Teach creativity without adding new programs, projects, or pressure.
From New York Times bestselling author, Mark Cheverton.
Teaching creativity often feels like something you’re supposed to add: a new program, a new unit, or a complete overhaul of your curriculum. For many teachers, that makes creativity feel unrealistic in a standards-driven classroom.
This book shows how to teach creativity without abandoning standards and without changing what already works.
You don’t need to be an artist. You don’t need new materials. And you don’t need to rewrite your lessons. Creativity already fits inside your classroom when it’s understood as a thinking skill, not a product or personality trait.
Drawing on his experience as a classroom teacher, engineer, and children’s author, Cheverton explains how small instructional shifts, often within lessons you already teach, can invite students to make decisions, explain their reasoning, and transfer what they’ve learned to new situations.
Rather than asking teachers to change everything, this book focuses on:
- Teaching creativity in the classroom using strategies you already recognize
- Supporting standards-aligned instruction while increasing student engagement
- Teaching creative thinking without sacrificing rigor or control
- Designing tasks that build creative thinking skills through choice, constraint, and reflection
You won’t find packaged programs or one-size-fits-all frameworks here. Instead, you’ll find practical teaching strategies designed for real classrooms. especially elementary and middle school settings, where time is limited and expectations are high.
This book is for teachers who want students to think more deeply, problem-solve more flexibly, and engage more fully without abandoning what already works. Creativity doesn’t require a new curriculum. It requires a different way of seeing the one you already have.
