The Creative Classroom

The Creative Classroom presents an original, compelling vision of schools where teaching and learning are centered on creativity. Drawing on the latest research and his studies of jazz and improvised theater, Sawyer describes curricula and classroom practices that will help educators get started with a new style of teaching, guided improvisation, where students are given freedom to explore within structures provided by the teacher. Readers will learn how to improve learning outcomes in all subjects–from science and math to history and language arts–by helping students master content-area standards at the same time as they increase their creative potential. This book shows how teachers and school leaders can work together to overcome all-too-common barriers to creative teaching–leadership, structure, and culture–and collaborate to transform schools into creative organizations.

Book Features:

• Presents a research-based approach to teaching and learning for creativity.
• Identifies which learning outcomes support creativity and offers practical advice for how to teach for these outcomes.
• Shows how students learn content-area knowledge while also learning to be creative with that knowledge.
• Describes principles and techniques that teachers can use in all subjects.
• Demonstrates that a combination of school structures, cultures, incentives, and leadership are needed to support creative teaching and learning.

• Foreword Tony Wagner
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction
• Teaching Creative Knowledge
• 2. Teaching Creative Knowledge
• Creative Knowledge and Shallow Knowledge
• Moving Beyond the Coverage Trap
• The Noisy Library: Learning Creativity and State Standards
• Creative Habits of Mind
• Creative Knowledge in Math, Science, and History
• Teaching for Creativity in Every Subject
• 3. Guided Improvisation
• Learning to Improvise
• Improvisation is an Ensemble Art
• Improv Techniques for Teachers
• When Teachers Need to Break the Rules
• Lesson Planning for Guided Improvisation
• Scaffolding: Balancing Structure and Improvisation
• Summary
• 4. Mastering the Teaching Paradox
• Scaffolding: The Structures of Guided Improvisation
• Project-Based Learning and the Teaching Paradox
• Different Balances of Structure and Improvisation
• From Novice Teacher to Expert Improviser
• Pedagogical Content Knowledge
• Conclusion
• 5. Schools for creativity
• What Creative Schools Look Like
• A Case Study: Keels Elementary
• Conclusion
• 6. A Call to Action
• References
• Index
• About the Author