Elle and I found a book on Frankenstein in order to discuss some of the important concepts brought up in that book, and to get her familiar with Mary Shelley and how this story came about. In the back of the edition we chose, we found an article that paralleled the creating of Frankenstein's monster with the cloning of Dolly. We had a discussion with great depth and research. One of her best classes so far.

Charlie reviewed "concept" (element of CT) by finding an example in his book, The Giver -- "rainbow." We worked together to build a paragraph through questions concerning the concept. This is written not on the board. Next, Charlie decided upon another concept, visual artistry, watched a few minute documentary, and then wrote a short paragraph alone. We then corrected it together for grammar and punctuation. At the end of class, we watched and discussed a bit more of The Giver movie.

Kate wrote out a critical thinking test in response to questions that showed the practical use of the terms in everyday thinking. This exercise / test took some intellectual perseverance on Kate's part, but she continued through it and completed it (scaffolded) with 100%. We used the graph on the whiteboard as well as writing the questions there that corresponded to the elements. We concluded with a brief review of intellectual traits and Kate began a fun poster for these that will be completed for her board in the coming weeks.

To increase Bobby's understanding and practice of the critical thinking Standard, logic, we watched parts of one interview and one documentary. These involved Nikoli Tesla, Elon Musk, and an interviewer who astutely brought in Tesla's relationship with Thomas Edison. We stopped watching often to discuss the logic presented by each, as counterpoints and counter arguments provided extra reasoning and facts that changed our opinion on both long-held and newly created conclusions. The shocking part was Edison's cheating and slander of Tesla, Musk's remarks that at first seemed irrational, but as talked out by the documentary host, returned to reasonableness and clarity. It was a deep thinking time. We reviewed the eight elements of critical thinking and have moved to the Standards; last week we focused on accuracy and precision -- this week on logic. We also touched on inductive argumentation because our reasoning not the logic naturally followed that pattern.

Marcel reviewed the eight elements of critical thinking. We discussed their practicality in decision-making and analysis. Marcel is writing an analysis essay on the Kite Runner, so we used that as the basis of intellectual work to push deeply on points concerning the author's purpose in writing it, and what he may hope to achieve in his readers' response. Marcel revealed three main topics to be covered in his essay. We worked through one -- father/son relationships. Using Socratic questioning to push Marcel to more clarity and depth, he chose one scene that he may use in his essay. We worked to clarify the main point that this scene illustrates in the father/son relationship that he needs to analyze. These intellectual exercises are like weight lifting -- they increase strength in reason, logic, and therefore improve analytical writing.

Marcel used critical thinking to problem-solve a too long speech with me today. Concision in certain lines, even by one word, made it flow better and combining some sentences brought the timing down to the perfect amount. Marcel applied accuracy in memorizing each word, and precision in timing -- both are critical thinking Standards.

Review of all critical thinking terms and categories... Application of the elements to present experience and observations... Elon Musk interview with an eye for the elements, standards, and intellectual traits shown or the opposites demonstrated by either Musk or his interviewer. Assignment: review and know the terms for an end of semester test next week.

Marcel presented his revised speech to me, still needing work and concision. In the middle of the speech he is to tell a quick story from a trip since the focus is on communication through blog writing with storytelling. He had a choice between three items from his last trip to Japan. Of these, one immediately fell away as he began to explain it, and dismissed it as inferior to the others. With concise well-chosen wording, I believe he can bring the two experiences from the Temple visit into his speech with sufficient time. One is the smoke inhalation ritual for the purpose of purification (opposite of us running from the dangers of breathing in smoke), and the coin toss into the slotted box. Marcel did not know the reason for this, so we researched it. It is to accompany prayer. If you are at a shrine, the prayer is for happiness or success; if you are at a Japanese Temple (like Marcel was) the prayer is for being saved in the afterlife. Concisely, the smoke ritual is for purification and health, while the coin tossing prayer is for the afterlife.

Bobby had homework over the last two weeks using the critical thinking element "implications." We worked through the assignment together by creating a chart on the whiteboard. He was to identify something in his life that involved making a decision, and think out the implications accordingly. His decision was between tennis, football, and golf. He wanted to decide which one to really focus on, because otherwise he would not progress to his most excellent ability in any one of them. He labeled them first with a number between 1 - 10 as to which he loved most. Then he thought about what he would be doing with each one in five to ten years. After about 20 minutes of reasoning, charting, and questioning, he decided on golf. After this we moved to "point of view" utilizing the Elon Musk video interview that we have explored this semester. It is very thought-provoking, and each time we watch and discuss with a different element of critical thinking which adds depth and breadth to the interpretation and our contemplation of the ideas.

Elle reviewed vocabulary from our earlier session -- writing definitions on the whiteboard. She learned a new literary term -- foil. We discussed what that means, and we are watching for examples in the book. Elle caught me up on what happened in the reading since last week, and then we began to close read another chapter. This type of reading provides text on which to question Socratically and reason critically.