Oklahoma teachers are innovative leaders.  This 6 minute survey will help us understand how OK teachers develop creativity in their students.

For more information on the Oklahoma Innovation Index, click here.

 
 
Eight Actions in an Innovative Classroom: How often do students have the opportunity to engage in these actions?
 
1. Imagine, Be curious
…visualize beyond practical limits
…explore materials, ideas and environment

Question Title

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Q1. Overall, how often is this Action 1—imagination and curiosity—part of your classroom?

Project examples

(not intended to be definitive or all-inclusive; rather, they are meant to be springboards to your own thinking)		 Kindergarten-age:   Draw a picture of what might happen if pigs could fly.

Civics classroom:  Ask what will be the consequences if one element of an historical event is changed. 

History and Literacy:  Explore the historical events surrounding a period of writing and imagine what it might have felt like to live at that time.
 
2. Generate
…express original ideas
…new connections
…find alternatives

Question Title

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Q2. Overall, how often is this Action 2—generating ideas—part of your classroom?

Project examples

(not intended to be definitive or all-inclusive; rather, they are meant to be springboards to your own thinking)		 Middle School Social Science class (and other levels):   Socratic Circles - where the leader asks open-ended questions around authentic texts and expects students to listen to others, think critically, and formulate intelligent responses.

Literature, Music, Visual Art:  Students explore and express “tone” in poetry, using musical instruments or visual art in response to a reading.

All disciplines/grade levels:  Students respond to a concept with original student work.
 
3. Question
…ponder outcomes
…wonder about options
…reframe questions or problems

Question Title

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Q3. Overall, how often is this Action 3—questioning—part of your classroom?

Project examples

(not intended to be definitive or all-inclusive; rather, they are meant to be springboards to your own thinking)		 Math:  On the basketball court, determine where a player should stand and how high to throw to get the ball through the hoop consistently.

Social Studies:  Students ponder the societal outcomes if Rosa Parks had given up her seat on the bus.

Geography:  Students brainstorm questions to explore around global poverty as a starter for further research and discovery.

Elementary Language Arts:  Students take a classic fairy tale and rewrite it from a different perspective.
 
4. Combine
…across disciplines
…arts integration
…STEM/STEAM

Question Title

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Q4. Overall, how often is this Action 4—combining—part of your classroom?


Project examples

(not intended to be definitive or all-inclusive; rather, they are meant to be springboards to your own thinking)		 Elementary Math and Grammar:  Students explore what punctuation marks share with mathematical symbols.

Language Arts, History, and Social Studies:  What do Greek myths have in common with contemporary TV programming? Link to video.

Biology and Technology:  Students use computer simulations in studying the impact of viruses on their environment and generate solutions to the predicted negative outcomes.
5. Risk (Take chances)
…question alternatives
…experiment with new ideas

Question Title

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Q5. Overall, how often is this Action 5—risking—part of your classroom?

Project examples

(not intended to be definitive or all-inclusive; rather, they are meant to be springboards to your own thinking)		 All disciplines/grade levels:  Student leadership opportunities for students to try roles or processes that are not typical of them.

Economics:  Students develop and market their ideas for new businesses in Oklahoma, developing a business plan.

Science and Art:  Students identify an initiative that would improve the world and strategize in order to effect change, showcasing their collective solution.
 
6. Expand
…enlarge, enrich, embellish ideas
…adapt to change

Question Title

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Q6. Overall, how often is this Action 6—expanding—part of your classroom?

Project examples

(not intended to be definitive or all-inclusive; rather, they are meant to be springboards to your own thinking)		 Writing (persuasive, creative, etc.):  Students convey to a larger audience what they discover while writing an essay.

Technology:  Students use a digital survey to better understand a problem.

Music Composition:  Create a piece of music to illustrate a point of view from a literary text.
 
7. Predict
…from experimentation
…trends or change      
…defend

Question Title

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Q7. Overall, how often is this Action 7—predicting—part of your classroom?


Project examples

(not intended to be definitive or all-inclusive; rather, they are meant to be springboards to your own thinking)		 Pre-K/Kindergarten:  Given a set of colored blocks or pictures, predict the pattern sequence or story ending.

Political Science:  Students review election outcome trends by state and make predictions.

11th-12th grade Science:  Predict the outcome of a study based on your research/reading of scientific texts.
8. Classify
… establish order in complex environments
…in new and novel ways

Question Title

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Q8. Overall, how often is this Action 8—classifying—part of your classroom?


Project examples

(not intended to be definitive or all-inclusive; rather, they are meant to be springboards to your own thinking)		 Elementary Social Studies:  Group into “countries,” and establish the governance, monetary system, and infrastructure of the country.  Students design a virtual museum of Oklahoma history.

Elementary Science:  Students determine various groupings of organisms based on detailed photographs as an introduction to scientific classification.

Art History:  Students explore curating by sorting works of art into multiple categories.

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