Most of our blog posts about critical thinking borrow ideas and resources from the Foundation for Critical Thinking, and this one is no exception. If somehow you have missed the classroom-ready organizers, handouts, rubrics, and strategies from our previous posts, fear not. They are ALL essentially compiled in this PDF of “The Aspiring Thinker’s Guide to Critical Thinking.”
Aspiring Thinkers – Guide to Critical Thinking
Check out these highlights:
Page 3 – Use the diagram called “There are Three Types of Thinkers” to help students understand the importance of critical thinking. Ask them to imagine a world filled with only naive thinkers. What would life be like for everyone? What if everyone were a selfish critical thinker? Why would a world of fairminded critical thinkers be better?
Pages 8-9 – Use the descriptions of intellectual traits, such as intellectual courage and intellectual humility, to help students identify strengths and areas for improvement. Ask students to write a journal entry explaining which trait is their greatest asset and which one they plan to work on.
Pages 16-17 – Ask students to use the intellectual standards to evaluate each other’s presentations, essays, or contributions to a class discussion. Or, use these pages to assign roles within a group. As the group discusses an important question or solves a problem, each student must ensure that the conversation or solution meets the intellectual standards he or she has been assigned.
Page 19 – Ask students to fill out this journal entry every Friday as a reflection on the week. Works great in a short advisory/homeroom period or as the start of a check-in about classroom culture.
Page 20 – Use the logic wheel to direct work during a research project. Ask students to choose a topic or question, set their own purpose, determine what type of information they’ll need, etc. As you check in with each student, ask some of the questions on pages 21 – 28.
Pages 34-41 – Use these subject-specific templates to help students analyze key experiments, problems, characters in a story or chapters in a textbook.
Page 47 – Here is your daily critical thinking exit slip!
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