

I think I could use this article as something that might hurt or help the students. This is a good article but it jumps around to different stories that might throw me off of what my topic is. I like how it talks about using digital equipment to help with their creative side. I have not seen another article like this one so it will be a big help to my research.

·          "But taking on that level of responsibility is what has created this incredible sense of empowerment among the TechCrew."

·         The children developed their own learning and teaching materials by combining their English, IT, and animation skills, and they shared their results with children from all over the world.

·          This was an inspiring and motivational project for the children and the teachers.