7.

1   Assessing creativity
Part A
A group is trying to solve a water transportation challenge: how can people in a remote village carry water on foot
from a town well to their homes, which are several miles away?
Here are their ideas. Decide if each one is an example of imitation, variation, combination, transformation or original
creation.
Fabrice has seen kids pulling special backpacks behind them on wheels, and he comes
up with a large plastic container that’s a bit like those backpacks: with wheels and
with an extendable handle.

Ewa imagines a large round tank of water that rolls on its side and can be pushed
like a lawnmower.

Svetlana suggests designing a large plastic container that has a handle on it.

Almir proposes they use a large plastic container, like the ones in water coolers.
People can carry it in their arms.

Mohammed decides that a backpack can be completely reinvented so that it can hold
water instead of other contents. This means drastically changing the materials and design
of the backpack.

Part B
Come up with as many different solutions to the five problems below as you can. In each case, decide which you feel
is the most creative approach.
1 Your school needs to cut its energy bills by thirty percent. How can it best do this?
2 Plan all the meals for a week for a family of four – on a very tight budget.
3 Three of your closest friends have been told they’re addicted to their smartphones. It’s having a negative effect on their
schoolwork, and their relationships.
4 A new airport is going to be built near our town or city. Decide where it should go.
5 Your school is planning to have an app made. The app needs to be realistic, but also to be of the most use to the highest
number of students. What should it do?

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7.2   I wish!

I wish I hadn’t said anything.

I’d rather we had a shorter school day.

✂

If only we didn’t have to work to earn money.

✂

If only people were more sensible.

✂

I’d rather we took the train to the airport.

✂

I wish there was a chip you could put inside your brain to translate languages.
✂

If only I had known about my mistake sooner.

✂

If only young people had more of a say in government.

✂

I wish our country’s history had been different.

✂

I rather people gave me money for my birthday than presents.

✂

I wish I had listened to my parents.

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7.1   Assessing creativity
Aim
To apply specific criteria and assess their own work
To participate in a fun, learner-centred test of creativity
Language
Variety of vocabulary
Language for making suggestions and justifying decisions
Time
Approximately 30 minutes
Preparation
One copy of the worksheet for each pair
Procedure
• Explain that students are going to take part in a test of
creativity, but that first you want to establish the criteria by
which they’ll judge each other. Say that they will assess
each other’s ideas by grading them 1–5:
1 = imitation, 2 = variation, 3 = combination,
4 = transformation and 5 = original creation.
Write these five key words on the board and give students
time to discuss in pairs what they think each one involves.
• Get ideas from the class and then clarify that the criteria
involve the following:
• Imitation: The creation is the same or virtually the same
as something that already exists.
• Variation: It’s a slight change to an existing object. It’s
different, but still has the identity of the original object.
• Combination: It’s a mixture of two or more things, such
that it can be said to be both or all.
• Transformation: It’s a re-creation of something in a new
context. It has some characteristics of the original object,
but it cannot be said to still be that kind of object.
• Original creation: It appears to have no obvious
qualities of pre-existing objects or ideas.
• Put students in small groups of three or four. Hand out the
worksheets and ask them to look at Part A. They should
match each person’s idea (Fabrice, Ewa, Svetlana, Almir and
Mohammed) to one of the five words on the board.
• Get ideas from the whole class and get students to explain
their ideas. Clarify the correct answers and explain why
Ewa’s idea was the most creative according to the criteria.
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Answers
Fabrice – combination: His idea is a combination of two
ideas: the large container for holding liquid, and the
wheels for pulling it around.
Ewa – original creation: Her idea is not quite like
anything else. It might be a combination of many things,
but appears to be an original creation. This could be said
to be the most creative idea.
Svetlana – variation: This is a variation on the kind of
water cooler container that Almir suggested. It takes a core
idea and changes it a little bit, but it’s still quite similar to
the original object.
Almir – imitation: This solution doesn’t offer anything
new. It is an imitation of something that Almir has seen
before.
Mohammed – transformation: His object is more than
just a combination of a backpack and something else. It
now has water-specific purposes and has transformed
what a backpack is.
• Next, keep students in their groups and ask them to look at
Part B of the worksheet. Tell them they need to come up
with as many different ways of tackling each problem as
they can within the time limit you set (about fifteen
minutes). They should write down their most creative
solution to each problem and they can also draw a quick
sketch if they wish to use one in their presentation.
• When most students have finished, stop the task and put
different groups together. They should then explain their
solutions to each problem and assess each other’s idea
(giving a number 1–5) according to the creativity criteria
discussed earlier. Who has the most creative approach to
each problem? Why?
• Get ideas from the whole class. See if you can all agree on
what the most creative approach is in each case.
Extension
• Explain that students have decided the most creative
approaches to each of the five situations, but that these
might not be the best solutions. Get students to think of
possible problems with the creative approaches that they
have chosen and to suggest more effective alternatives, if
they can.
• Get each student to think of one real-world problem
they’ve had to deal with. They share their problems in
groups and come up with creative solutions. Then each
student should explain what they actually did in each
situation.
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 7.2   I wish! • Ask the team with the most sentences to read them out.
The other team(s) can challenge a sentence if they think it’s
Aim grammatically wrong or there is no connection to the
prompt statement. Each correct challenge gets two points.
To provide further practice of a range of conditionals
Add these to the team’s scores as you go along.
• You can now get students to go through the rest of the
Language slips/statements, discussing their responses and writing
First, second and third conditionals them down. For each one, allow a time limit of about two
I wish, If only, I’d rather minutes. When all the slips/statements have been used, go
through students’ ideas in the same way as above.
Time
Group game
Approximately 30 minutes • Put the students in groups of four or five. Place a set of the
slips/statements face down for each group.
Preparation • A student picks up a slip and reads out the prompt. The
• Either: one copy of the worksheet for your use, which you next student says a conditional sentence or a wish sentence.
read out from If everyone thinks it’s correct, the next person in the group
• Or: a copy of one set of statements/strip for every group of has to say a new conditional sentence based on the prompt
three to six students, cut up and so it continues round the group until someone is
• One blank A4 sheet for each group of three to six students challenged on accuracy or relevance, or until they can’t
think of another sentence. The person who had the last
Procedure ‘correct’ sentence wins the card and keeps it.
You can play this game either as a class team game or as • If the first student gets a sentence wrong, then the player
individuals in groups. In either case, the aim of the game is for who picked up the slip gets to keep it – if they can think of
students to produce conditional sentences connected to the a sentence. Otherwise, it continues to the next person.
prompt card. However, you probably don’t need to tell students this rule
until the situation arises.
Team game • The player to the left of the person who picked up the first
• Put students into teams of up to six. Think about the slip now starts and they continue as above. The winner is
make-up of the teams and make sure stronger and weaker the person with the most slips of paper.
students are distributed evenly. Ask them to think of a name
for their team and write them on the board. Extension
• Explain the game. Read out one of the prompts and have • Ask students to write their own wish / I’d rather sentences
teams think of as many conditional sentences or wish and either add these to the pile at the beginning or use
sentences that might go with it as they can in one or two them to play a new round of the game.
minutes. Read this out as an example: I’d rather we took the
bus. Give a couple of examples: If we take the bus we’ll be
there quicker; if we take the bus we won’t get so wet; if we walk
we might be late; I wish/If only I could drive. Elicit other ideas
from students.
• Continue reading out sentences or hand out a set of slips/
sentences face down, in order and a blank sheet of paper to
each group. Have students appoint a secretary in their
group, who will write down their sentences.
• Now do a practice round of the game. In their groups,
students pick a statement and come up with as many
responses as they can. After two minutes, ask students to
count how many responses they have got.
• Find out which team got the most sentences. Write five
points on the board next to their team name. Having the
most sentences to begin with gives the team five points,
irrespective of correctness. This rule is important because
feedback will get very complicated otherwise. Plus, it will
encourage teams to think of as many sentences as possible
without worrying about accuracy, which in turn will
produce more sentences for challenges.

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