Art
Students should be encouraged to view all subjects and content through different lenses—analytically, abstractly, and artistically. All are creative in nature, but art is the one that is employed less frequently as students age. Asking students to visualize a concept or an experiment might provoke a better understanding of the content because of this small (but very important) fact: Art is a singular act of interpretation. Regardless of measurable talent, students display a personal understanding (or signs of confusion) of the content through their art. Allowing students to draw, paint, or sculpt encourages them to provide physical evidence of their comprehension.
Examples
I try to include some freeform art every week in my lessons, from taking visual notes over Roman history to drawing some chapters of a novel paragraph by paragraph. I’ve created opportunities in my language arts classes for students to be a bit unorthodox when approaching typically rote book reports. And when it comes to interpreting through illustration, I can always rely on interesting and thoughtful visualizations of the many metaphors found in Heart of Darkness.