Catalogue of Critical Creativity

 Creating with words (122-149)

• Style Hack is a great way to help students put character’s thoughts into their own words (and therefore remember, relate, and analyze them better). Thus, in the reading of a novel like Pride and Prejudice, students could create and reference pop culture celebrities, icons, meme templates, etc. that relate to a character and formulate a project with both text and visual components, as explained in Intention.

Creating with Images (153-177)

• Emoji Story is a great method to get students to form basic summaries. When the class has finished a portion of reading (either a chapter, or a few chapters, or even the entire book), this activity could be done individually and shared in small groups to help students form accurate summaries and remember key points of the story. 

Creating with Sounds (181-206)

• Parody Lyrics is a great tool for memorization. Music is proven to help students memorize information (like the periodic table song). Thus, having students make parody songs about grammar rules, parts of a story, their own thematic analysis of a novel, etc. are all good ways to have them memorize important information while having fun. 

Creating with the Body (209-231)

• Chronological Choreography is a fun tool that breaks up normal desk learning inside an English classroom, while also helping students begin a process of critical analysis with a particular text. Students would have to understand the emotions, opinions, feelings, themes, etc. to create a dance that chronologically represents the text. 

Creating with Stuff (235-263)

• Book Stack Summaries are very accessible within an English classroom using a novel or text as the content being summarized. It would make them consider carefully the words and titles they use, which could possibly expand vocabulary and make them more aware of the power of words and language. 

Creating with Social Media (269-295)

• One Word to Rule Them All forces students to really consider what their absolute biggest take away is from any given text. With the ability to augment that word, they can make connections and further analyze why they made their choice.