Pick any three techniques described in these two chapters and describe how you would use them to improve the critical thinking skills of your students.
Critical thinking is defined as “the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion.” Many students are great at surface level questioning yet lack the ability to actively use critical thinking skills to reach an answer. Students want the quick, fast, answer. In order to have students critically thinking we must arm them with the tools necessary to complete these tasks to the highest level. Brain tools are just the way to engage students thinking to be able to respond to their learning in critical thinking manners.
In the past year, I have employed many of the Brain tools such as The Because Clapper, Air Whiteboards, Sockless Hand Puppets, Props, and Story Gestures. This year I plan to implement some new favorites. My new favorite Brain Tools are Vocabulary Candy, Two Finger, All Terrain, Action Figures with Anti-Gravity Boots, and Prove It.
Vocabulary Candy: This ‘sweet’ game has teachers and students popping imaginary candy into their mouth shouting YUM! Instantly in the next sentence spoken is a vocabulary word, in context, with a because clapper and air punctuation. Oral writing at its sweetest moments! This activity is not exclusive to teachers, students teach the class as well. This can be extended as the year goes on to add complexity to simple vocabulary work. Students activate motor, prefrontal visual and auditory cortexes to engage in this game.
Two Finger, All Terrain, Action Figures with Anti-Gravity Boots is a spin off of using story gestures. Students are able to tell a story using their fingers to fly through the air and the story. By activating a students prefrontal, motor, auditory, and visual cortexes, students will fly through story summarization! Their retelling, critical thinking and story reflection will SOAR as well.
Prove It is a huge critical thinking activation. Students are given multiple-choice questions. Instead of just proving that one answer is correct, they also have to PROVE the other answers incorrect. This is HUGE! Students might have to go through more work, but they are showing their thinking and creating conceptual sense of their work. This elicits in depth thinking to prove answers correct and incorrect!
All of these Brain Games make me excited, not burdened with teaching critical thinking. With the right tools we can deepen our students thinking!
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