Overview:
Lessons in creativity focus primarily on process rather than product or the act of reproducing music. In order for students to become independent thinkers in music, they should be motivated to develop aesthetic decision-making skills through improvisation and composition. Skills in creativity based upon divergent thinking can occur at various levels beginning with the spontaneity of young students singing a song to more developed works capable of becoming a musical product in the form of compositions, and pre-composed or improvised performances.
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
- Explain the rationale for creativity lessons in the elementary music class,
- Summarize the ways improvisation is initiated through simple activities,
- Identify how lessons focusing on creativity can reinforce music concepts through improvisation and composition,
- Illustrate the ways in which creativity activities can stimulate students’ imagination through divergent thinking and exploration,
- Describe the guidelines for teaching a lesson focusing on creativity,
- Design the basic elements for creating a sequence when teaching an improvisation and composition lessons,
- Describe how creativity activities can be assessed effectively,
- Design and demonstrate a creativity lesson, and
- Identify ways in which technology can enhance a creativity lesson.
Module Summary
Young minds are imaginative and benefit from well-planned, sequenced lessons that stimulate the artistic development of students through exploration, improvisation, and composition. This module identified the rationale underlying the importance of creativity for young children with guidelines for the effective design and implementation of lessons.
Key skills in teaching creativity include the teacher’s ability to break down musical ideas into small elements that students can control, and providing practice exploring and improvising musical ideas on a regular basis. This module introduced strategies for early exploration and improvisation ideas as well as early compositional activities that stimulate students, draw out their compositional ideas, and discriminate by comparing musical ideas. Approaches for implementing creativity lessons using technology was also introduced.