Group+Project

Critical Thinking Strategies • Accessing and using prior knowledge and experience • Forming multiple vivid mental representations of new knowledge and ideas • Brainstorming • Making connections • Making inferences • Summarizing and synthesizing information • Monitoring degrees of comprehension • Collaborating • Communicating effectively (verbal pragmatics) • Systematically evaluating ideas, issues, people, and products • Balancing or integrating detail with the “big picture” • Determining importance • Asking open-ended, probing questions • Encouraging students to discover answers • Allowing student interests and needs to drive instruction • Guiding active learning • Facilitating conversational inquiry • Demonstrating the thinking process for students • Inviting students to act with initiative and intention

Critical Thinking Discussion Structures • Book clubs • Literature circles • Study groups • Paired reading • Jigsaw discussions • Small-group share/guided reading groups

Harvey, Stephanie and Goudvis, Anne. Strategies That Work Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers. 2007. Levine, Mel. “The Essential Cognitive Backpack.” Educational Leadership (Apr. 2007): 16 - 22. Ray, Katie Wood. “What Are You Thinking?” Educational Leadership (Oct. 2006): 58 - 62.