1.  Don’tSweat It: 10
12 Easy Ways to
Bring Creativity
and Critical
Thinking Into Your
Classroom Today!

2.  Startwith easier,
factual questions to
build your students’
confidence. Start
slow, many students
are not used to
critical thinking in
the classroom.

3.  Teachers like to
build routines in the
classroom and those
are great. However
everyone gets bored
doing the same
thing over and over.
Make sure your
assignments and
activities aren’t
getting stale.

4.  So much technology at
our school goes
unused. Make a point
to allow students to
use tools to display
their creativity. Have
students write and
record a rap or short
movie. Allow students
to make power points
or wikis on your
content.

5.  Join with a colleague from
another content area and
plan a lesson or unit
together. Student can
read The Diary of Anne
Frank in ELA while
learning about the
Holocaust in Social
Studies. When students
see these subjects are not
in a vacuum they will
begin to make connections
between the contents.
Allow them to display
these connections in a
creative way.

6.  Make the content relevant
to the student by
connecting it to the real
world or things that
interest them. In math
class have students find
the favorite players career
scoring average or have
ELA students write letters
to the editor about local
issues they care about.
The more our students see
a connection between the
classroom and the real
world the more engaged
they will be

7.  Secondary students are
often deficient in critical
thinking skills by the time
they reach college. Make
students think about their
thinking by asking
questions. Before you start
ask “what do you already
know/” During the lesson
have students make a list
of misunderstandings
about the content. After
the lesson ask students
how their thinking has
changed with this new
information.

8.  Have students
compare and contrast
two people, ideas,
place, or characters.
Ask, “how are they
alike? How are they
different?” By making
students enumerate
how things are similar
or different they are
developing critical
thinking by evaluating
both variables.

9.  Why should you do the
heavy lifting, you already
know this stuff? Allow
students to teach each
other. This can be done
with students in the same
class or by allowing older
students to tutor younger.
Allow older students to
design their own lesson
plan to teach. This
promotes creativity as well
as critical thinking by
evaluating the best way to
teach an objective

10.  So a student has a
correct answer,
wonderful! Now make
them prove it. Ask how
they know that is true.
Would they be able to
prove their idea in the
real world? How? What
would they say to
someone who disagrees
with them? Critical
thinking is promoted
when students try to
test or prove their
hypothesis.

11.  Allow students to get
into the content with
hands on activities.
Challenge students
to make a DNA model
from Styrofoam,
marshmallows, and
toothpicks or to
create a diorama in a
scene from a novel.
Don’t just stick with
pencil and paper!

12.  Have students evaluate
and discuss their ideas in
groups discussions. These
could be Socratic, teacher
led, whole class
discussions or smaller
group discussions between
student groups. Dialogue
and opposing viewpoints
can open the doors to new
ideas. Make sure there are
ground rules and
consequences for class
discussion to promote a
safe environment.

13.  The #1 way to
promote creativity
and critical thinking is
collaboration.
Students will need to
be able to collaborate
with many people in a
multitude of
environments. Lets
give them practice in
communicating and
sharing ideas in the
classroom.