Franken Toys, Funny Drawings and Improvisation

FrankenToys, Funny Drawings and Improvisation

A typical week in figuring out how to teach FOR creativity

I decided to write about this week for the blog because it was a pretty average week, and it was one of the first weeks we haven’t lost a day of instruction due to snow or ice or professional development. This winter sure has been crazy in Michigan. I plan on using this blog entry as evidence for my teaching practice for my principal as well, so I have highlighted lesson plan elements in green throughout.

The theme for this marking period is humor, so far this marking period, we have been practicing our ideation fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration skills through developing illustrated jokes, humorous juxtaposed magazine and digital collages and we “improved” some tacky Goodwill paintings. 

We started the week working on a mini project PLAYING with toys.  “Play” is an essential component to building creative thinking in students. It builds flexibility and it is the root skill of elaboration. I can: experiment with ideas and combine ideas in ways to make new meaning.

Student experimenting with ideas, making new meaning

Monday, we began with a clip from the movie Toy Story and watched Sid (the naughty boy next door) “improve” his sisters doll Jaynie, by replacing her head with the head of a pterodactyl.  Here is the link to the Blendspace lesson I created that shows a wide variety of artists solutions to creating “Franken Toys”, including a shorttutorial on how to best disassemble action figures and modify them. Direct instruction https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/hvZbCkGuLN7xPg/edit 

T-Rex Baby by Claire D

The students were given direction to play with donated unloved or broken toys and just see what they could do with them for about ten minutes.  They had so much fun re-living their earlier childhood, being silly and playing together collaborating. Next, I gave each of my students a card from the game “Spot It”.

and gave them the instructions to pick out just one toy. The cards are filled with pictures of all sorts of different things: anchors, hearts, light bulbs, fish, etc. Students were to find a person with a matching card and meet up with them to discuss and share ideas about different ways the two new toys could be combined to make a new toy. Think, Pair, Share

Super Duck by Elliot L.

After about five minutes, students shared out some of their ideas and then were asked to trade toys with their partner and find a new partner that also matched their card. This time, more rules were added to the ideation game, not only did they need to combine toys, but also they had to think about how one of the images on one of their cards could be worked into the new toy design. Think, Pair, Share This scaffolding process continued and new rules were added with each round. The students were getting pretty excited about their ideas. The closing activity included the last set of partners sharing out their plans for a new toy and giving their new toy a name Exit Ticket.

Ultra mechanic by Jacob W.

Tuesday began with an activity Bell Ringer that invited the students to select a toy from the bins and spend a little time with it, do a little observational drawing in their books and diagram the best features of the toy in detail.  Teaching for Observation We talked a little about what made the Franken Toys we saw on Monday in class successful and we reviewed the three expectations for the mini-lesson: To combine toys in a humorous and interesting way, to make the connections seem manufactured (stitches neat, glue hidden from view, paint applied with care), and to create a slogan, jingle or sales pitch for their new invention. Rubric 

I gave two quick whole class tutorial reviews Direct Instruction on how to sew (many students had had my class before and have already learned this skill from different lessons and so could teach each other. I also reviewed the safety measures that we need to take when using tools as in some cases toys may need to be disassembled using screwdrivers, exacto knives, pliers or small saws. We practiced the skills together and I made sure every student had the skill set they needed in order to complete their work with care. Guided Practice

After I felt confident that they had the safety measures under control, the students were set free to play with and combine toys. You could have heard a pin drop, they were so engaged in play and experimentation.

Moo-rice Rodriguez with sidekicks in backpack by Adrianna B.

Wednesday was a workday. Students rushed into the room ready to explore what their toys could do. Many had gone home and scavenged their own toy box and came in with new treasure pieces they could add to their assemblage.  Students were given the choice to work independently or collaboratively.

Thursday students were asked to document their work in their books, to make quick sketches of what they had combined and to come up with a name for their new creation. Reflection/Bell Ringer They had the rest of the hour to work on assembling the final details, but were asked this time to think about what their slogan or jingle might be that would go with their new toy design as they played with their ideas.  This was really fun; you could hear the hum of silly jingles and rhymes echoing throughout the room. As an Exit Ticket, the students were asked to write down their slogan/jingle and new toy name on a slip that also served as a display tag for showing off their new creation in our media center.  Our media center looks pretty lively now!

Friday was our first experimentation in using improvisation to teach for creativity.  I currently have a pre-intern student teacher from Kendall College of Art and Design, Clair Pearl, who comes on most Fridays. She designed and taught this lesson under my supervision. I can: collaborate, listen and become comfortable with change.

Clair began with a PowerPoint presentation showing some of Richard Avedon’s photographs of people with various expressive qualities. She began using some VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) questioning to activate the students thinking. “How do they look?, How can you tell how they are feeling?, What makes you think that?, How do you think they are feeling?. Etc.”

The presentation also presented information like “60 – 90% of human communication is non-verbal” and discussed the importance of body language. She then asked the students about the connection they could guess between body language and improvisation.

She followed the presentation with a TEDx talk on improvisation. “Dave Morris – The way of improvisation” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUO-pWJ0riQ In this talk, Morris talks about the importance of failure to success in life. He emphasizes, “Failing does not make you a failure.” I love that the main components of improv are all about collaboration, listening and change.

And then followed it with a short clip from the 90’s hit “Whose line is it anyway?”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaZv9pEyAdQ

Clair asked all of the students to stand up in a circle around the room and we played a short improv game called “Zip, Zap, Zop”. The goal of the game is to encourage listening skills and to be collaborative. To play the game, a student would shout “ZIP!” and point across the circle to another student who would then shout and point “ZAP!” to another student, followed by a third who would shout and point “ZOP!” and the cycle would repeat around the circle, trying to get as fast as we could go.  This simple sounding game really pushed the kids to pay attention and helped develop some commitment to their part as you have to be pretty direct with your pointing if the person across from the circle from you is to know who’s turn is next.

Clair then introduced another improv game called Funny noises.  She asked one student to develop a noise and to basically play telephone by each person sending that noise around the circle.  Students had to pay attention and listen for when the sound came to them.  To up the game, a second noise was introduced and it was sent in the opposite direction around the circle.  Inevitably, students would be tasked to send both noises in different directions around the circle at the same time.

The last game Clair played with them was called “The world’s worst”. She reviewed with them the job of an EmCee (to be the rule maker and moderator), what it meant to keep participation school appropriate (otherwise she would call out “too blue” and you would be removed from the scene) and the roles of a good audience.

Four volunteers stepped up and each used body language alone or speech to demonstrate the world’s worst of some profession or skill (suggestions offered by the audience)… World's worst cashier, world’s worst waiter, world’s worst driver, etc.  After a group of four performed a new group of student volunteers joined in and tried out a new “world’s worst theme”.  It was quite a lot of fun and I think that it will be a great one or two day addition to this creativity curriculum as it teaches so many great skills.

Improvisation: Acting with little or no practice, playing with ideas and actions, doing stuff on the fly…just like life!