Catalogue of Critical Creativity

Creating with Words: 

-Potent Quotables

-Theatre or English classroom: choose a character from the text we’re studying (play, novel, short story, etc) to encapsulate in one picture by selecting a quote from or about that character and pairing it with a simple image. For example, if we were studying Romeo and Juliet, you could use the text “It is the east and Juliet is the sun” and place it on the image of a sunrise. This exercise helps students think about using text in a way other than an essay or paragraph about what they are reading. 

Creating with Images:

-Emoji Story

-Theatre or English: students create a simple story using only emojis. They then share it with a second student. That second student creates a short story or a short play based on the sting emojis given to them. This exercise uses a language that students are very familiar with (emojis) to create stories and themes in a more formal language (English). 

Creating withs sounds: 

-Playlist a Life

-Theatre or English classroom: summarize the events of a story or play from the perspective of the main character(s) using clips from songs. For example, the ending of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing where Beatrice denies her love for Benedick, you could insert the song from Disney’s Hercules, “I Won’t Say I’m in Love.” I love music and feel like it expresses things that words can’t, so using it to give more depth and understanding to characters is wonderful and creative. 

Creating with the Body: 

-Dallowinian Party

-Theatre or English classroom: students are assigned (or select) characters from a text or multiple texts that have been studied as a class. They must understand the background of the characters, their situations and relationships. Students will then improv a scene as these characters at a dinner party. While improv might be uncomfortable for many people, it can bring out new discoveries and help students see characters from a new perspective and in new situations. 

Creating with Stuff:

-Metaphorical Architecture

-Theatre or English classroom: design a piece of architecture—whether home, museum, school, theater, landmark, or another structure—to represent a theme (maybe themes like storytelling, forgiveness, friendship, betrayal, empathy, desire, etc). The theme could be selected randomly by the teacher, or be connected with a unit of study, or even a theme from a text being discussed. Create a model of the design in class using only paper and tape. Be able to explain why this structure shows the assigned theme. For example, if the theme was hope, one might design and create a home because home, for them, represents family and children who will go on to lead the future and therefore bring hope to humanity. Playing with architecture in a theatre or English class may seem a bit out of the ordinary, but is a more abstract way to discuss and share thoughts. 

Creating with Social Media:

-Belief Board

-Theatre or English classroom: select a character from the text being studied (play or book) and create a belief board from their point of view. Invite students to try to empathize with these characters’ points of view with things like values and opinions. Show these on the board using quotes, artwork, colors, objects, memes, etc. Think Pinterest. Social media is around for us today, but isn’t always in the texts we study in classrooms. Bringing those two worlds together helps students explore how those elements interact, what new meanings can be made or found, and how they relate to those two time periods. 


-Character Gallery or Belief Board:
Make an online art gallery about the character, but use it as an assessment of how well students know their characters (either in a play they are writing or a creative story they're working on).

-Audio Landscape:
Create a soundscape for a scene from a play or book to get more insight into the situation and feeling. It can also be used for creating a soundscape for a show. 

-Creating with Stuff:
Character analysis through building what their home would look like (external and internal, messy or organized, large or small, etc) based on their personality and tendencies.