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PED 10-BUILDING AND ENHACING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS

CURRICULUM
Southern Luzon State University College of Teacher Education
2ND SEMESTER A.Y-2021-2022

MODULE 10 - ARTS AND CREATIVE LITERACY

Objectives
1. Define arts and creative literacy
2. Identify the seven habit of highly creative people
3. Explain eye-hand coordination and some associated disorders, interventions and
developments
4. Compare and Contrast visual and verbal creativity
5. Discuss aesthetics and three approaches from a philosophical perspective
6. Cite ways on how to integrate arts and creative literacy in the curriculum

Concept Exploration
Teachers need to be creative by all means because teaching entails critical thinking and
creativity not only in presenting lessons but perhaps in all facets of instructional endeavor.
Therefore, students’ creativity potential should be honed various pedagogic techniques,
classroom activities and students’ engagement. Teachers have to understand creative
literacy deeply to guide them in assessing their own creativity and that of their students.

Arts and Creative Literacy

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. Moreover, creativity is
the ability to see the world in new ways. Therefore, creative individuals exhibit the ability
to switch between different modes of thinking and shift their mental focus that suggests a
connection between creativity and dynamic interactions of brain networks (Sun, et
al.,2019).

Likewise, creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity
is characterized by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns,
to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate
solutions. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing (Naiman,2011).

As such, creativity is a combinational force: the ability to tap into one’s “inner” pool of
resources, such as knowledge, insight, information, inspiration, and the fragments in the
mind to combine them in extraordinary new ways (Popova, n.d. in Naiman, 2011). It is
also the process of bringing something new into being that requires passion and
commitment.

Creativity begins with foundation of knowledge, learning a discipline, and mastering a way
of thinking. It can be learned by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using
imagination and synthesizing information.

The ability to generate creative and innovative ideas is not merely a function of the mind,
but also a function of five key behaviors that optimize brain for discovery: (1) associating
or drawing connections between questions, problems, or ideas from unrelated fields; (2)
questioning or posing queries that challenge common wisdom; (3) observing or
scrutinizing the behavior of others to identify new ways of doing things; (4) networking or
meeting people with different ideas and perspectives; and (5) experimenting or

Prepared by: Joy Therese L. Villon, MAEd

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PED 10-BUILDING AND ENHACING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS
CURRICULUM
Southern Luzon State University College of Teacher Education
2ND SEMESTER A.Y-2021-2022

constructive interactive experiences and provoking responses to see what insights

emerge.

Developing literacies of the arts and creativity involves design pf physical learning
environment, the emotional environment, scheduling, organization and implementation of
curriculum and instruction and attention to the body and the brain. Therefore, teachers
should be empowered in developing these literacies among students with the support of
the administrators, parents, and other stakeholders.

Seven Habits of Highly Creative People

Naiman (2014) opined that if a person makes a habit of the seven practices, he/she will
be highly creative in his/her field. Thus, these would help teachers attain highest possible
level of creativity.

1. Prepare the ground

“In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin; A grass-blade’s no easier to make than an
oak.”—James Russell Lowell

Creativity requires an absorbed mind, a relaxed state of focus and attention. Give yourself
the time and space you need to get completely absorbed in the zone of creativity and
inspiration. Let the desire to create come from the pure pleasure of creative expression.
If you worry about being perfect, you may never begin.

2. Plant seeds for creativity

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we
create the world.” —The Buddha

We amplify what we think about most. Put your attention on what you want to create, not
on complaints. Set an intention to produce the results you desire.

3. Live in the question

“Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart. And try to love the questions
themselves.” —Rainer Maria Rilke

It’s been said that at the age of 5, children ask 120 questions a day, at age 6 they ask
only 60 questions a day, and at the age of 40, adults ask 4 questions a day. We adults
need to embrace “beginner’s mind,” and ask questions, instead of trying to find immediate
answers. Pay attention to questions other people ask, especially those from artists,
scientists, and thought leaders. Collect questions you find compelling.

4. Feed your brain

“If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips,
magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like old faithful. I have never
had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting.” —
Ray Bradbury

Be curious and follow your nose. Get interested in something and it will later provide you
with a goldmine of ideas if you learn to make connections between people, places and

Prepared by: Joy Therese L. Villon, MAEd

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PED 10-BUILDING AND ENHACING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS
CURRICULUM
Southern Luzon State University College of Teacher Education
2ND SEMESTER A.Y-2021-2022

things that would not ordinarily be connected. Combining ideas, and making connections
are key practices of creativity employed by artists, designers, and scientists.

5. Experiment & explore

“I make more mistakes than anyone else I know, and sooner or later, I patent most of
them.”—Thomas Edison

Edison was a both a prolific inventor and innovator, producing over 1,093 patents. He
was also a master at learning from failed experiments. When he died in 1931 he left
behind 3,500 notebooks containing details of his ideas and thoughts. If you follow your
curiosity, experiment with ideas, and learn from your mistakes, the quality of your
creativity will vastly improve.

6. Replenish your creative stock

“As artists, we must learn to be self-nourishing.” —Julia Cameron

Joni Mitchell describes her replenishing process as field rotation. When she needs a
break, she switches form singing and songwriting to painting.

7. The secret to liberating your creativity

While there is no magic bullet that will liberate your creativity, it can be helpful to remember
how you played as a child. What absorbed you to the extent that you lost track of time?
Your child’s play provides the clue to your creativity, your talents and your passion. What
connections can you make from lessons you have learned at play, that you can apply to
your work?

Creativity takes on many forms in business, art, design, education and science. When we
express our creativity in these domains, we have the ability to make life and work a work
of art.

Eye–hand coordination

Eye–hand coordination is the coordinated control of eye movement with hand

movement, and the processing of visual input to guide reaching and grasping along with
the use of proprioception of the hands to guide the eyes. It has been studied in activities
as diverse as the movement of solid objects such as wooden blocks, archery, sporting
performance, music reading, computer gaming, copy-typing, and even tea-making. It is
part of the mechanisms of performing everyday tasks; in its absence, most people would
be unable to carry out even the simplest of actions such as picking up a book from a table
or playing a video game. Without it, people would be able to carry out even the simplest
actions in daily life.

Eye-hand coordination therefore, is the ability of the vision system to coordinate

the information received through the eyes to control, guide, and direct the hands in the
accomplishment of a given task. It is also a complex cognitive ability as it unites visual
and motor skills, allowing the hand to be guided by the visual stimulation that the eyes
receive. It is the ability to do the activities that require simultaneous use of hands and

Prepared by: Joy Therese L. Villon, MAEd

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PED 10-BUILDING AND ENHACING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS
CURRICULUM
Southern Luzon State University College of Teacher Education
2ND SEMESTER A.Y-2021-2022

eyes, like an activity that uses the information that eyes perceive (visual spatial
perception) to guide the hands in carrying out a movement.

Hand-eye coordination is important for child development and academic success,

which is equally among adults to use in countless activities on a daily basis. Most activities
in day-to-day life use some degree of eye-hand coordination, the reason why it is really
important to develop it as possible. Obviously, visual information is used to correct and
inappropriate behavior in situation.

We use our eyes to direct attention to stimulus and help the brain understand
where the body is located in space (self-perception). Reciprocally, we use our hands to
simultaneously carry out a determined task based on the visual information that our eyes
receive.

Examples of eye-hand coordination

1. In writing. When making lines, the eyes send visual information to the brain to tell
where the hand is placed and if handwriting is legible.
2. Typing on keyboard. Although the types of movement are different, but different
visual information is used to tell the brain how to guide the hand or if a mistake
needs to be corrected.
3. When driving. It uses visual information to move the hands on the wheel, keeping
the car in the middle of the lane and avoiding accidents.
4. In sports. In any sports, the eyes usually coordinate with the movement of some
parts of the body called “motor coordination”. Depending on the sport, either hand-
eye coordination (basketball, tennis, football, etc.) or foot-eye coordination (soccer,
track, etc.) will be more dominant.

Problems and disorders related to poor eye-hand coordination

Hand-eye coordination can also work poorly even if the person’s eyes and vision are not
affected and if their motor control skills work properly. It is possible for someone with a
perfect vision to have hand-eye coordination problems what will only manifest when they
use both the visual and motor systems together.

Any alteration to the visual or motor systems can significantly affect hand-eye
coordination, like visual or muscular problems, such as strabismus (crossed-eyes),
amblyopia, muscle hypotonia, balance problems, or crossed laterality. Brain damage to
the motor areas or perceptive areas may also cause eye-hand coordination problems.
Poor hand-eye coordination can affect activities that may lead to developmental
disorders, learning disorders (related to reading, writing and playing sports), in academics
(making mistakes when they take notes, poor handwriting, poor attention), professional
areas (in typing or assembling objects), and problems with daily activities.

Hence, poor hand-eye coordination can have variety of causes, but the following are
two main conditions for inadequate hand-eye coordination.

Prepared by: Joy Therese L. Villon, MAEd

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PED 10-BUILDING AND ENHACING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS
CURRICULUM
Southern Luzon State University College of Teacher Education
2ND SEMESTER A.Y-2021-2022

1. Vision impairment. It is a loss of vision that makes it hard or impossible to

perform daily tasks without specialized adaptations caused by loss of visual
acuity, in which the eye does not see objects as clearly as usual.
2. Movement disorders. These are characterized by impaired body movements
caused by variety of causes, such as ataxia, which is characterized by lack of
coordination while performing voluntary movements; and hypertonia, a
condition marked by an abnormal increase in muscle tension and a reduced
ability of a muscle to stretch.

Hand-eye coordination development stage. Hand-eye coordination development

milestones are as follows:

Between birth and three years of age, infants can accomplish the following skills:

• start to develop vision that allows them to follow slowly moving objects with their
eyes
• begin to develop basic hand-eye skills, such as reaching, grasping objects,
feeding, dressing
• begin to recognize concepts of place and direction, such as up, down, in
• develop the ability to manipulate objects with fine motor skills
Three to five years
Between three and five years of age, little children develop or continue to develop the
following skills:

• continue to develop hand-eye coordination skills and a preference for left or right
handedness
• continue to understand and use concepts of place and direction, such as up, down,
under, beside
• develop the ability to climb, balance, run, gallop, jump, push and pull, and take
stairs one at a time
• develop eye/hand/body coordination, eye teaming, and depth perception Five to
seven years

Children between five and seven years old develop or continue to develop the following
skills:
• improve fine motor skills, such as handling writing tools, using scissors
• continue to develop climbing, balancing, running, galloping, and jumping abilities
• continue to improve hand-eye coordination and handedness preference
• learn to focus vision on school work for hours every day

Visual literacy

In the advent of the Internet, students must develop the necessary visual literacy
skills to navigate the image-intense world.

The basic definition of visual literacy is the ability to read, write and create visual
images. It is a concept that relates to art and design but it also has much wider
applications. Visual literacy is about language, communication and interaction. Visual

Prepared by: Joy Therese L. Villon, MAEd

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PED 10-BUILDING AND ENHACING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS
CURRICULUM
Southern Luzon State University College of Teacher Education
2ND SEMESTER A.Y-2021-2022

media is a linguistic tool with which we communicate, exchange ideas and navigate our
complex world.

The term “visual literacy” was first coined in 1969 by John Debes, who was the founder
of the International Visual Literacy Association:

“Visual Literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can

develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory
experiences. The development of these competencies is fundamental to normal human
learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and
interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters
in his environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to
communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able
to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communication.” – John Debes, 1969

According to Oxford Research Encyclopedia, visual literacy is the ability to

interpret, negotiate and make meaning from information presented in the form of an
image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a
written or printed text. It is therefore, based on the idea that pictures can be read and the
meaning can be through a process of reading.
Serafini (2017) asserted that visual literacy is a set of visual competencies or
cognitive skills and strategies one needs to make sense of visual images. These visual
competencies were seen as sense of visual images. These visual competencies were
seen as universal cognitive abilities that were used for understanding visual images
regardless of the contexts of production, reception, and dissemination. More
contemporary definitions stress that visual literacy is a contextualized, social practice as
much as individualized, cognitively-based set of competencies. It is also a process of
generating meanings in transaction with multimodal ensembles that include written text,
visual images, and design elements from a variety of perspectives to meet the
requirements of a particular social contexts.
Theories of visual literacy can be integrated across disciplines. Therefore, visual
literacy now incorporates sociocultural, semiotic, critical, and multimodal perspectives to
understand the meaning that are potential of the visual and verbal ensembles
encountered in social environments (Serafini,2017). Digital Technology has greatly
impacted our understanding of visual literacy as we now see children growing up with
tablets and computers and what appears to be highly developed visual literacy instincts.

Verbal Creativity
Verbal Creativity is the articulation of novel and original ideas. Research from the
psychometric research tradition has indeed revealed some factors that may unfold
beneficial effects on creativity, among the most important being positive affect [e.g., Ashby
et al., 1999; Baas et al., 2008] and cognitive oriented interventions. The latter intend to
improve creativity related skills by providing specific rules, techniques, or strategies to
develop appropriate cognitive skills for the domain at hand [Scott et al., 2004]. This could
be realized, for instance, through creative ideation trainings or divergent thinking
exercises [Benedek et al., 2006; Coskun, 2005], which aim at stimulating effective search,

Prepared by: Joy Therese L. Villon, MAEd

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PED 10-BUILDING AND ENHACING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS
CURRICULUM
Southern Luzon State University College of Teacher Education
2ND SEMESTER A.Y-2021-2022

retrieval, and integration/combination of remote associations related to a given stimulus

word.
The four major components of divergent thinking are fluency flexibility, originality and
elaboration, which are very useful for an operational concept.
• Originality—The capacity to discover ideas others have not previously thought of
• Fluency—The art of generating a variety of ideas to increase the number of
solutions
• Flexibility—An open-mindedness to accept unexpected idea combinations on a
topic
• Elaboration—Readiness to further ideas to experiment and build on a topic

Divergent Thinking and Creativity

While both of these concepts are undoubtedly related, the words are not
synonymous. Experts define creativity as the ability to uniquely utilize original ideas to
solve problems. It also involves identifying problematic aspects of a given situation
(Jaarsveld & Lachmann, 2017).
Creative thinking supports innovation. The world prospers through the creativity to
invent technological advances and to surmount problems at work, school, and in
relationships. Still, creative thinking is not possible without its predecessor, divergent
thinking. It fosters creativity because it generates those “creative” ideas. After a problem
is creatively identified, divergent thinking expedites the variables of available solutions.

Aesthetics
Aesthetics, also spelled esthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste. It is
closely related to the philosophy of art, which is concerned with the nature of art and the
concepts in terms of which individual works of art are interpreted and evaluated.
In perspective, it is an interesting and puzzling realm of experience: the realm of
the beautiful, the ugly, the sublime and the elegant; of taste, criticism and fine art; and of
contemplation, sensuous enjoyment and charm. In all these phenomena, similar
principles operate and similar interests are engaged.
The nature scope of Aesthetics. Aesthetics deals not only with the nature and value
of arts but also with those responses to natural objects that find expression in the
language of the beautiful and the ugly. The terms beautiful and ugly are too vague in
application and too subjective in meaning. Everything on earth may be perceived as
beautiful by someone from his/her point of view while different people may use the word
differently that often may have a little or nothing in common but all are simply based on
judgement. It may also be that the term beautiful has no sense except as the expression
of an attitude, which in turn, people may associate it to different matters.
Moreover, in spite of the emphasis of philosophers on the terms beautiful and ugly,
aesthetics becomes an insignificant issue for discussion in the description of what appeals
in nature. Just like when appreciating a poem, it can be described as ironic, moving,
expressive, balanced and harmonious. Likewise, in characterizing a favorite stretch of
countryside, it can be noted as peaceful, soft, atmospheric, harsh, evocative, rather than
beautiful.

Prepared by: Joy Therese L. Villon, MAEd

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PED 10-BUILDING AND ENHACING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS
CURRICULUM
Southern Luzon State University College of Teacher Education
2ND SEMESTER A.Y-2021-2022

Three Approaches to Aesthetics

1. The study of the aesthetic concepts, or, more specifically, the analysis of the
“language of criticism,” in which particular judgments are singled out and their logic
and justification displayed.
2. A philosophical study of certain states of mind—responses, attitudes, emotions—
that are held to be involved in aesthetic experience.
3. The philosophical study of the aesthetic object. This approach reflects the view
that the problems of aesthetics exist primarily because the world contains a special
class of objects toward which we react selectively and which we describe in
aesthetic terms. The usual class singled out as prime aesthetic objects is that
comprising works of art. All other aesthetic objects (landscapes, faces, objects
trouvés, and the like) tend to be included in this class only because, and to the
extent that, they can be seen as art (or so it is claimed).
Integrating and Supporting the Arts and Creativity
1. Physical Environment - Design a physical environment to support creativity, such
as castle-designed school building, well-architecturally designed edifice, roofs
and ceilings, creative murals, beautiful garden landscape , colorful blocks and
benches in the math and science garden, structured music and arts studio, an
atelier, student lounge, amphitheater, etc.
2. Emotional Environment – take time to create and maintain a climate of respect
and caring and that supports making mistakes.
3. Project-based learning – introduce choice, freedom and space for creativity. The
PBL units you design should be relevant, rigorous and real world in order to
achieve the highest levels of student motivation, engagement and learning.
Preferably, they are interdisciplinary. Begin by brainstorming a theme, topic,
issue or idea you’d like the students to explore, then brainstorm the possibilities
for each discipline.
4. Teach Creative Thinking Skills – first teach students about “metacognition” –
“thinking about their thinking.” You can teach that to the little ones, too though
the process of brainstorming, reasoning, comparing and contrasting, problem-
solving, concept mapping, analyzing, evaluating and more.
5. Alternative Assessments – instead of a worksheet or an assignment in which
every student creates a poster (about the same thing), provide plenty of leeway
for students to create products in a medium of their choice! For example, a
student-produced video, film, television or radio broadcast; a student-written and
produced play; a debate; a public service announcement; design a product;
create a marketing campaign; a mock trial; write and publish a class book;
simulations; digital or multimedia portfolio; student organized conference. These
activities should be provided by rubrics.
6. Scheduling – Project-based curriculum and performance-based assessment
need ample time and proper scheduling in either structured or unstructured
manner.
7. Student-Centered and Personalized Learning – give students voice and choice
as much as possible regarding what they will learn, how they will learn it and how
they will demonstrate what they have learned.
8. Incorporate the Arts – seamlessly integrate music, art, drama and dance into
your

Prepared by: Joy Therese L. Villon, MAEd

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PED 10-BUILDING AND ENHACING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS
CURRICULUM
Southern Luzon State University College of Teacher Education
2ND SEMESTER A.Y-2021-2022

PBL curriculum. Try not to make creativity time be separate from the rest of the
curriculum, but let these disciplines become a vehicle for delivering the curriculum
while developing creativity.
9. Integration of Technologies – student blogs and web sites, Glogster, VoiceThread,
student publishing, video game design, coding, filmmaking, photography, global
collaborative classroom projects using Google Hangouts , etc.
10. Preparing the Body and Brain for Creativity - offer students (and faculty)
opportunities such as yoga, ballet, jazz, zumba, calisthenics, etc.

References:
• Bishop,E. (2014). Critical Literacy: Bringing theory to Praxis. Journal of Curriculum
Theorizing 30(1).
• The University of Melbourne.(2018). Critical Literacy:Developing Your Critical
Literacy Skills.
• Alata,E. &Ignacio,E.(2019). Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across
[Link] Book Publishing.
• De Leon,E.(2020).Building and Enhancing New Literacies Across
the
[Link] Publishing
• [Link]
[Link]#ixzz6ru3OWDjBVisual Literacy
• [Link]
apacity%20to%20discover,idea% 20combinations%20on%20a%20topic

Prepared by: Joy Therese L. Villon, MAEd