On RPI Day 8, Dorothy emphasised the crucial role teachers play in designing opportunities for creativity in learning. She highlighted that creativity isn’t an optional extra but a powerful driver of engagement and achievement. Dorothy urged teachers to embed creativity across disciplines, noting its proven links to academic success. She also discussed the importance of capturing creative outputs and the rise of digital tools like AI-generated videos to enhance learning. Creativity is essential for transforming knowledge and inspiring lifelong learners.
Creativity in the classroom extends far beyond digital tools-it encompasses aural, linguistic, gestural, and spatial modes of expression. Providing students with opportunities for agency and creative choice not only enhances engagement but also gives us valuable insights into who they are as learners and individuals. When students design, perform, or create, their choices reflect their comprehension, personal interests, and identity. Multimodal creative tasks, whether through voice recordings, visual storytelling, drama, or hands-on projects, allow students to construct meaning across different forms of communication. The goal is to harness that creative spark in the classroom and provide authentic ways to share it with a wider audience, beyond the classroom walls. Creativity supports both emotive and cognitive development—fostering enjoyment, self-efficacy, and deeper comprehension—while also building essential soft skills like empathy, collaboration, and cultural understanding. By designing learning experiences that merge creative expression with meaningful content, we empower students to become confident, reflective, and capable communicators.
Incorporating routine opportunities for creating ensures that creativity becomes a regular, manageable part of classroom practice, removing “lack of time” as a barrier. Quick-fire creative tasks—before, during, and after reading-can be designed with either tight or loose instructions, allowing teachers to scaffold learning while still fostering student agency. “Tight” tasks, like sketching a setting, annotating book cover symbols, or using stencils and templates, provide structured parameters to focus thinking. Conversely, “looser” tasks, like role-plays, improvisations, or designing character costumes, open space for students to explore and express ideas more freely. Designing with both constraints and flexibility ensures that all learners can engage meaningfully, while also offering opportunities to deepen comprehension through multimodal responses.
A takeaway for me today is the realisation for the need to increase the level of choice I offer in the “Create” phase of my teaching, ensuring students can select from a wider range of creative mediums that reflect their interests and strengths. By expanding options that include both digital tools and hands-on, collaborative, and performance-based tasks, I can foster a greater sense of ownership and engagement, empowering students to express their learning in ways that are personally meaningful and socially connected
