Discover How to Empower Student Voices: Creative Self-Expression in Education

Andreas Fischer July 18, 2024

This case study features Rachel Silverman, a talented secondary English language arts teacher from Phormes Education in Germany. Rachel is a passionate advocate for creative self-expression in education.

Though she is still early in her career, Rachel eagerly implements innovative methods to help students develop essential subject skills and holistic competencies in an open-minded learning environment. She believes it is crucial for all learners to have the freedom to share and express their ideas while gaining the confidence to reason through their thoughts and actions on a deeper level.

Adding a Creative Element

Rachel experienced a profound level of student engagement in learning when creative and personally relevant elements were incorporated. In Rachel’s primary school, learners are encouraged to write numerous fictional stories or immerse themselves in many books. In her opinion, this becomes more guided as they move toward higher grades. Rachel sees a correlation between the absence of creative components and a decline in students’ joy of learning. For this reason, she has been focusing on involving projects related to self-expression in her teaching, which align with the standards of the curriculum.

This is when Rachel started to develop the “Twelfth Night” ThingLink project for her class.

‘We will imagine ourselves in various roles in the theater: The Company Manager, Casting Director, Music Director, Costume Designer, Set Designer, and Actor.’ – Rachel Silverman,

The ThingLink Project – “Twelfth Night”

The aim of this project was to elevate the students’ experience of ‘Twelfth Night’ by Shakespeare beyond reading and partake in a comprehensive design process of the original production. Prior to this, learners engaged in multiple phases to gather information and analyze different aspects of the show. The preparation helped them approach the project with higher-level thinking and examine features that accentuate a character. Essentially, the learning objectives revolved around integrating creative elements into literacy and design, focusing on students’ ability to convey a unique, thought-provoking depth. To achieve this, they had to impersonate at least four professions that are typically involved in a show production and create interactive tags in a ThingLink environment.

1. Setting the Scene – Company Manager

The first task involved the base media of the ThingLink, showcasing a theater and visualizing the foundation of the production scene. The students had to choose an appropriate setting and justify their choice using a ‘Text and Media Tag’. The base media is a crucial part of the immersive learning experience, as it sets the atmosphere and provides grounds for depth. Users annotate information similar to a story outline for the readers and enhance the overall experience through additional media, such as audio and video clips. 

‘They really had to immerse themselves in the role of the Company Manager and take different aspects into account, such as the audience and their own interpretation.’ – Rachel Silverman

2. Selecting Actors – Casting Director

The second task required students to assemble the ideal cast. They had to familiarize themselves with each actor beforehand, matching their skill sets with their production vision. Simultaneously, learners considered the atmosphere set by the selected base media to ensure the suitability of the cast and their characteristics. This selection had to be explained and visualized by embedding tags on their thinglinks.

3. Music, Costume and Set – Different Experts

For the third task, Rachel provided three choices to explore important roles in a production, allowing students to make decisions based on their personal preferences and interests. As music directors, learners focused on the background music for their production, enhancing the atmosphere by implementing and describing the chosen audio. For the role of the costume designer, they designed and included the fashion aspect of their production. Lastly, as set designers, they created a prototype of each additional scene using Google Slides and embed the media into tags within their ThingLinks.

4. Ready for action? – Actor

For the final task, the students immersed themselves in the role of an actor. This required them to use proper writing and speaking skills to convey the storyline with passion, complementing the scene, setup, and established atmosphere. In other words, they had to consider different aspects of prior tasks and created elements to ensure alignment with the overall thinglink.

‘Think about what emotions the character is expressing at this moment, and what is happening as they speak.’ – Rachel Silverman

Learning Outcomes

Rachel described the learning experience as similar to an assignment but with much more depth and creativity. Usually, the subject skills of English language arts are considered under the umbrellas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. With this project on ThingLink, however, students worked on a higher level of thinking, utilizing cross-curricular knowledge and skills. At the same time, the interplay between the designed media and tags had to be constantly evaluated and considered. 

Regarding reading, learners had to analyze multiple scenarios from the play in detail and move beyond basic comprehension to realize their insights into ThingLinks and justify decisions accordingly.  Throughout the process of crafting paragraphs and descriptions, they practiced writing skills such as citing sources, incorporating quotations, and examining evidence. Simultaneously, some written components were further enhanced by incorporating speaking elements to enrich the overall experience.

Competence Development

Combining all the individual project elements with the ThingLink platform helped Rachel transform this formal exercise into a fun-filled and exciting activity, while still aligning with her educational expectations. In addition to achieving broader English language arts goals, she emphasized the development of holistic competences throughout the project. By encouraging students to realize their own ideas creatively, they also cultivate a sense of responsibility for their learning, practice constructive self-reflection with directed guidance, and explore situations from multiple perspectives.

Reasons underpinning Rachel’s choice to use ThingLink 

• No technological expertise required to design holistic and creative projects
• Easy-to-use platform with user friendly interface to support both educators and learners
• Multiple functions, buttons and clear labels 
• Simple to operate and design content 
• Multiple layers of media connected to one environment

‘ThingLink is a good platform to express yourself fully in a way original to you.’ – Rachel Silverman

Tips and Tricks to Develop your Projects with ThingLink

• Gain comprehensive skills with our free Certified Creator Course; Already certified? Become a ThingLink Certified Trainer
• Elevate learning with Skybox and ThingLink 
• How to craft effective prompts for 360°  images

• Take advantage of our pano to 360° solution