Critical Thinking Activities & Free Resource

Hello Colleagues, The College and Career Standards are designed to engage all students in higher-order thinking. I recently came across a posting "Ten Great Critical Thinking Activities that Engage Your Students," on the Global Digital Citizen website. Some of these activities were familiar to me, such as K-W-L, Think-Pair-Share and Readers Theater, but others were new, e.g., Big Paper -- Building a Silent Conversation.

In this activity, '[w]riting (or drawing) and silence are used as tools to slow down thinking and allow for silent reflection, unfiltered. By using silence and writing, students can focus on other viewpoints. This activity uses a driving question, markers, and Big Paper (poster-sized is best). Students work in pairs or threes to have a conversation on the Big Paper.

Students can write at will, but it must be done in silence after a reflection on the driving question. This strategy is great for introverts, and provides a ready made visual record of thought for later."

I can imagine using this activity after reading literature or a social studies non fiction text. The teacher poses a complex question that requires students to consider various factors. After groups complete their poster, they would then visit each others' posters and could even add comments or questions. We would then have a whole class discussion to wrap things up.

Check out the additional critical thinking activities and let us know which ideas have relevance in your context. Also locate the Critical Thinking Workbook at the bottom of the webpage, which is both shareable and editable (how fantastic!) and available for free download.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, College and Career Standards