March 2011 - Newsletter

Peoples Top Picks is a new initiative that delivers insights on how educators across the country are addressing current hot topics in education.

This month's Top Pick: Critical Thinking Skills

They are all super-creative critical thinking projects from educators in the field. Keep reading for more!

Critical thinking skills have long been the hallmark of deeper learning. It is a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.

Now with the Common Core State Standards emphasizing increased rigor, developing strong critical thinking skills is more important than ever for 21st century students to be successful in college and careers.

(Definition from the American Association of Colleges & Universities)

Check out the Top 5 Critical Thinking Skills here.

Join the conversation on Facebook to share your opinion!

 

Creative Cross-Curricular Critical Thinking Projects from around the country:

“Design a soundtrack with a partner or partners in order to explore themes in particular scenes -- selected by the students -- from a classic novel. Students discovered the universality of the themes and human experience across time and artistic genres.”

 -Kimberley Gilles, English Teacher, Monte Vista High School, San Ramon Valley Unified School District, CA

“When I was teaching third grade we did a rain forest project in collaboration with the Atlanta Alliance Theatre. The students researched the South American rain forest, the animals, took on the role of a specific scientist interested in that species, created an animal puppet, and acted out a drama to save the rain forest from modern development. This project involved reading comprehension, science, social studies, music, art, and drama.”

-Judy Berlage, Retired Teacher, Cobb County, GA

(Photo by Linda Hartley http://lindamhartley.co.uk/)

 “This year we are requiring our seventh grade students to create a research report based on what they are learning in their social studies class. The assignment requires that the students research the geography, politics, culture, and significance . . . of an ancient culture to today's world. The students also are able to decide on the best way to present the information. This requires a different set of critical thinking skills for presentation.”

-Jack Reed, 7th Grade ELA, Fairview Middle School, Gonzales Unified School District, CA

 

“Students researched and then debated alternate energy sources and came to conclusions [as] to their benefits, etc. They had to go beyond straight research and draw conclusions and then be able to defend why their method was the best.”

-M. Nixon, MJH, Menard ISD, TX

 

“Senior English teacher and Government teacher taught 1984 at the same time from different aspects.”

-Debbie Martin, Director of Curriculum and Federal Programs, Winona ISD, Winona, TX

Words of Wisdom

Overwhelmingly, your colleagues advise that the best way to assess critical thinking skills at the end of the school year is through open-ended questions, questioning techniques using Bloom’s taxonomy, and performance tasks and projects.

Also, have students write their own questions:

“Give them some open-ended questions or have them write their own logic problems, share with a peer, and have the peer solve it.”

-Wesley Yandell Jr., MA Ed., Special Education Professional, Chaparral Middle School, AZ

 

“We use a journal and at the end of each objective taught, the students write their own questions with possible answer choices. These are evaluated on content as well as language arts skills.”             

-Tim Jambers, 5th Grade Science Teacher, Three Rivers Elementary, Three Rivers I.S.D, TX


At Peoples Education, we continually seek input from educators at all levels to improve our partnership with schools and districts. Your opinion counts! Each month we will reach out to the education community for feedback on a specific topic. We will post what we learn in this newsletter and on our informative Facebook page. 

Join the conversation on Facebook and be heard!

See you next month!

Sincerely,

Peoples Education


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Take elementary students beyond basic comprehension with individual student units on Making Inferences, Author’s Viewpoint, Mood, Plot, and more!


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