MORE THEN BEING CRITICAL
Presented by: Greg Pearson and Mary Zammit
Mississauga Secondary School
October 17, 2007

Beyond your curriculum, what is

the most important thing you can
teach or educate your students
about?

Working in table groups of 5-6 each group will

receive a piece of chart paper and list
answers/ideas to the question that follows
Groups post their work on the wall for others to see

One member in a group will highlight a key item or

idea that seems to appear on more than one chart
paper

When you think of

someone you
consider an effective
critical thinker, what
attributes do you
attach to that
individual?

One definition is:

“the thinking through of a problematic
situation about what to believe or how to act
where the thinker makes a reasoned
judgment that reflects competent use of the
intellectual tools for quality thinking.”

A community of thinkers is defined as

an active group of students and
teachers striving to learn more about
a discipline by engaging in critical
and imaginative thinking.
Adapted from - Explorers of the Universe

Three levels of questions:

 Literal: \"On the page“
 right there, reading for facts and accuracy
 Inferential: \"Between the lines“
 drawing conclusions, reading between the lines
 Evaluative: \"Off the page“
 defending an opinion, synthesizing information, bringing
personal observations and insights to the text

A grid used to

form questions
by selecting
framing words
(who, what,
where, …) from
the vertical list
and then
adding a verb
from the
horizontal list
(is, did,
might,…)

Why use it?

 Can be easily used by students to formulate
questions that can range from simple recall to
inference
 Supports reading comprehension
 Can be used to guide students while reading a text
 Can be used with pictures or text

As students read a passage, they can use the

following coding system to help them organize
their thoughts and main ideas
I = Important
L = Learned something new
! = Big idea surfaced
* = Interesting or important fact
? = Unsure/ Find out more
= Agree

= Disagree
≠

Why use it?

 Supports reading comprehension
 Requires students to \"think\" about what they are
reading
 Requires students to make judgments
 Provides useful discussion starters
 Can assist students in answering questions related o
the text

have no obvious ‘right’ answer

 raise other important questions, often across
subject area boundaries
 often address the philosophical or conceptual
foundations of a discipline
 naturally recur
 are framed to provoke and sustain student
interest

Does the challenge require reasoned

judgment? (i.e., involve assessment among
plausible options/possibilities based on
criteria)
 Is the challenge likely to be perceived as
meaningful by students?
 Will significant curricular understanding be
uncovered as students respond to the
challenge?

“We are currently preparing students for
jobs that don’t yet exist, using
technologies that haven’t yet been
invented, in order to solve problems we
don’t even know are problems yet.”