Creativity in Teaching English Reading and Writing

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Creativity in Teaching English Reading and Writing

• The Royal Thai Distance Learning Foundation with
  support from the American Embassy RELO Office and
  TOT

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Overview of Series

• 6 sessions, every 2 weeks
• Session 1 Poetry
• Session 2 Haiku and other poetry forms
• Session 3 Short short stories
• Session 4 Forms of story creation
• Session 5 New (and old) American music
• Session 6 Wrap up and Poetry Slam

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Overview of Session 1

• What is creativity?
• Key ideas in reading and writing teaching theory
• Experiences with poetry
• Implications for your own teaching

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What does creativity mean to you?

• First, write for one minute. How would you
  describe creativity?
• Then, discuss with a partner to see their
  response and to compare.
• Well hear some of your responses in the whole
  group.

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Creativity Resources

• Flow - Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
• Social Creativity - Alfonso (Monty) Montuori
• Lateral Thinking / Parallel Thinking Edward De
  Bono
• http//www.folj.com/lateral
• http//www.brainstorming.co.uk/tutorials/creativet
  hinkingcontents.html
• http//www.paulsquiz.com/free_quiz_questions/other
  _trivia_quizzes?Lateral_Thinking_Quiz_2/

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A Sample Challenge

• Mr. and Mrs. Jacks have five children.
• Half of them are boys.
• How is this possible?

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One Response. . .

• The other half are also boys.

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Another Challenge

• A window cleaner is cleaning the windows on the
  25th floor of a skyscraper when he slips and
  falls. He is not wearing a safety harness and
  nothing slows his fall, yet he suffers no
  injuries. Explain.

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Response?

• He was cleaning the inside of the windows.

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Outside of the box
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What is inside the box?
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And what is outside?

• Why is this an important idea?
• How does this relate to your work as teachers?

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Creative thinking activity

• Each of you have 2-3 common office objects.
• Think of a way to use them together that is
  completely new that has never been done before?
• Think outside the box (e.g. imagine you are at
  a park or the zoo or on an airplane and not in
  an office.)

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Concepts to inform the teaching of reading and
writing

• Schema theory. Schema building. Schema
  activation.
• Top-down and bottom-up processing.
• Process writing and product-oriented writing.

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How does schema theory work?

• Michael Jackson
• Barack Obama
• Susan B. Anthony
• Robert Frost
• Madonna
• Marti Anderson

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Try it out

• Choose one name.
• Brainstorm with a partner everything you know
  about that person.

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Schema Activation

• This is finding out what you already know about a
  topic before reading or writing anything about
  the topic.

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Schema Building

• Now think of 5 questions you would like to ask
  this person.
• And/or. Think of where you might go to find out
  more about the person. Books? Internet?

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A Thai Poem

• Some clues
• Poet Sunthornpoo
• Phra Apai Manee
• Think of schema activation
• Predictions?

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Translate

• With a partner, translate some or all of this
  poem. Some groups will share one or two lines.
• What English vocabulary do you need?
• What is the meaning of this poem? What is most
  important about it?

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Translation?

• When is this useful?
• When should it be avoided?
• How does translation help to serve schema
  activation and/or schema building?

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A Poem by an American Writer

• Mary Oliver
• The poem is titled The Summer Day
• What vocabulary might you expect?
• What topics?

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Read the poem

• With a partner, read aloud the poem. Take turns
  reading one or two sentences each.
• Discuss, using English and Thai, the meaning.
• What is the most important message of the poem?
  Why do you think so?

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Look at the translation

• What new interpretations can you make when you
  see the translation?
• How does this help you understand Olivers poem?

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A cross-cultural perspective

• What does Sunthornpoos poem tell us about Thai
  culture?
• What does Mary Olivers poem tell us about
  American culture?

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Implications for your teaching?

• What new ideas or perspectives are you taking
  away from today?
• What will you try in your classes over the next 2
  weeks?
• Be prepared to share next time.

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Thank you!

• And see you soon. . .
• Dont forget to share your ideas and questions on
  Facebook http//www.facebook.com on the DLF and
  American Embassy RELO pages.