Timothy S. Olmstead, Newberg High School, Newberg, OR
CRITICAL THINKING STRATEGIES
Appropriate for grades K-12.
OVERVIEW: This strategy is intended to help develop and evaluate
the critical thinking skills of comparing, contrasting, and of
analyzing similarities and differences. It is adaptable not only
across the curriculum but also at any age level. It can be used
to inspire small group work, writing assignments, inquiring
lessons, and is also an excellent evaluative tool.
PURPOSE: Sesame Street Questions, the form of which was inspired
by a regular feature on the television program of the same name,
will encourage regular use of critical thinking skills. The
strategy is simple to use and adaptable in a wide variety of
situations.
OBJECTIVES: (This is a sample objective of but one option that
can be adapted from this strategy.)
Given a series of four items sets of place names, the student
will, in each set, select the item that lacks a common
characteristic with the other three and he will write in a
complete sentence what the characteristic is that the other three
items have in common.
ACTIVITIES: (Again, this is but one example.)
If the strategy is going to be used on an evaluation, students
need to be exposed to it several times before that time so they
can get used to working with such questioning. Again the strategy
can be used with large groups, small groups, or as the focus of a
writing assignment. (Student generated questions are a nice
source for evaluation material.)
One interesting characteristic of this strategy is that there may
be several correct options. For example, take the following set
of states:
Washington, North Dakota, Maine, Georgia
One option is Georgia, being the only one that does not border
Canada. But North Dakota would be an equally good option as the
only landlocked commonwealth of the set.
RESOURCES/MATERIALS NEEDED: Teacher Creativity.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: It is important that students explain what
characteristic the three "left in" items have in common. This
takes the guess work away from the process and forces students to
look for that common thread that binds items together. Students
may want to write about what the "other" three items don't have or
write about a unique quality that their single choice does have,
but these do not demand much discriminatory thought. Requiring
them to write in positive terms takes away those options.
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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org