Creativity During Naplan Testing? It can be done!

Naomi

How do you fit in nurturing student creativity?

It’s a challenge at any time - but especially when it’s NAPLAN testing time! Even though the tests themselves are short, the administration, the atmosphere and the kerfuffle around NAPLAN are a massive time suck. 

Your school can be broadly supportive of developing creativity, but still time pressure can squeeze out activities which deliberately develop creative thinking (see our previous post here). I’ve definitely noticed myself ditching practices that I feel are hugely important, like ensuring students reflect meaningfully on their learning, because of the ticking clock. 

Given this is our reality, we can be pragmatic and try to do what IS possible. 

I’ve been thinking lots about how to fit in quick bursts of creative thinking: prompts and activities that take a few minutes, but get students thinking differently. I’m developing a series of ideas for mini-whiteboards - Whiteboard Wonders, anyone? - and tried out a couple last week. 

To start the day I set my year 6's the challenge - draw a picture using only odd numbers.

The next day, with my year 5's, I asked them to - draw a picture using only punctuation marks.

The kids loved these exercises and used a range of approaches to meet the challenges. Even though it was short and sweet, it gave the students a fresh perspective on numerals and punctuation marks and a chance to flex their creative thinking.

We reflected together afterwards on how they had to use their imaginations and look differently to make the pictures. 

Shona

Last week we spoke about inclusivity in our learning spaces and I mentioned some resources that were great to use (check out the post here) and after using this insightful book last week I wanted to chat about how it supports creative teaching and learning.

I had picked up The World Needs More Purple People by Kristen Bell (How good was she in the Good Place??) & Benjamin Hart because I wanted to use it to strengthen our student’s sense of self and the way they treated each other.

It definitely worked in this way but the more I read it, the more I see it underpins the Learning Habits we love from Bill Lucas & Ellen Spencer and the work we do with Creative Schools here in Perth and could be used in a much broader way in the classroom.

The book follows Penny, our purple people guide, as she talks about the 5 steps to being a purple person - ask questions, laugh a lot, use your voice, work hard and just be you. I can see these align so well with our habits of inquisitiveness and collaboration as well as fostering, critical thinking, student engagement and the importance of high quality work and a purpose in life. All this in a picture book!

With my littlies, they understood the simplicity of the text but I decided to make it a little more concrete by offering to paint one of their nails purple and in this way they had something tangible to think about during the day as we talked about the 5 steps and whether we were being purple people. It worked a treat! I’m now going to put the steps up on the wall,  laminated and zhuzhed up a bit, so we can all remember the wisdom of Penny. 

If you like this resource for creative learning you might want to try a different anchor for your class. Maybe get out the purple wool and have the kids make purple people friendship bracelets or what about self portraits with purple clothes or accessories for a reminder?

Whatever you decide, I know that the concepts here can be used for students of any age so don’t let the picture book format put you off. Bell and Hart have also just released a book about Purple Schools you might like too so paint yourself purple and bring a little creative atmosphere to your room!

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If you like the idea of Naomi's Whiteboard Wonders, we have plans to create a resource very soon to make your teaching for creativity easier without the extra work! We'd also love to hear about what happens if you try them out so make use of the comment box, we dare you!

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