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.  

Reviews

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.
*Jacqueline Wilber, high school English teacher and debate coach, Roosevelt High School, Sioux Falls, South Dakota*

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!
*Laura Raeder, high school curriculum director, Sioux Falls Public Schools, Sioux Falls, South Dakota*

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.
*Matt Christiansen, high school English teacer, Brandon High School, Brandon, South Dakota*

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.
*Scott Friesen*

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.
*Kris Baldwin*