Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: HEALTHY HUMOR
This lesson is hilarious! To understand how to investigate a topic, collect data, and evaluate the results, learners research the effects of laughter on health. Each group is assigned a research task, which they will turn into...
Curated OER
A Way with Words
How do facts and opinions impact the news? After reading "How to Cover a War" from the New York Times, middle schoolers evaluate the claims in the article. They also consider the media's responsibilities in reporting during wartime....
Polk Bros Foundation
Organize an Argument
Prepare your pupils for a debate or argumentative writing assignment. Students can use the two columns here to take notes on two different arguments about the same topics. They then note down their own positions and briefly explain their...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 17: Obituary
The Cay has been criticized by groups such as the Council on Interracial Books for Children because of the way race is portrayed. Explore the argument against the book while taking the author's perspective into account. Class members...
Common Sense Media
Cyberbullying: Be Upstanding
Peers discuss cyberbullying and how they can defend their friends that may be bullied online and offline. They discover the value in showing empathy for those who have been cyberbullied. Class members then generate multiple solutions for...
Common Sense Media
Identifying High-Quality Sites
Use a Huffington Post article focused on false pictures of Hurricane Sandy to launch a discussion about the reliability of online information. Groups compare and contrast how print and broadcast media regulate data gathering with the...
University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow: Critical Reviews
This site is designed to be used by psychology students at the university level, but it provides helpful instruction for anyone writing critical reviews of non-fiction. Instruction includes everything from how to be critical to...
Colorado State University
Colorado State Writing Center: Reviewing and Revising an Argument
An excellent guide to help the writer review a composition to see if their position has been fully supported by evidence and to analyze the perspective of the anticipated audience. Follow the links on the right to access all of the...
Other
Critical Thinking Community: Remodeling Lessons Grades 6 9
Learn to re-model your lesson plans to include room for critical thought and higher levels of learning. Re-modeled lessons cite specific critical thinking strategies. Wonderful examples include "Human Migration," "Integrated Grammar,"...
![De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Think Clearly: Analyze Support a Position[pdf] Graphic](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Think Clearly: Analyze Support a Position[pdf] Graphic")
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Think Clearly: Analyze Support a Position[pdf]
This Center for Urban Education resource provides a downloadable worksheet. Students will read a nonfiction article and then write about scaffolded prompts that will help them determine the strength of evidence presented in the argument.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Critical Reading as a Learning Strategy
This tutorial focuses on critical reading using a downloadable PowerPoint presentation, "Critical Reading 101," which includes separating fact from opinion, 6 propaganda techniques, and 6 common fallacies in reasoning. Also provided is...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Use Evidence to Show How a Writer Supports
This Center for Urban Education resource provides a downloadable graphic organizer for students to use when analyzing the evidence that authors use to support a claim. RI.9-10.5 ideas/claims developed. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.8
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Argumentative Essays
This tutorial focuses on argumentative essays, longer writings on a well-researched topic with the writer arguing one side of the topic, free of fallacies, and providing several claims. A short YouTube clip of Monty Python shows the...
University of California
University of Cal: Critical Thinking in an Online World
This article discusses why and how to encourage the development of critical thinking skills for students conducting research on the Web. The author even presents an overview of a project that you could adapt to your class.
Wikimedia
Wikipedia: Deductive Reasoning
This free encyclopedia site from Wikipedia gives a definition and examples of deductive reasoning. It also has links to related terms and topics.
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 2 Reading: Informational Text: Evaluate Arguments and Claims
This article will help you evaluate informational text to determine whether an author's argument is supported by evidence or not. Click on Model to see a model with explanations and then click on Practice.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
Depaul University: Center for Urban Education: Improve an Argument [Pdf]
This resource provides a downloadable worksheet. Students will read a nonfiction article and then answer scaffolded questions that will help them determine the strength of evidence presented in the argument. Then students will provide...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
Depaul University: Center for Urban Education: Contrast Points of View [Pdf]
A graphic organizer is provided for students to use as they analyze arguments. Students will find a guiding question to answer after they complete this graphic organizer.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Can Contrast and Evaluate Fact, Opinion [Pdf]
This site provides a poster that will guide students as they contrast and evaluate facts and opinions. Guiding questions and student prompts are provided.
Web Center for Social Research Methods
Research Methods Knowledge Base: Deduction and Induction
This site provides a good explanation of deductive and inductive thinking.
Other
Speaking Effectively: Supporting the Talk
This substantial section focuses on supporting the main points of your speech or presentation. Find out how to avoid faulty reasoning and irrational appeals.
Grammarly
Grammarly Handbook: Analysis
This page explains that analysis is crucial to the success of a paper as it answers the questions how and why and shows the reader that the writing is knowledgable. Logic and development work together to make the analysis clear. Examples...
Brown University
Brown University: Critical Writing and Thinking
Resource explains exactly what critial writing and thinking are, questions to help you think critically, paper writing tips, troubleshooting, and more.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
Depaul University: Center for Urban Education: Evaluate Support for a Claim[pdf]
This resource provides a downloadable worksheet to use after reading a nonfiction text. Students will evaluate an author's support for a claim by answering the questions and prompts provided on the worksheet.