Blog - Creativity

1. I believe that every child will have a certain aptitude for creativity, and that each child will only be able to compose within that given ability. As a result, I do not believe that creative ability should ever be assessed. It is something too specific and particular to a given person. However, the ability to work within that skill can be assessed. I think that there are ways that an assignment can be structured such that even people with limited creative abilities can still write compositions, which are assessable depending on the specificity of the assignment. They will have more trouble with open-ended assignments.

5. Personally I am the most comfortable with arranging. I am not at all comfortable with composition or improvisation really. I feel that assessing composition would be much easier to assess than improvisation, because it is simpler to set up parameters for composition, whereas improvisation can go in many different directions.

7. I do not agree with this teacher’s thinking. I think that the child should be rewarded for thinking creatively rather than punished for not making the same choice the teacher would. However, I think that if the child were to play a note on the piano for that sound, as the teacher I would ask them to explain that choice. In this case, the sound of a tambourine could resemble a rattlesnake rattle. If the sound were less related, then I would ask for more of an explanation as to why that sound was chosen. If it was a completely arbitrary choice, then they would lose points on the assignment.