Creative Thinking Toolbox for the Language Classroom provides language teachers with a comprehensive, research-based toolkit to develop multidimensional creative thinking abilities, including idea generation, originality, and flexible thinking, in themselves and their students through practical, classroom-ready strategies.

The text provides concrete tools and assessments drawn from real-world K-16 classroom examples that demonstrate how creativity can be systematically taught and nurtured. Each chapter deconstructs a core creative strength and presents four detailed tools that leverage the inherent playfulness of language learning, guiding educators through specific pedagogical moves to prepare students for a future of challenge and change. Reflective questions at the end of each chapter encourage deeper engagement with the tools and facilitate meaningful discussion.

Written in an accessible style, the book is designed for language teachers at all career stages, from pre-service teachers exploring creative pedagogy to seasoned educators in higher education seeking innovative strategies to enhance their practice.

Anne Cummings Hlas is a professor of Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where she teaches all levels of Spanish and methods courses for language education pre-service teachers. Her research and interests revolve around creativity and language teaching. She has taught workshops related to creativity in the language classroom for over 10 years at the CARLA National Language Resource Center and has published research on creativity in journals such as Foreign Language Annals and Creativity Research Journal. She is also the author of Practical Creativity: Activities and Ideas for your Language Classroom (2019). In addition, she is a certified rater for the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and has coached creative problem-solving teams for the international organization Odyssey of the Mind.