Classroom Activities
Critical Thinking Lesson
After describing what critical thinking is, hand out copies of song lyrics from Gotye’s “Eyes Wide Open”.41 This activity will serve a twofold purpose. First, it will promote anticipation for the book. Second, it will help students better understand annotation and critical thinking skills. Have students annotate the text as if it were a poem. You can focus on the recurring stanzas or the entirety of the lyrics. Begin a discussion and analysis about what they think the lyrics are saying. They should talk about their annotations with a partner in order to prepare their thoughts for sharing with the whole class. Students should write their ideas down in a “Bookmark Chart”.
After the students have shared their ideas, show them the music video that goes along with the lyrics.42 I think your students are going to like this video. Some may be shocked and change their ideas about the lyrics themselves. If so, this would be great critical thinking at work. After watching the video, allows students to note their new ideas and share them with a partner. Then, you should take opportunity to have your first Socratic Seminar. I imagine the students will have a lot to say.
Getting back to the lecture on critical thinking, I’ll have students read the back section of Eyes Wide Open, “How to Weigh Information.” You can go through each subcategory and talk with your students about what it means to recognize bias, differentiate between scholarly, credible, and noncredible sources of information, and avoid fallacies of the author.
From here, I suggest printing out several different articles that are from various sources and levels of credibility. I chose articles that dealt with reading nonfiction and critical thinking.43 However, you can choose any articles you wish, so long as some are distinguished and scholarly and others are absolutely not credible sources of information.
Reading and Analyzing Multiple Articles
One of the main goals of this unit is to get students thinking critically about different sources of information. It’s important for them to understand different perspectives and that different authors use different information or evidence to advance their interpretation or bias of the topic (RI 7.9). Here are some suggested articles for such an activity regarding global warming[1]. There are two ways you can conduct this activity.
The first is to provide students with several articles to read in order to learn about a single topic. Each of the articles should be from a different perspective or bias about the topic. Students will read and annotate each article. They will note the differences and similarities between the articles. They will then form an opinion about the topic and create questions that they either have about the topic or that they want to ask their peers. Allow students to propose some of their questions to a partner, then have students discuss the articles in a Socratic Seminar.
The second way to do this activity is to group students based on lexile levels. Provide each group with an article that is appropriate for their reading level. Each article should provide a different perspective about the topic. After students have read and discussed the article, allow them to have a Socratic Seminar to discuss the material as a whole class.
If students are struggling to find their voice during discussions, be sure to have some questions prepared to further the conversation. Mentioning the differences in perspective or information provided throughout the articles will begin your analysis of bias and will promote critical thinking. One advantage of this activity is providing students with a wide range of information in a collegial manner.
Helping Students Find Their Voice
As you read through Eyes Wide Open, be sure to chart the topics students are most interested in. Whenever you feel they are ready, propose the idea of becoming an active member of their community. What does this mean? It could mean many things. Perhaps students desire to end pollution, so they organize a method for recycling or cleaning up trash on campus. Or, perhaps they want to end world hunger, so they start a canned food drive.
What if the students want to make a larger impact? How do they do that? Should you march through the streets with them waving poster boards and dodging cars? I am guessing that radical activism is a bit beyond the scope of your classroom. However, you can still help them find their voice.
One way to help students find their voice is by taking them on a walkabout, around your school’s campus. Ask them what things they think can be improved upon or what things they would like to see changed. After the class has determined what they want to “fix” (improve or change), help them craft a letter for action. The letter for action should be specific in its request and should be addressed to someone who has the power to make the change. As each student crafts their own letter, they will provide ideas for a “class” letter that will act as a petition. Once the class letter has been crafted, have any student who desires to do so sign the petition and call for action. Then, send the letter. Hopefully, they will, at the very least, get a response. Even greater, the change might occur.
Another way to help students find their voice is to have them write a similar letter to a larger audience. Whether it’s the city, a politician, or a business, they should again be specific in who they are writing to, why they are writing the letter, and what they hope to achieve by writing the letter. Help them address and send out the letters, and see who responds.
As you write these letters, draw on your discussions about how to persuade or influence an audience into agreeing with your side. You’ve read about big businesses and advertisement companies using these tactics. Why can’t you? Help students fully express what they are trying to get across. If the letters are well written, with the notion added that it is a student who is writing the letter, I would not be surprised that most of your students get responses. Some might even get free products.
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