Heidi:  I appreciate the creativity reflected in your post below.  Would you give us links or reference to Five Foot High and Rising (is it a song??) and other natural disasters you mention, as well as "Deportees" (a story?).  We in earthquake country take disaster preparedness very seriously and cover it at least once during a school year.  Thanks for your post and assistance.
    
  Bonnita Solberg
  Teacher On Special Assignment
  Oakland Adult and Career Education

"Wrigley, Heide" <heide at literacywork.com> wrote:
        

    v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}  o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}  w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}  .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}        st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }                Hi, David 
   
  Many of the teachers we work with have learned how to use  “found materials” (e.g., materials other than textbooks) to jump start their own creativity and that of their students. These include grocery store inserts, flyers, magazines, bills, and announcements along with various products that students bring in because they wonder about them (what do the labels say and mean). 
   
  We also use pictures a great deal (Material World is a favorite book), videos (Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin) and music to bring history to life (“5 foot high and rising” for Katrina other stories on natural disasters, and “Deportees” for a unit on the history of the bracero program. We ask students to bring in artifacts that have reflect their culture and have meaning in their family and then discuss what they remember about them and what they want their children to know about the culture and values reflected in these artifacts.  We use drawing quite a bit and teachers have used the concept of a “life map” to draw their life journey and invite students to draw and illustrate theirs. 
   
  The most creative work is probably being done by students and teachers involved in project-based learning. Students use cameras for digital story telling, video to create “how to” videos for an audience, PowerPoint to raise awareness about community issues and story boarding and Chalk Talk to compose their ideas and think through what they want to do and say in a project.  The final project is presented as part of a showcase to both the other learners and staff in a school and then to a wider audience in the community. 
   
  You can see lessons plans and examples of some of these projects on the site we developed with the teachers in Socorro, Texas. The site is www.bordercivics.com. For examples of Lesson Plans and project ideas, got to “tools” 
   
  All the best 
   
  Heide
   
   
   
      
---------------------------------
  
  From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David J. Rosen
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2007 8:27 PM
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1032] Creativity and Innovation,Fabric of History, Shakespeare in Jail

   
    PD Colleagues, 

     

    In March of this year, I posted some questions here about nourishing creativity and innovation:

     

    If you are a teacher, does your program or school nourish creativity

    and innovation? If so, how does this happen?

     

    If you are a professional developer, how do your professional

    development efforts nourish creativity and innovation?

     

    Does your state ABE system nourish these? If so, how?

     

    How do _you_ nourish creativity and innovation in your work and in

    the work of your colleagues?

     

    You will find at

     

    http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Creativity_and_Innovation

     

    a list of possible sources – and examples – of teacher creativity

    and innovation in adult literacy education.

     

    What other sources and examples are you aware of?

     

    To contribute your ideas of sources or examples, reply to this

    message on the Professional Development discussion list and/or add

    them to the above wiki page.

     

    The Adult Literacy Education Wiki page,

     

  http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Creativity_and_Innovation
       

    has been updated, and now includes, among other things:  

     

    + a link to the Fabric of History, a creative American History curriculum that builds on students' interest in clothing and fashion statements by helping them develop a framework of important dates and events in U.S. history through an exploration of clothing and style in the years 1600-1980. The curriculum includes timelines, pictures, readings, formal and informal writing assignments, multiple choice practice, and suggestions for interpreting and synthesizing new information through visual, kinesthetic, and interpersonal activities.

     

    + a link to Shakespeare in Jail, a two-part article about an exciting program in a women's correction institution through which teaching Shakespeare came alive for students through film, reading and discussion.

     

    I hope you will visit -- and add other examples to -- the Creativity and Innovation Wiki page.

     

    David J. Rosen

    djrosen at comcast.net

     

   

   

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