Critical Thinking
Across the
Curriculum Project

Resources in applying Critical Thinking to Reading:

Resources include:

• Critical Reading aids
• Reviews of textbooks
• Other Web based resources including search engines.
• Powerpoint presentations on Critical Reading and Comprehension.

Critical Reading Aids and articles:

Book Reviews:(Most of these are from the ERIC educational database)

This article focuses on developing thinking skills in reading. The author's explore the use children's literature as the tool for teaching thinking skills. It supports using the reading classroom as the logical place to start instruction with higher level cognitive skills. Children's Literature has the potential for engaging the student in active reasoning activities leading to the development of critical reading skills. The article discussed the advantages of approaching literature from a problem solving perspective.
Critical reading involves teaching students to think while reading. For critical thinking to occur, students must be taught from a problem-solving perspective--one which fosters inquiry. Teachers must design lessons that include pre-reading discussions and post-reading activities.

This is another interesting article for an education major. It first goes into a lengthy explanatin of what cooperative problem solving is. According to this article research had demonstrated the potential of cooperative problem solving for enhancing children's cognitive development and learning. The idea here is that children must be taught to share differing points of view in attempting to achieve a goal. This skill is seems to be essential in resolving conflicts in opinion in later years. The rest of the article identifies some guidelines to help teacher encourage children to share perspectives ( thus developing this cooperative problem solving skill). I just thought this tied in with critical thinking although it never really directly discusses critical thinking.

Critical Thinking: Promoting It In the Classroom.
ERIC DIGEST. Tama,M.Carro, 1989.
Critical thinking in the classroom requires changes in instruction and curriculum as well as opportunities for students to read, write, and discuss a variety of issues. Tama cites numerous studies that support the need for promoting critical thinking and gives suggestions for incorporating change into the classroom that will foster critical thinking.

Critical Thinking in Community Colleges.
ERIC DIGEST. Hirose, Shanno, 1992.
If students are to gain critical thinking skills, questioning, writing, and problem solving must be a part of any classroom. Hirose gives a brief synopsis of the concept of critical thinking, methods for teaching critical thinking, and some community college programs that have implemented critical thinking across the curriculum or through curriculum change.

How Can We Teach Critical Thinking?
ERIC DIGEST. Carr, Kathryn S., 1990.

The reading of textbooks plays a key role in the content fields; thus, teaching critical reading should be at the core of any discussion of critical thinking. Carr suggests that it may be necessary to reconstruct students' schemata, to use verbal analogies, to use free writing, and to view different forms of news media and literature as a means of promoting critical reading/thinking. Specific activities are geared for a younger audience; however, they can be modified and adapted to fit the college population.

• http://ericir.syr.edu

Web resources and Search Engines:

• http://www.yahoo.com/Education/Teaching/
• http://www.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg+q&what=critical+reading

PowerPoint presentations for downloading:

• "Advance Study Skill: A Textbook Technique"- By Barbara Fowler.
• "Critical Thinking - Critical Reading" - By Barbara Fowler

Permission to reproduce these resource pages is granted for
non-profit educational use provided the above information
is retained on all copies.

Inquiries to: michael.connelly@mcckc.edu
Last modified: 03/02/04