Posts for October 2017

Thoughtful Learning Blog

The Thoughtful Learning blog features articles about English language arts, 21st century skills, and social-emotional learning. Insights come from the teachers, writers, and developers at Thoughtful Learning, who have been creating top-notch instructional materials for more than 40 years.

Teaching Creativity
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"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

—Albert Einstein

Who needs creative thinking?

Novelists, artists, actors, and composers need to think creatively—sure. But how about rocket scientists? How about Albert Einstein? Absolutely. Everyone needs creative thinking. It works in tandem with critical thinking to allow you to navigate your daily life.

National Novel Writing Month
Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month.

Since its inception in 1999, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to become novelists. Participants sign up at the nonprofit NaNoWriMo.org and track their progress toward writing a 50,000 word novel during November. The organization offers many supports, including encouragement from published novelists.

Since Thoughtful Learning has its own published novelist on staff (J. Robert King), we asked him to offer his advice to aspiring writers.

Creative Writing
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How can we help our students develop writing skills? We can take the rigorous approach, teaching the writing process, academic modes, and integrated grammar. We can also use the creative approach, engaging students' imagination and artistic expression through stories and poems. Unfortunately, the demands of standards-based testing are pushing the creative approach out of many ELA classrooms. Let's not let that happen in ours. Students profit when we make time for both types of instruction, since each approach benefits the other.