If you teach American literature, chances are you're touching on the theme of the American Dream somehow, through book clubs, a poetry unit, a look at Gatsby, or an essential question that binds together a variety of genres and perspectives. So when I received this request for our Plan my Lesson series, "How about a fun way to introduce the American Dream unit for juniors, about 36 of them," I was ready. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how you might introduce the concept of The American Dream through a series of multimedia activities, first letting students choose which ones to explore, then letting them respond with multimedia of their own, creating a collage of dream experiences for the class to view.

American Dream Text Possibilities (Starter List):

• Death of a Salesman Trailer (Royal Shakespeare Company)
• American Gothic Painting (Painting at The Art Institute of Chicago)
• Reyna Grande: A Migrant's Story (Video on Youtube)
• The Sun is Also a Star (Movie Trailer)
• "American Dream" (Video from the Beltway Poetry Slam on Youtube)
• "Let America be America Again" (Poem by Langston Hughes at Poets.org)
• "Immigrant Photos by Augustus Sherman" (Photos from Ellis Island at the National Park Service)
• "An American Sunrise" (Poem by Joy Harjo at Poets.org)
• "American Dreamers Mural" (Mural by Shepard Fairey and Vils, Photo at Obey Giant) - you'd want to pull the photo out of the blog post
• "Lincoln, Nebraska 1977" (Photo by Keith Jacobshagen at the Spencer Museum of Art)
• American Dream Exhibit (Punto Urban Art Museum)
• "Gold Mountain Dreams" (PBS: Bill Moyer's Becoming American: The Chinese Experience")
• "This Hill we Climb" (Amanda Gorman on PBS Youtube)
• "I hear America Singing" (Poem by Walt Whitman at The Poetry Foundation)
• Start-up Story: "Jerry Yang" (The Immigrant Learning Center)

Multimedia collage response example (one illustration, one quotation, and an interpretive 6 word memoir):

Go Further:

Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.

Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit.

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I worked at the cutest little bookstore coffee shop last week. In that small space, the collection had to be heavily curated, with just one or two books by popular authors and launching points for popular series books for kids. But the shop still held one full bookshelf for staff recommendations, covers out. Each employee had their shelf: "Sarah recommends....," "Tia recommends...., "William recommends...," etc.

And while I had plenty of my own ideas about what authors I might like to read, I found myself spending a good chunk of my browsing time finding out what Sarah, Tia, William, and the rest of the crew recommended. After all, if someone took the time to share their top favorites of all time, I knew they must be worth MY time.

It's this bees-to-honey concept that makes me return, time and again, to the importance of the classroom library and the way you display it. While it's easy to brush off the aesthetics of the library, I repeatedly find that they matter a lot. Fresh displays, careful displays, displays that center books that students love the most... these things support your reading program from the outside in. Students can't become readers without the right books, and the physical space of the library is our chance to show off those books.

So this week I've got a fun fall display for you (make your copy here) and I want to walk you through how to put it up, in hopes that this can be a big win for your readers heading into this season of reading. Soon you can add a banned books display, and a Hispanic Heritage Month Display, but for now, we're focusing on putting student favorites at the center.

Let's dive in.

Remember to grab your copy of the display (and see all the visuals from today's walkthrough) over in the full blog post for today's show at nowsparkcreativity.com.

Go Further:

Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.

Launch your choice reading program with all my favorite tools and recs, and grab the free toolkit.

Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook.

Come hang out on Instagram.

Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

We know employers want creative thinkers. We know creative thinking is necessary to solve the problems we see everywhere in our world. We know we want our students to learn to be more creative.

But what does that mean exactly? Where does the science of creativity meet the cultural definition we all build for ourselves just by swimming in the 21st century stream?

My guest today is Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle. Let me share her bio with you: "With more than 25 years as a scientist studying creativity, Zorana brings insights into the nature of the creative process, from the first decision to engage with new ideas to its culmination in creative performances and products. She is a scientist at Yale University, author, and speaker. Zorana's work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, ArtNet, US News, Education Week, Science Daily, El Pais, and others, and she is a regular contributor to Psychology Today and Creativity Post.”

Today, we’re talking about how science defines creativity, and how research shows us we can guide our students - and ourselves - to develop more creative confidence. You’ll learn what’s important in designing your space, launching and building creative units, speaking with students about the hurdles that get in their path, and assessing creative work in a way that’s meaningful for student development along the way, not just at the end.

Honestly, I started Zorana’s book, The Creativity Choice, searching for everything I could find to help me understand classroom creativity better. But I finished with fresh ideas not only for constructing curriculum and classroom spaces, but also for how I tackle projects, run my company, and talk to my own children about their ideas.

Explore Zorana's Website: https://www.zorana-ivcevic-pringle.com/

Zorana’s Substack: https://creativitydecision.substack.com/