From the Book Shelves

In this issue, we feature a book reviewed by IASCE co-president Lynda Baloche.

1. Forest, L. (2001). Crafting creative community: Combining cooperative learning, multiple intelligences, and nature’s wisdom. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing. ISBN 1-879097-66-4, 441 pages. US$34.00 from Kagan Publishing, www.KaganOnline.com.

Let me begin by saying that Liana Forest is the former Executive Director of IASCE, that I have long admired her work, and that I consider her to be a good friend. I have been eagerly awaiting the publication of this book and expected it to be a high quality and unique contribution to the field of cooperative learning. Even knowing Liana as I do and having very high expectations for this book, I am surprised and delighted by the actual work.

Crafting Creative Community is one of the most original works I have seen. In my mind, it represents an intersection of the experiences, knowledge, and values of a life well lived. Liana brings perspectives honed by her experiences as a fine artist, an elementary school teacher, a psychological anthropologist, and a student of the ancient art of T'ai Chi Chuan. She combines these with her deep structure knowledge of cooperative learning, multiple intelligences, and the research literature on creativity. She then views and interprets both her experiences and knowledge through a lens created by her passionate belief in the importance of community and her active stewardship of the earth. This all sounds a bit esoteric, but Crafting Creative Community is a very accessible book.

Crafting Creative Community is beautifully laid out in four sections. The four sections correspond to a model for community building that Liana described in detail in her 1992 article, Cooperative learning communities: Context for a new vision of education and society, published in a themed issue of the Journal of Education. This developmental model, which draws on the work of several social psychologists--most specifically Tuckman and Schutz--suggests that genuine and successful community building is a slow, deliberate process that progresses through several fairly typical and predictable stages.

The stages--and sections--are Forming: "Who are we?", Exploring: "What can we do together?", Performing and Storming: "How can we do our best?", and Out-reach: "How can we combine team efforts?" Liana understands that community building will be more successful when both the content and complexity of a learning activity acknowledge and build on the developmental stage of the group. And, this is precisely how she organizes Crafting Creative Community.

Each of the four sections of this book contains three chapters and each chapter contains three activities. Each chapter is prefaced with a Chapter Orientation. I found these orientations to be particularly helpful. They put into context the activities of each chapter and, collectively, they serve as a kind of primer for a social psychological view of classroom life. Each of the 36 activities is prefaced with a side bar that outlines the materials needed, which intelligences (Gardner's framework), creativity skills, and group development skills are highlighted, what eco-concepts are developed, and what cooperative learning structures are integrated within the activity.

The activities are outlined, step-by-step, in narrative form. Ideas for careful reflection by students (Liana knows so well that careful reflection is essential to the development of thinking and interpersonal learning skills) are included with each activity. Liana provides ideas for extensions, plus teacher tips and a list of further resources.

When needed, black line masters are included. I am typically suspicious when a book includes black line masters; I don't like to pay money for cute little worksheets that I could have created myself, and I often fear that, in some classrooms, these black line masters will become the primary focus of an experience. Fortunately, most of the black line masters in this book are far more substantive, and this book is so full of ideas, information, and resources that I didn't mind the few that seemed a bit simplistic.

I will describe, briefly, just one chapter from this book to help readers get a better sense of how Liana brings this all together in very "doable" activities that she describes as appropriate for Grades 3 to 8. (I could easily imagine some of these activities being appropriate in Grade 2 as well.)

Chapter 2--one chapter in three that investigates the question "Who are we?"--focuses on building unity from diversity by helping students appreciate their diversity and discover their strengths. Activity 1--Exploring the Rain Forest Community--uses the rain forest as a focus and metaphor. Beginning with a read aloud (Liana recommends and provides brief descriptions for five picture books and four informational texts that teachers might want to choose as read alouds), students listen to recordings of rain forest sounds (again, Liana provides a list of resources) and create their own sounds using simple instruments plus body and vocal effects. Grouping strategies are simple and this simplicity is appropriate for an "early" activity.

Activity 2--Web of Favorites--begins with students each visualizing a favorite activity and then drawing this activity. Students mime and guess each others’ favorites, discuss favorites with the help of their pictures, work in groups to label their favorites, and then--with the help of yarn--build a large web that connects the favorite activities of individuals and groups. Liana provides a list of resources related to webs and pictures of webs created by real kids in real classrooms. It is easy to see how this web could be used repeatedly, throughout the year, to explore various interpersonal themes and to acknowledge repeatedly both the diversity and unity of the classroom community.

Activity 3--Discovering Riches in Niches--begins with students interviewing each other using an interview survey that uses kid-appropriate language to help students discover their multiple intelligences preferences. The collective data is graphed and--in teams--students develop, trade, and hone mathematical statements about the graphed data. The data chart then remains in the classroom as a visual reminder of the diverse abilities and collective strengths of the community. Again, Liana provides a list of resources and pictures of real classrooms.

Each of these activities is a "good idea" but this book is more than the sum of the good ideas it contains. It is the thoroughness with which each idea is developed, the tremendous number of resources listed, and--most importantly--the careful organization and progression of ideas based on sound models and theories that makes this book so valuable.

Thanks Liana for spending so much time crafting such a thoughtful volume to share with us.