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The Student as Innovative Designer

The standard “the student as Innovative Designer” relates to the 21st century skills in many ways. All of these sections relate to the 21st century skill of creativity because that is one of the core skills a designer needs to possess. The first point, 4a, connects with both the creativity and collaboration sections of the 21st century skills. The design process that is needed in order for students to create and solve problems involves thinking through the process and problem solving in ways that can be described as critical thinking. The other points relate to the skills because they deal with critical thinking as well. A teacher could relate these points to other skills through different activities and group work. In order to help students achieve this standard, teachers must also have the attributes of a designer. Teachers must be able to create lessons and atmospheres that foster creativity and learning. To do this, they must be able to accomodate for each student’s indivi...
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Case 1

In the case study regarding Ms. Tucker’s classroom, there are several questions to consider. If students have ubiquitous access to information, that is, if students were to be able to find their own answers to questions by being given the opportunity to use critical thinking and different classroom tools, they would be able to possibly find new ways of learning that help them understand the classroom material in a deeper way. Not only this, but having access to this information and being allowed to explore it will help them develop skills that they will need later in life in their future jobs and everyday problem solving. Ms. Tucker raises a good point, that sometimes it’s more difficult to teach when students are supposed to find their own answers, because they are learning as they go. Not only this, but they might have a difficult time finding good resources to use and might be misinformed due to their own ignorance. However, these challenges are not as important as preparing student...
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Why Elements of Design?

This blog will be focused on the elements of design, as would be explained to 5th grade students. I wanted to choose this topic because the elements of design are fundamental to understanding and creating art. In order to make sense of a work of art, we have to understand color, line, shape, texture, space, form, harmony, and balance; these are the seven elements of design. These elements are not universally agreed upon, but they are the ones I will be focusing on. ( This link provides brief overviews of all the different elements listed, and more.) This topic is easily broken down into bite-sized chunks that can be explained individually, or taught together as a whole. In a classroom I would do an overview of the elements of design and their importance in art, and then dive deeper into each element. Around 5th grade, elementary students should be in the Pseudo-Naturalistic stage of their artistic development. In this stage they are very critical of their own work, and are ofte...
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