Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Communication: Strategies to Increase Students' Skills

Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Communication contains research, strategies, and lesson plans that will help increase students’ skill level in the 3 Cs: creativity, critical thinking, and communication. The strategies of the 3 Cs renew stale curricula and supports deeper learning of core concepts. This book provides parents and those interested in the education system a glimpse into how schools can be more efficient and effective by saving what works in education.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction Section I: Background and Definition Chapter 1: Asking the Right Questions Chapter 2: Consilience in the 21st Century Chapter 3: How We Got Here Chapter 4: The 3 Cs Section II: Strategies for Using the 3 Cs Chapter 5: Creativity Chapter 6: Critical Thinking Chapter 7: Communication Appendix: Lesson Plan Examples Lesson Plan Template Math Lesson Plan Science Lesson Plans Reading/Literature Lesson Plans U.S./World History Lesson Plan Art Lesson Plan Physical Education/Health Lesson Plans References

About the Author :
Melissa Goodwin, MS, is a writer, techie, scientist, and mother of two children. She promotes the 3 Cs to facilitate learning for educational and private organizations. Catherine Sommervold, EdD, helps organizations and leaders incorporate the 3 Cs, manage change, and make decisions. She is an executive, coach, and writer who lives in South Dakota with her husband and three sons.

Review :
Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Communication: Strategies to Increase Students' Skills is affirming, giving specific names to the work I already do in my classroom. Additionally, it was simple. Teaching, on the whole, is not a complicated process. If educators are passionate and engaged, our students will do the same. This book acknowledges what we do well and gives us encouragement to continue building creative, communicative, critical young minds. This book captures the essence of what educators want more of in the classroom—creativity, critical thinking, and communication—and offers practical examples and timely applications to begin implementing the 3Cs in the classroom today! Young teachers should study this book to know where to go. Experienced teachers should study this book to be re-ignited in the right way. This informed text combines the three new "Rs" of education—rigor, relevance, and relationships—with three ideal newly-emphasized 'Cs': creativity, communication, and critical thinking. Keeping their focus on achievement that will help students in their college and career goals, Goodwin and Sommervold are right on. Much has been made in the media about the need for changing twenty-first-century education. Often these pieces focus on technology elements, as though the technology is both the driver and the solution of the change. However, the truth is that the pace of change produced by the Information Age requires skills that have been developed for centuries, coined in this book as the '3 Cs,' that are timeless, but arguably increasing in importance as access to information becomes easier and easier. Goodwin and Sommervold are not jumping on the bandwagon of how to recreate education. They are not giving teachers and administrators yet one more thing to do. Instead, they provide fresh insight to what we know already works in educational settings and suggest that educators focus on promoting those elements of success—creativity, critical thinking, and communication skills—with their students. This book will be the one with all the sticky notes and tabs and dog-eared corners—practical information backed by research that teachers will use again and again.