Creativity is not simply a force that nourishes the arts: it is a way of thinking, a way of making use of the curriculum content taught in every classroom.
In
A Workshop of the Possible,
Ruth Hubbard documents what children can do and how teachers can create classroom environments that promote children's many strengths. She describes ways to develop children's creativity in classrooms that respect their amazing abilities. This book is especially valuable for those teachers who want to integrate a child-centered curriculum beyond reading and writing; while grounded in holistic and constructivist literacy theory, it goes beyond language arts into math and science, into children conducting research and problem solving.
What makes this book so valuable to teachers is its emphasis on application, with such features as:
interviews with children in the midst of the creative process;
detailed teaching strategies for fostering creativity;
samples of students' work in science, math, social studies, and art to show the development of their thinking;
a portfolio of color photos that shows what an innovative classroom can look like.
Teachers will appreciate the numerous examples from inside classrooms, stressing issues that teachers and students confront and problems that arise and must be solved, even such nuts-and-bolts matters as classroom layouts and schedules.