Teach Secondary 13.8

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alice Guile is a secondary school art teacher illustration as a character, and then invent a personality for them. What followed was very interesting to observe. Some students chose to concentrate on drawing neatly and accurately, and created nice drawings with good shading, but went blank when asked about the personalities of figures wearing just a simple t-shirt and jeans. Other students came up with creations that weren’t drawn as realistically, but fromwhich did emerge from some incredibly imaginative ideas, accompanied by descriptions of their figure’s personality and even some comic impressions. One student added to their basic figure by making them extremely overweight, describing how their fashion illustration showed an obese female drag racer. When I later called home, the child’s mother told me that it was the first positive phone call home her son had ever had, and was thrilled when I praised him for his imagination. Another student created a boxer character with a black eye called JimBob. A third drew his character naked, but with a black rectangle positioned in a strategic place. This latter student, on a previous occasion, had once drawn a large, inappropriate body part onmy classroom wall in red crayon whenmy back was turned. He used the fact of him concealing his figure’s groin area with a modesty rectangle as proof of his improved maturity, and was very pleased with his achievement. I put his work on the wall. Broadenyour scope What I’ve found frommy teaching practice is broadly in line with HollyWhite’s findings, in that students with ADHD, ADHD-like symptoms or who are simply more lively than average, tend to come up with the most original ideas . These were the students giving the most amusing presentations of their fashion illustration characters. A secondary success criteria of the presentation was being able to make the class laugh; students who would regularly attempt this already by being disruptive were thus able to channel their class clown talents in a more positive direction. I would encourage any teachers wishing to support their neurodiverse students to create opportunities for imaginative, out of the box thinking and creative problem solving – something which can be done in any other subjects. A geography teacher, for instance, could teach town planning by having students answer questions set by a textbook and writing notes, before completing a quiz in the next lesson to check their recall. Alternatively, the students could be allowed to research what town planners might need to include when planning a new town, and then give a presentation on an original idea for an eco-friendly town. In both cases, the students are learning the same thing, but the second approach offers far more scope for out-of-the box thinking, and therefore be more likely to highlight the strengths of neurodiverse students. (Conversely, any students struggling with creative demands of this second approach could be set the first task.) For any teachers of traditionally ‘non-creative’ subjects, who would like to make their teaching more creative, I’d recommend collaborating with your art, drama or music departments. Neurodiverse students have many positive qualities to contribute to the world, making it incredibly important that we create the best learning environments possible, in which they can reach their full potential. 63 teachwire.net/secondary S E N D