Indiana ELA Standard: 1.W.5.b

Introduce Order by exploring “written” vs “unwritten” rules.

Your students will investigate statements like: Power leads to change, Power comes in many forms, Power can be used or abused.

Your youngest students will learn to write Japanese Haiku poetry.

When we try to solve a problem, sometimes we end up creating new problems. Which lead to new solutions. Which lead to new problems.

So, what can a cardboard tube be used for other than holding wrapping paper?

Let’s write a holiday song about order and chaos!

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Let’s write the cleverest Mother’s Day cards you’ve ever seen!

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?

What do you see in this squiggle?

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?

What would the consequences be if a town’s tap water became… unreliable?

What would the consequences be if no one had to sleep anymore?

So, what CAN a CAN be used for other than storing liquids?

An old photograph. A holiday scene. Pick one object in the picture and write from its point of view.

Starting with an old-timey photo, students will write from a particular item’s point of view.

Look closely at Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?

What if each square on a Tic-Tac-Toe board had another Tic-Tac-Toe board inside of it?

Try this a simple (but surprisingly strategic) grid-filling game!

What if a students’ self-portrait was made of words that describe the student!?

Asking students to “think creatively” won’t get you far. They won’t know how to start, they’ll get stuck with simple ideas, or they’ll just go completely wild. SCAMPER is a tool for scaffolding the process of creativity.

We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.

Can you write directions so clear that a group of kids can put a toy together with no illustrations?

We open our unit on narrative writing with a big idea: “structure increases creativity.” I show how this is true by bringing in examples from across all disciplines.