HOT Skills Challenge #1 - FLUENCY (1.1) & FLEXIBILITY (1.2)

It is generally accepted that CREATIVITY is one of the highest, if not the highest of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS).  Yet, we also know that critical thinking skills, including analysis and inquiry, require some form of CREATIVE THINKING.  

So, for our HOT Skills Challenge #1 activities, let's come in the back door and engage our learners with some CREATIVE THINKING activities.  These two activities can go hand in hand; do them together or do them separately.  

Known throughout the world as the “father of CREATIVITY,” Dr. E. Paul Torrance dedicated his life's energies toward developing ways to assess creativity in children and adults. His nearly 60 years of research has done much for the understanding of CREATIVE THINKING, including his identifying of "the four components of CREATIVITY". 
.
The first 2 skills/components of CREATIVE THINKING are FLUENCY and FLEXIBILTY:

• 1.1 - FLUENCY - the ability to generate quantities of ideas
• 1.2 - FLEXIBILITY - the ability to create different categories of ideas, and to perceive an idea from different points of view

  .

Some people might call pushing for many ideas  "brainstorming"; we'll call it FLUENCY.  Some people are good at FLUENCY, but are stuck on one track, not being able to "change it up" (FLEXIBILITY).  It takes both to be good at CREATIVE THINKING.    

**************************************************


HOT Skill Challenge 1.1:  FLUENCY

DIRECTIONS:

1)  INTRODUCTION:  What is a topic you are working on (or have worked on) this school year that would generate a list of multiple items?  Here's a fluency list of possibilities:

• Write a fluency list of words you know that begin with __
• Write a fluency list of words you know with this short vowel sound:___
• Write a fluency list of words you know with this long vowel sound:___
• Write a fluency list of words that rhyme (following one pattern). 
• Write the fluency list of animals that you know.
• Write a fluency list of vegetable and fruits.  
• Write of fluency list of things in nature.
• Write a fluency list of states (or cities or countries) that you know.
• Write a fluency list of metaphors or similes.
• Write a fluency list of main characters of the books you've read this year.
• Write a fluency list of book titles of the books you've read since you began reading.
• Write a fluency list of all the different settings that could be used when writing a book.
• Write a fluency list of all the terms that you've learned in math (or science or social studies) since you began your first year of school.  
• Your own idea for a fluency list...

 .
2)  DIRECTIONS:  Choose one of the activities, from above, assigning it to your class - to be done individually in a designated amount of time - without numbering or counting the list.  (Focus should be on generating thought, not counting).
.
3)  TIMER:  Set a timer for 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes, depending on what you are asking them to list - preferably displayed on the SMARTboard via a website like:
 http://www.online-stopwatch.com 
   
 (Under the pressure of a time limit, fluency of thought often increases.)
.
4)  COUNTING / NUMBERING:   Once time is up, have students number their list of items and write the number for the total fluency generated at the top of the page.   
 .
5)  OPTIONAL: Go around the room, recording the total FLUENCY score of each of your learners.  Next, pair up your top scorer with your bottom scorer... then, your second top scorer with your second bottom scorer... until everyone has a partner.  (Do not tell students how you paired them up).  Now, have them combine their lists onto another sheet.  Once done, give them an additional 10 minutes to generate additional fluency on their combined list.
.
6)  CLASS FLUENCY:  On the dry erase board or giant post-it write the class FLUENCY list, as students dictate to you from their own lists.  Explain that each time someone shares his/her item, everyone who has that item, should put a check mark beside that item on their individual list. The total class FLUENCY should be much more than any one individual's FLUENCY.  When finished have learners keep their papers for the follow-up activity.   
.
7)  CLOSURE / ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:  Students ask themselves, "What have I learned from this FLUENCY Activity today, that I can apply to future learning/thinking activities?" Answers may include, but not be restricted to the following:
      a.  When I start, I may not think that there's very much to think about, but by the end I had a lot more on my list than I thought I would.
      b.  Giving myself a time limit makes me think harder and faster.
      c.  When I run out of ideas, discussing it with someone else might be helpful.
      d.  My list of ideas may not be the same as others.  It's not right!  It's not wrong!  It's just different!

*************************************************

HOT Skill Challenge 1.2:  FLEXIBILITY

DIRECTIONS:
. 
1)  INTRODUCTION: This activity can be immediately after the FLUENCY activity or days later.  It will be jump started by both their Individual FLUENCY lists and the Class FLUENCY list, from HOT Skill Challenge 1.1.
.
2) DIRECTIONS:  
    a)  "I DO":  The teacher models how to divide the Class Fluency List into categories.  

     Examples of categories:

• If listing animals, categories might include: animals with different types of homes, like dens, caves, holes, nests, barns, fields, houses, etc. OR animals with different types of coverings, like scales, spines, shells, feathers, armor, fur, etc.
• If listing words that rhyme, categories might include one or two or three or four letter words or syllable words.
• If listing similes, categories might include: similes with animals or with food or with plants, etc.
• If listing book settings, categories might include: in the city, on the farm, in the desert, in the mountains, etc. 

.     b)  "WE DO":  Once you pick out the first few categories for the class web, then learners can chime in with additional ideas for categories, telling you which item is listed in which category.  Class participation continues until Class FLEXIBILITY Web/Chart is complete.  

•      By looking at the different categories, are there now other items that can be added to each category list that will increase the total class FLUENCY?

      Once more ideas are generated, write your increased FLUENCY score and how many categories are represented on this FLEXIBILITY web/chart.
.
    c)  "YOU DO":  Each learner will then return to his/her original Individual FLUENCY list and divide it into the different categories via a graphic organizer of his/her choice:  a chart with columns or a web. The number of categories, of course, will be determined by the FLUENCY list itself.
.
.
3)  TIMING:  This activity (turning individual FLUENCY lists into FLEXIBILITY Webs) can be done in a block of time (with you setting a timer) or as extra seat work, completed throughout the day.  
.
4)  COUNTING CATEGORIES:   Each child will determine his/her own categories, referring to the class FLEXIBILITY web/chart, when necessary.  Once time is up, give learners  a few additional minutes to determine if additional FLUENCY of items can be listed in each category.  Each learner writes their FLUENCY total and also write the number of categories generated at the top of their chart/web.   
 .
5)  CLOSURE / ENDURING UNDERSTANDING:  Students ask themselves, "What have I learned from this FLEXIBILITY activity today, that I can apply to future learning/thinking activities?" Answers may include, but not be restricted to the following:

•       When I am working on a FLUENCY of ideas and get

stuck, I can, look at the different categories that I already have and then come up with more ideas in each category.   Once I do that, I can decide if there are more category lists that I can add.

•       I am learning that my FLEXIBILITY can increase my FLUENCY of ideas!

.


 Interested in furthering your understanding?

In their book, The Thinkers' Guide to the Nature and Functions of Critical and Creative Thinking, Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder make a case for how these two types of thinking are intertwined.  On page 8, they write,

"REASONING AS A CREATIVE ACT:  In the broad sense, all thinking is thinking, within a system, and when we have not yet learned a given system - for example, not yet learned the logic of the internal combustion engine, the logic of right triangles, or the logic of dolphin behavior - our minds must bring that system into being, create it in the logic of right triangles, or  the logic of dolphin behavior - our minds must bring that system into being, create it in the fabric, within the structure of our established ways of thinking.  Hence, when we are thinking something through for the first time, to some extent, we are creating the logic we are using.  We are bringing into being new articulations of our purposes and our reasons.  We are making new assumptions.  We are forming new concepts.  We are asking new questions.  We are making new inferences.  We are working out our point of view in a direction entirely new to us."






.