3 Frames for Creative Teaching

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As a teacher, I always found the holiday season to be both joyous and stressful in schools. Students have a long winter ahead of them with a lot of intense work. And we’ve just turned the corner of 1st quarter and getting settled in for the ride. Now, we throw in the holiday season and virtual/hybrid teaching and our students need an outlet more than ever before. They’re getting antsy and classroom management becomes a challenge. And we have all of the regular stressors of school, plus making sure we order our gifts so they arrive on time. We don’t have the energy to try and make something engaging.

If that sounds familiar, then you’re going to love these 3 frames I’m going to share today. Think of these as a handy set of options that you can pull out of your bag of teaching tricks and immediately get students focused in a new way. 

 

3 Frames Overview

Now I’m going to let you in on a little secret: these frames don’t come from the world of education. They are actually sales and persuasion frames that marketers use to sell us products. BUT, what I’ve discovered is that they work really well to encourage divergent and creative thinking in the classroom. 

 

Also, these frames are simple - I don’t want you to overcomplicate things here. They are each built on one single question. The elegance is in the simplicity. Remember: these are frames. They aren’t hard and fast rules. Imagine that what I share today are the boundaries that you set, but the students have a lot of freedom to make the picture inside the frame anything they want.

 

List of Frames Discussed:

• The Contrast Frame
• The Less is More Frame
• The Empty Chair Frame

 

As we go over these frames, think about how you might be able to use each in your class individually as well as possibly layering them together. I think you’ll find so much flexibility with these and have fun being creative in how you use them.

 

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Did you hear? The 2nd Edition of our K-5 IntegratED Lesson Packs is now available for pre-order here. You'll receive access to over 120 lessons, assessments, student materials, and student websites to make teaching with creativity as easy as possible. And right now, it's available for $49 PLUS 30-days of free access to our Accelerator membership. 

 

I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions about this topic.  Remember, you can use the ask me anything button on the podcast page to share with me your ideas and what’s bubbling to the surface for you. Just head over to artsintegration.com/sparkchasers and you’ll find today’s show notes, contact area, and links for more resources.  And if you are enjoying the show and know someone who could benefit from our discussions, please share the podcast with them. Together, we can chase the spark of our ideas and make a brighter future for everyone. I’ll see you soon.

 

Additional Resources:

Dan Pink’s book To Sell Is Human

Using the Pixar Formula in Arts Integration

Ep. 07: Using the Throughline Strategy

Message Framing and Framing Theory