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AIMS - To become familiar with the key concept and components of critical thinking; - To gain an awareness of why critical thinking is so important to your child’s education; - To gather ideas and strategies for supporting critical thinking at home. Why is Critical Thinking Important? Link to Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl_bO9nwpig&feature=youtu.be A brief explanation (with examples) about why critical thinking is particularly important in modern society. With the increasing power of technology to complete process-related tasks, an ability to think critically can enable children to maintain their relative advantage. Children, learn the essential, universal, transferrable skills that they need to succeed in the ever-changing 21st Century world. Creativity and Change Resourcefulness/ Problem-Solving Children learn to tackle problems themselves, rather than relying upon others to tell/ help them. Review/Reflection Children are more able to evaluate effectively, and make changes where things are not working. By challenging preconceptions and ‘thinking outside the box’, children become lifelong learners who catalyse change and development. Why is critical thinking so important? Communication As they are using reasoning and careful thought, children become better able to articulate their ideas Increased Academic Acheivement Children understand content on a deeper, more lasting level. Elder and Paul have found that children who develop strength in these areas perform better academically (2008) Many universities and entrance exams now contain critical thinking questions. Relationships/Empathy Children learn to collaborate and take other ideas on board, and so enhances their ability to work with different people. Critical Thinking in English: How does it work? - Students gain a deeper understanding of the subject content through application, as opposed to simple definition or identification; - It provides students with an opportunity to challenge preconceived ideas and misconceptions; - Students judgements and decisions based on others' points of view, interpret information and draw conclusions. - A useful by-product of this is that they also build valuable speaking and listening skills – also essential in English. Critical Thinking in English Ideas Development of Critical Thinking in English at Primary “Research shows that children begin to think critically at a very young age. These skills develop during the natural, back and forth conversations children have with the important adults in their lives.” (Hanen, 2016) Critical Thinking @ FS Critical Thinking through Creativity: - Child-led, with the sensitive contributions of others; - Children become absorbed in exploring the world around them; - Children discover new meanings through exploring possibilities and creating new connections between people, places, and things. - Children review and reinvent. - - - Critical Thinking @ KS1 Critical Thinking @ KS2 Introducing comprehension/ review of: Developing analysis/evaluation/application of: Content (writer’s purpose, inference and deduction, character/plot, application to other contexts, links within and between texts) Language (vocabulary – meanings and connections, linguistic techniques, connections between words) Structure (sentence/paragraph use, whole-text coherence, layout) Accuracy (spelling, punctuation, grammar) - - - Content (writer’s purpose, inference and deduction, character/ plot, application to other contexts, links within and between texts) Language (vocabulary – meanings and connections, linguistic techniques, connections between words) Structure (sentence/paragraph use, whole-text coherence, layout) Accuracy (spelling, punctuation, grammar) How can critical thinking aid writing? Define/ Remember Identify/ Recall Analyse/ Explain Evaluate/ Review Create Without teaching children to think critically about written features, they never learn to use them effectively. For example, a child who is just told that ‘big’ is a boring adjective, and ‘humongous’ is a better word, will not always understand why – they will just be compliant. However, sometimes the word ‘big’ is the most appropriate! Children need to think more deeply about the meanings and effects of different features and techniques. Critical Thinking in English Ideas COMPREHENSION Critical Thinking in Reading Closed, frequently asked questions Questions that promote critical thinking - What is the story about? - - Can you summarise the writer’s main points? How can I tell what the author’s intentions are? - How is the news article presented? - Can you find a fact and an opinion? - List some of the features of the layout. How does this piece make me feel? Why? -Is the writer biased? How do I know? - Why has the author chosen to present the article in this way? Is it successful? - What features help the writer to get across ideas? Are they successful? Supporting this at home… A number of strategies for supporting critical engagement with texts at home is provided on the ‘Reading Rockets’ website. Click on the link below for access. http://www.readin grockets.org/articl e/how-increasehigher-orderthinking Critical Thinking in English Ideas SPAG I tried to write the title of my meeting later three times. Teacher’s Meeting Teachers’ Meeting Teachers Meeting Did I write the title correctly in the end? Prove it. Supporting this at home… Bad punctuation is, unfortunately, all around us! Have a look around at shop signs, notices, road signs, and billboards. Ask children to gauge whether punctuation has been used correctly. More importantly, ask them justify why they feel this. Mix up some correct and incorrect examples to keep them on their toes! Riddles! Riddles are a great way to get children to think in creative ways about spelling and grammatical patterns, puns, homophones, and homonyms. Try a couple of these: Question: Why is the Question: What animal number six afraid of keeps the best time ? the number seven? Answer: A Answer: Because watchdog! seven eight nine! Question: What fiveletter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?? Answer: Short! Critical Thinking in English Ideas VOCABULARY Vocabulary Challenge As part of her role as Principal, Ms. Sasha has to spend a good deal of her day talking to people about their emotions. In order to understand the many responses that she gets from different staff and children, she decides to make a continuum: from ‘happy’ to ‘sad’, with ‘OK’ in the middle. As a group, can you help her to plot the words along her scale? What do you find? Vocabulary Venn Challenge You are going to be given a pack of words, and a Venn diagram. Place each word into the area of the Venn that you feel the word belongs in. If you feel that it belongs in more than one category, then place the word card in the middle section. Supporting this at home… There are a couple of ways to support expanding your child’s vocabulary through critical thinking at home: Reading: There is no more effective substitute for expanding vocabulary than frequent, wide-ranging reading. You can influence the depth to which words are remembered with a few subtle questions: Games: Age-old games such as Scrabble can be adopted very slightly to help consolidate vocabulary, as can apps such as What's the Word, and Word Stack. Add in the questions below to improve depth of understanding: - What do you think (the word) means? - How do you know? - What is the difference between (the word) and (another word)? - Can you apply (the word) to another sentence? - Can you think of a better word the writer could have used? Further Reading Iakovos, T. (2011) ‘Critical and Creative Thinking in the English Language Classroom’ Lai, E. (2011) ‘Critical Thinking: A Literature Review’ King, P. et al (1994) ‘Developing Reflective Judgment: Understanding and Promoting Intellectual Growth and Critical Thinking in Adolescents and Adults.’ Blythe, T. (1998) ‘The Teaching for Understanding Guide’ Paul, R.W. and Blinker, A.J (1990) ‘Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs To Survive in a Rapidly Changing World.’