Assessing Creativity

Can you assess creativity? This is was the big question this last week in CEP 811. As a first grade teacher I can say assessment comes up almost on a daily basis, and I am assessing students constantly. Which lead me to my own question this week, are my assessments purposeful?

When reading Grant Wiggin’s blog post on assessing creativity I immediately connected with his story about the group of ELA teachers and their writing rubrics. Writing rubrics is something that my first grade team talks about all the time. We have our common core continuum we are suppose to use but two things come to mind every time I get that rubric out to use; is it achievable, and does it help me drive instruction. Thinking about the first point, is this achievable is where I really connected with the article. Writing is such a creative activity, and  adding a thousand grading points on a first grader just entering the writing world does not teach them to be an engaging writer. In fact in most instances it may intimidate them to never write again. If I broke the rubric down to 3 points which were understandable though, I think that our rubric would be achievable and could easily drive instruction. Those 3 points being; is it readable, is it engaging, and is it complete.

If you think of it in order to be readable it has to have all the grammar and phonics components, if it is engaging it has words that catches the readers/ listeners, and if it is complete it has all the components it needs. It is not nit picking a six year olds work, and it leaves room to show growth. I think that this approach should be taken when assessing any creativity or problem solving assignment.

In answer to the question can creativity be assessed, that answer is yes. There is a critique out there for anything. If you do not prepare your students for criticism they will not see the need to improve and excel and will always think that they are doing great. In James Paul Gee’s video he says to hold our students to high standards. I can tell you with teaching young children this was a hurdle I had to overcome, but students will perform to the standards you hold them to. If you hold them to low standards they will show little academic and personal growth, and they will get use to sliding by. If you hold them to high standards they will problem solve to achieve those standards, on the way they will probably teach you something, and they will be ready to change the world.  

In getting back to assessing these creative thinkers as long as there’s an objective to learning that is visible, any way the student achieves that objective is able to be assessed. I think it is easy for teachers to stick to a rubric because it gives a common way to assess students on an even playing field. It is clear though in any classroom, anywhere no student is the same, and with that, should not be assessed the same. There are many ways to solve a problems, there are many ways to achieve an objective, and there are many ways to assess success.

References

On assessing for creativity: Yes you can, and yes you should. (2012, February 04). Retrieved from https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/on-assessing-for-creativity-yes-you-can-and-yes-you-should/

(2010, July 20). James Paul Gee on Grading with Games. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=693&v=JU3pwCD-ey0