Creative Projects

Orville Wright  

Orville Wright

When I was teaching 6th grade Reading, I had this great resource that provided umpteenth ways to give a creative reading assignment that would trump all tired, worn-out book reports from the past.  I used this book regularly and gave my students options like:  Create a Wanted poster for your character; Make a shadowbox of the most important scene; Design your own newspaper from the time period of your book; Create a collage with clippings that explain your book; Make up a game that highlights your characters; and really I could go on and on and on some more.
     I loved it. I thought it was fun and figured the kids thought I was the coolest teacher ever since I wasn't requiring the traditional 5 paragraphs. To be honest, these great leaps into creative projects were also a lot easier to grade.  They either had it, or they didn't.  Even when I taught my sophomores, I continued to offer creative ways to turn in assignments and some of the kids truly went all out.  I had video's from groups that looked professionally made.  I saw shadow-boxes that were works of art.  I received collages that were the size of my chalkboard and full of color.  Of course there were the usual suspects who cared little about grades and obviously put in zero effort.  But I always, always had that one kid, or maybe two, sometimes three, usually boys, who were great in class but when it came to creative projects,  just put in enough effort to get the job done.  Their projects were fine. And based on the criteria, it was an A.  But I can tell they didn't LOVE this creative-making like I hoped they would.  And that always irked me.  There I was giving my students a chance to go outside the box, and they'd rather write a basic report from the point of view of the dog in the story.  No Crayola or Elmers involved.
     It just doesn't make sense to me, or it didn't make sense to me until recently.  I now have a different point of view, one of a parent whose child has one of those creative teachers.  In the past two years Elijah has had some great assignments, I think.  He had to decorate a shoe, make a mummy out of paper sacks, create a character out of a pumpkin, and this past week, make a biographical character out of a coffee can filling it with relevant items and writing an explanatory paragraph.  He chose Orville Wright. So fun, right?  I would have been all over a project like that, starting weeks ahead finding airplanes, and maps of Kitty Hawk and that's about all I knew about the Wright Brothers.
    Here's what I learned, besides the fun fact that the Wright brother's love of flying started with a kite, but I learned that Elijah doesn't fancy arty projects.  He doesn't want to spend the time.  He's the kid who would rather look up history and write a report.  He doesn't care about yarn hair or wiggly eye-balls.  He just doesn't.  I gave him some supplies and he did the project in a couple of hours.  I later gave some editing tips which he didn't like, but reluctantly made.  He's not one to linger or worry about his art.  If I mentioned areas that could be changed like adding a shirt or a tie,  he'd just say, "Oh, it's fine.  It's fine."  And while he hasn't gotten his grade yet, I know it will be just fine. He completed all the tasks and got as close to the original as he could.
      This creative project was a test more for me than for him.  While I love any chance to be artistic, and feel incomplete without that outlet, I have to hold my tongue that Elijah does not.  He's driven by activity and competition, not art.  He may never be the student who is passionate for collages or excited by shadow-boxes (and while I can't be sure, I would say that his dad probably wasn't either), but so be it.  We'll always have sports. And lucky for Elijah, around here, we kind of dig that too.