Content Connectors

What does creativity and innovation  look like in the classroom?

Math

~ Students can collect data on a topic (Ex: Favorite vacation spot), poll others, and create a graph (bar, pie, or line) that shows the results.  Excel, Graph Club, or Create A Graph can all be used to create graphs. 

~Investigate a real-life situation – for example – speeding in the school zone outside of the school.  Allow students to collect data on cars’ travelling speeds; create graphs and analyses of the data; and create a presentation with their findings and propose suggestions for changing the problem to share with the SRO.

English/Language Arts

~ Rewrite the ending to a story or book – try to imagine what the character would do in a different setting, ending, situation, etc.  Then, make a document/comic/illustration electronically to send to the book’s publishing company.

~ Write a poem, and use Pixie (or any drawing program) to type and illustrate it! 

~Invent a product that could be useful to a character in the book you are reading.  Design that product and create an advertisement to try to sell that product to your character.

Science

~ Create a wanted poster for your favorite element.  What would it be wanted for?  How could it best be captured? 

 ~Develop an animal habitat by making a diorama
~ Design a new animal and show what it looks like, how it moves, what it eats, where it lives, etc. 

 Social Studies

~Create a mock Facebook page for a famous figure.  Based on your knowledge and getting creative, fill in the “about me” sections on this figure’s autobiography section – for example: what would be George Washington’s favorite food?  What other pages would he ‘like’.  How would he describe his favorite pastimes?

~Research a particular event that you are studying.  Turn the important information into a story that a kindergartener can understand.  Create a PhotoStory project to share your story with the kindergarten students.

 

What does collaboration  look like in the classroom?

Math

~ in small groups discuss multiple ways to solve given problem, discuss and defend which might be best and why

English/Language Arts

~writing collaboratively on  a book review and or assigned project with a wiki

~in a circle each students says “5 words”  of a story and the creation moves around the circle, great creativity and writing block activity

Science

~ students are assigned investigative roles for research/ lab,  answer to and for whole group

 Social Studies

~ write a skit or readers theatre,  each student choosing a character to represent  from an event

All Subjects

~ all group work  is inherently collaborative, ensure that students are  including all and working to group members strengths 

 

What does communication  look like in the classroom?

 

Math

~ Create a story that uses the vocabulary list in a skit explaining a non math problem.

~ Just ask them “Why?” or “How did you get that answer?” or “Can you explain your thinking?”  Such discourse reinforces your commitment to a language-rich classroom.    from Accessible Mathematics Steven Leinwand

English/Language Arts

~ Conduct literature circle discussions via the discussion board feature in Blackboard.

~At the beginning of class on Mondays, ask if anyone has any crazy stories to share from the weekend. Explain that these are important narratives that need to be told!  (TLC Blog)

Science

~ Have students conduct and organize science project research in an online collaborative environment such as a wiki.

Social Studies

~ Create fake Facebook pages to mimic a historical person or event.  Share and comment as that person in “real” time.

~ Challenge students to discuss controversial and complex issues in small groups.  Bring Learning Alive

All Subjects

~ Place random discussion questions on sticky notes underneath a handful of desks. When you are ready to ask questions, ask them to peek and read-aloud the questions. This works really well for introverted or shy students. Plus, they LOVE secret note passing!