Describes potential role of flow experiences in motivating students to learn. Discusses the characteristics of flow: goals are clear, feedback is immediate, skills match challenges, concentration is deep, problems are forgotten, control is possible, self-consciousness disappears, sense of time is altered, and experience becomes autotelic. Then…

Describes creative expression workshops using myth to facilitate storytelling and drawing activities for recently arrived immigrants and refugee children. Analysis suggests that the use of a wide variety of mythic references frequently helps children better represent the gaps between home and school, past and present, and offers the possibility of…

Maintains that expense and lack of experience with glazes and firing the kiln need not prevent teachers from using clay in the classroom. Describes how author experimented with clay and fibers and subsequently devised numerous art activities for elementary school students. (KM)

Describes how the author, motivated by Esther Krichevsky's fishprints, introduced fishprinting to a middle school. Students explored the origin of fishprinting and other Japanese arts as well as learned about printmaking, collage, and painting. Maintains that, for children to grow creatively, they need freedom to experiment. (KM)

This article outlines both specific barriers to teaching and learning creative thinking as well as some possible directions for solutions. Sixteen common barriers such as confusion, powerlessness, and negativity are described along with strategies to dissolve them using such conceptual tools as awareness plans and proactive metathinking.…

Describes how artists' styles, images, and methods can express their cultural heritage, cultural influences, life experiences, and memories. Uses Romare Bearden's (1914-1988) collages and photomontages as examples. Suggests some collage activities for elementary and high school students based on their own life experiences. (KM)

Describes a self-portrait unit for middle school students using collage. Students draw silhouettes and then fill these in with cut-out magazine images reflecting their personalities. Encourages students to be inventive. The college background also reflects their personality. (KM)

Describes how storytelling can enhance both literal and inferential comprehension, motivate oral discussion, increase perceptual knowledge of metaphor, explain and promote interesting language usage, instill deeper meaning to children's personal experiences, and excite children about literature, storytelling, and creative interpretations of story.…

Describes how caregivers and their school-age children can make a "friendship quilt," outlining the basics of quilting, the materials needed, and basic patterns that can be followed. Includes detailed diagrams and patterns for designing and constructing applique and patchwork quilts. (MDM)

Describes Image-Making, a workshop in creative bookmaking based on a series of simple, carefully structured, parallel verbal and visual activities. Explains how each teacher and student designed and created an individual book (of his or her own poems and visual images) and a large communal book. (MG)

Reports the results of a study of active ingredients of creativity techniques, devices that promote idea generation, through an analysis of 172 idea-generation methods which identified three types of idea-generation devices--strategies, tactics, and enablers. These devices were organized into meaningful categories comprising a formulary of active…

Contends that an important theme for children in the middle grades to explore is that of identity, the task of self-definition States that good poetry and fiction can lead such students to do writing that helps them along the "slippery path" to self-definition. Describes several writing exercises that address middle school children. (PA)

Describes an art teacher's attempt to get away from standard student reports on famous artists and to make the project more fun and creative. Explains how students were asked to combine traditional research skills with creativity to produce mobiles with information and pictures related to their artist. (DSK)

Describes a flashlight photography experiment for students of a variety of ages that can be done without a darkroom or expensive equipment. Lists the materials required and outlines the process of using flashlights and "open shutter" photography to create various visual effects. (DSK)

Describes how Foster High School, Tukwila, Washington, joined forces with Walworth, a London secondary school, to write a play. Reports that, after some Walworth teachers visited Foster, the project got underway, with a group in each place writing part of the play, and another group revising. Notes that the play was finally performed at Foster…