Charlie summarized the first chapters of his book, The Giver, to catch me up from last week. We then reviewed the eight elements of critical thinking and found ways that these naturally applied to the events in the text of the next chapter that we close-read together with discussion. We saw a pattern in the book showing a progression using a clever technique of ages 1 to 12 and the symbols attached to each group with the underlying meanings. This is on the whiteboard. Charlie needs to find things for the Ones, Twos, and Threes. Charlie realized that he is the same age as the protagonist, which helped engage him empathetically with what was transpiring in the story.
Taylor spent an hour with me this morning learning the basics of critical thinking and how to use these for writing essays, making decisions, and in all facets of life. I printed eight pages from the "Guide to Critical Thinking" from the Foundation for CT that she can keep and refer to for help in application of the system. We discussed the elements and standards, what they mean, how to create original text based on the associated question prompts, and their practicality in helping attain higher grades. All of this was well received, along with strategies for classroom discussion in college settings.
Marcel revised his speech to make it more concise since the parameters call for one minute (with a bit of grace period additionally if needed). We discussed audience and how the thought must be that the speech is all about them. Therefore, in editing, we combined ideas from various sentences and avoided first person to a greater degree. We also discussed the story Marcel will include since the focus is on storytelling in his blog. Marcel needs one, not two, stories, with more action verbs (eliminate the passive) and a tiny cliffhanger so that the audience wants to hear the conclusion -- what happened, what happened? In this way, he demonstrates storytelling rather than talking about it. The pathos needs to be built in, and the audience engaged. This is not easy to do in one minute, but it can be done! Marcel has a list of things to consider for his revision. The firm accomplishment today was cutting the intro to half the time without losing any ideas, and making it more audience-based.
Continuing with analysis using the eight elements of critical thinking, we used Elon Musk's interview to determine what might happen if we accept his predictions and fears for the future in human's use of artificial intelligence. Are they any feasible solutions? What might be the next wisest steps to using AI in a beneficial, rather than imposing or harmful manner? Focus: implications and consequences...
Elle and I used the text of the book, Red Queen, to focus on critical thinking elements -- particularly implications and inferences. Elle summarized what she had read -- with prompting and re-scanning the earlier chapter. We also focused on concepts -- searching out key words and how they held the ideas in the text together cohesively. Elle learned a few new vocabulary words from this close reading.
Charlie took a quiz on last week's materials, including some higher-level vocabulary words, scoring 80. He is beginning to read his new book, The Giver. We watched a trailer which gained more interest, discussed several elements of critical thinking in relation to it, and then watched the first five minutes of the film. Charlie made good inferences as to why the movie changes from black-and-white to color selectively -- very astute comments inferring the difference, the uniqueness, of the protagonist in the area of perception. We discussed point of view, and possible outcomes from where we stopped watching. We then read (close reading) a few pages of the book to compare the beginning of the writing to the start of the film.
Kate and I read a chapter of Legend and then analyzed it using the eight elements of critical thinking. We watched a trailer of the Legend movie and discussed it. Kate made a word game with new words from her book -- adding new vocabulary. She also learned alliteration, and identified a simile in the chapter.
Marcel and I worked together on his one-minute speech. I recommended that he begin with the audience in mind, and not use so many sentences that began with "I." His speech refers to his travel blog. Questions posed: What two things do you think your audience would like to know or learn as a result of your speech? (be sure to deliver these things). I suggested that they would like to hear a really quick intriguing 'story,' since Marcel is talking about stories that will bring them into almost having the experience of travel to a particular destination themselves. The conclusion needs to be concise and strengthened, making a final point. The audience must be kept primary in thought as the speech is crafted. It needs more concision.
Today we applied the critical thinking element "assumptions" to two videos and some real life scenarios. Bobby worked through an activity that accompanied this work, following discussion. He identified assumptions in a few minute scene of Dynamo in Miami as he amazed the passers-by with his impossible body positions. Bobby also identified his own assumptions and probable assumptions of those watching Elon Musk explain the dangers of global warming. Bobby has an assignment that requires alertness to assumptions he makes and those made by others -- and the reactions, responses, and results.
Marcel had two items to be enhanced through critical thinking. One was a storyboard for which we brainstormed ten topics. Talking out the prompt isolated the need for ten concepts and then he quickly came up with methods to list for the desired effect. The other was a new prompt -- a quote from John F. Kennedy to be used as the 'moral' of the essay. It is 20 minutes of timed writing. We pulled apart the key words (concepts) in the prompt and discovered each to be an extreme term used at the highest and lowest degrees. Marcel requested that I write on my own for a sample while he was writing. We did not have quite enough time, but ten minutes of extreme focus gave a great start.
