Everybody talks about creativity. I heard the term “creative lesson plan” today. Barf.
What is creativity and where does it come from? I don’t know what it is but I know when it shows up in my classroom. It has a different feel. It grabs our attention. It arrives always in unexpected forms at unexpected times. I would rather move to another planet than not experience creativity in my classroom, at least most of the time.
I think creativity comes from the same place that Dr. Krashen says language comes from – the unconscious mind. Therefore, we can’t plan the arrival of those moments of serendipity into our classroom (see https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=546).
So then what is the value in lesson plans? I am not asking what the value in planning a class is, of course we plan (in TPRS there is always way too much to do), but lesson plans, to cut to the chase, are boring. Everything being planned, the class rolls out like a sales pitch for something many of the prospective customers in the room may not even want to buy. Vacant stares are the result.
The kids aren’t buying, and never have. They put up with class, because they have to. But many of them would walk out in a heartbeat if they could. So they just yearn, they yearn (think of some of your students faces, when they patiently wait, patiently waiting, for something real to happen).
No. When we plan it all out, our instruction takes on distinct, palpable boredom. I don’t care how dramatic we are, if we plan too much, if we use English too much (more than 5% of the time), then we kill the very root of that which would lift us out of the mire if we could but tap into the evasive quality in teaching that we call creativity.
A creative class can’t be planned, but the framework for a creative class can. We can have powerful instructional medicine (comprehensible input in whatever form floats our boats), but if we don’t leave space within the comprehensible input for the unexpected, then we won’t ever get to experience the fun of interacting with our students in a human, light, laughter filled way.