Transcript Document

Critical Thinking Skills
in the Language
Classroom
Dr. Gregory John Orr
Teacher's nightmare
We have lots of choices and decisions to make about textbooks, techniques, syllabi,
we have looked to other disciplines to help; linguistics, psychology, neurology,
sociology
What we would like to/should do
student-centered, empower and challenge them, facilitate their development, open
to other ideas/solution, prepare them to handle a complex demanding world, make
topics interesting and relevant, engage them, give up some of our control
What limitation there are
required, exam-centered curriculum; time constraints; teaching norms and traditions;
anxieties and fears about our abilities and losing control
What can help bridge the gap
What is critical thinking?
What is critical thinking? important, complex, purposeful inquiry
Whenever we make a list
Whenever we describe something
Whenever we compare two things
Whenever we make a prediction
Whenever we persuade someone of something
Whenever we create something
Definition:
- Critical thinking involves logical thinking and reasoning including skills such as
comparison, classification, sequencing, cause/effect, patterning, webbing,
analogies, deductive and inductive reasoning, forecasting, planning, hyphothesizing,
and critquing.. A critical thinker uses broad in-depth analysis of evidence to make
decisions and communicate his/her beliefs clearly and accurately.
How can critical thinking help students?
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Critical thinking can be taught.
Critical thinking can take place at all levels of language ability
Critical thinking can involve all 4 language skills: speaking,
reading, listening, writing
Critical thinking can be adapted to a variety of themes or
content
CT can give structure and focus to whatever syllabus we teach
(grammatical, situational, notional-functional, communicative)
CT can help students develop cognitive competence as well as
grammatical and communicative.
CT can improve all aspects of education….and life.
Approaches to teaching CTS
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Using a variety of questioning
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Selecting appropriate techniques and activities
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Activating our "schemata" via brainstorming, mapping, using "what we've
got" in pre-reading, pre-writing, pre-listening, pre-speaking approaches
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Allowing students to work individually, in groups, pairs
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Using challenging and relevant content to engage students intellectually and
emotionally
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Applying Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Types of questioning
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yes/no questions, question word questions, choice questions
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content questions
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life questions
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inference questions (Why..., What do you think....
(What is your....Would you...
Chocolate
Chocolate originated in Mexico with the Aztec Indians and came to Spain
through the Spanish conquistadors. Christopher Columbus encountered cocoa
beans for the first time in 1502.
The Aztecs used cocoa beans to make a bitter, foamy beverage called
tchocolatl, which was drunk during religious celebrations. The Spaniards
weren't fond of tchocolatl, but that didn't stop them from shipping the beans
back home. Charles I received a shipment in 1525. Spain held a monopoly over
the cocoa trade for about a hundred years.
Although cocoa arrived in Italy in the late 16th century, it didn't really become
a trend outside of Spain until 1615, when Louis XIII married Anne of Austria,
the daughter of King Philip III of Spain. Chocolate was served at their wedding
in Paris, and soon after that, it became a favorite drink for French aristocrats.
Chocolate (continued)
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, chocolate was the most popular drink in Spain.
Popular foods at the time were sponge cake, marzipan, and crystallized fruits. Richard Ford in
Gatherings From Spain said that chocolate "is for the Spanish what tea is for the English and
coffee for the French. It is found nearly everywhere and is always excellent." Today, Spain is
a major producer of chocolate, with 50 large manufacturers and countless small-scale
producers. The quality of Spanish chocolate is still excellent. However, it is not widely
marketed abroad.
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Where was chocolate initially used?
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How did the Aztecs name it?
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Did Spanish like this beverage?
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How many years did the Spanish monopoly of chocolate last?
5.
When did the chocolate catch on in other countries?
6.
What other types of food were popular in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries?
7.
How did Richard Ford describe chocolate?
8.
What do you think Gatherings From Spain is?
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How does the writer describe Spanish chocolate?
10.
Is Spanish chocolate massively marketed outside the country?
Additional Questions
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Why do you think the Spaniards did not like chocolate at first?
Have you ever tasted Spanish chocolate? Does it differ from
chocolate from other nations? How would you describe it?
What is your favorite beverage?
Is your country a tea, coffee, or chocolate nation?
What determines a nation's beverage preference? (tradition, taste,
history)
What about other beverages such as beer, wine, and spirits?
Schema theory
Schema theory describes the process by which readers combine
their own background knowledge with the information in a text to
comprehend that text. All readers carry different schemata
(background information) and these are also often culture-specific.
This is an important concept in ESL teaching, and pre-reading tasks
are often designed to build or activate the learner's schemata.
Schema Theory: types of knowledge
linguistic knowledge
cultural knowledge
contextual knowledge
textual knowledge
world knowledge
Pre-reading to Activate Our Schemata
Example One
You are going to read a passage about a woman's encounter with a bear while hiking in an
American national park.
Before reading, answer the following questions:
(a) Do bears live in the wild in your country? What kind of bears?
(b) How would you feel if you met a bear while hiking?
(c) What do you think we should do if we encounter a bear in the wild?
Example Two
You are going to read about a man's bad experience on a camping trip in the north of
England.
Before reading, do the following exercises:
(a) Write down five problems the man could have had while camping.
(b)According to the title and word list, what might have happened?
TITLE: 'Our Terrible New Year'
WORDS:: holiday, happy, drove, far, camped, beautiful, night, freezing, snow, engine trouble,
no help, snow, morning, no helpno phone, ran, ice, slipped, cut, disaster
Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Bloom's “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives” is a multi-tiered
model of classifying thinking according to six cognitive levels of
complexity. (The taxonomy was proposed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom,
an educational psychologist at the University of Chicago. Bloom's
Taxonomy divides educational objectives into three "domains:"
Affective, Psychomotor, and Cognitive.) Throughout the years, the
levels have often been depicted as a stairway, leading many teachers
to encourage their students to "climb to a higher (level of) thought."
The lowest three levels are: knowledge, comprehension, and
application. The highest three levels are: analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation.
Old & New Versions
An alternative version
Individual skills at each level of taxonomy
remembering:
Tell, List, Describe, Relate, Putting in order, Locate, Write, Find, State, Name,
Identify, Label, Recall, Define, Recognise, Match, Reproduce, Memorize, Draw, Select, Write, Recite
understanding: Explain, Interpret, Outline, Discuss, Distinguish, Predict, Restate, Translate,
Compare, Describe, Relate, Generalise, Summarise, Put into your own words, Paraphrase, Convert,
Demonstrate, Visualise, Find out more information about
applying: Solve, Show, Use, Illustrate, Construct,Complete, Examine, Classify, Choose, Interpret,
Make, Put together, Change, Apply, Produce, Translate, Calculate, Manipulate, Modify, Put into
practice
analyzing: Analyze, Distinguish, Examine, Compare, deduce.
Contrast, Investigate, Categorise, Identify, Explain, Separate,Advertise,Take
apart,Differentiate,Subdivide
evaluating:Judge, Select, Choose, Decide,Justify, Debate,
Verify, Argue,Recommend, Assess, Discuss, Rate, Prioritize, Determine, Critique, Evaluate, Criticise,
Weigh, Value, Estimate, Defend
creating: Create, Invent, Compose, Predict, Plan, Construct
Design, Imagine, Propose, Devise, Formulate, Combine, Hypothesize, Originate, Add to, Forecast
Remembering
VERBS: Tell, List, Describe, Relate, Putting in order, Locate,
Write, Find, State, Name, Identify, Label, Recall, Define,
Recognise, Match, Reproduce, Memorize, Draw, Select, Write,
Recite
MATERIALS/SITUATIONS: Events, people, newspapers,
magazine articles, definitions, videos, dramas, textbooks, films,
television programs, recordings, media presentations
ACTIVITIES/TECHNIQUES: Make a list of the main events .
Make a timeline of events. Make a facts chart. Put pictures and
sentences in sequence.
List all the …in the story. Make a chart showing..
Recite a poem.
LANGUAGE: First, Second, Third... Next…..Then
After that….Finally
The most important….The least important
STRIP STORY: JACK’S CAREER
1. Jack said, "Thanks.”
____________________________________________________
2. Only a year later he became vice-president of the company.
_____________________________________________________
3. The president explained that he would retire soon and Jack would become
president.
____________________________________________________
4. Within six months he became a salesman.
___________________________________________________
5. "Well." Jack replied. "Thanks a lot, Dad.”
___________________________________________________
6. A few days later the president called Jack into his office.
___________________________________________________
7. Jack started as a janitor in the XYZ company.
___________________________________________________
8. The president said. "You've here less than 2 years and all you can say is
thanks?”
___________________________________________________
Understanding
VERBS: Explain, Interpret, Outline, Discuss, Distinguish,
Predict, Restate, Translate, Compare, Describe, Relate,
Generalise, Summarise, Put into your own words, Paraphrase,
Convert, Demonstrate, Visualise, Find out more information
about
SITUATIONS/MATERIALS: Speech, stories, drama, cartoons,
diagrams, graphs, summaries, outlines, analogies, posters,
bulletin boards.
ACTIVITIES/TECHNIQUES: Explain the purpose of
something. Paraphrase the main idea. Make an outline to show
the sequence of events. Retell the story in your own words.
Write a summary report of an event. /Pre-viewing, pre-reading,
pre-listening, pre-writing. Keyword. Cloze activities. Crossword
puzzles. Charades. Mini-photo file. 20 questions.
LANGUAGE: I think that...Perhaps…Maybe…It's possible that...
May, might, could. How about?What about?
Inferences
The meaning of a sentence or paragraph may be stated directly
sometimes, though, the sentence or paragraph only hints at or
implies the meaning. You must use the hints given to determine
what the meaning is. When you do this, you are making inferences.
Inference exercise
Read each paragraph and the unfinished sentence that follows it. Then select the
word that best describes the person mentioned in the paragraph.
1. At the railroad crossing, the bus driver stopped the bus and looked both ways
before going ahead.
The bus driver was _________. (lost, cautious, slow)
2. The salesman listened quietly to the customer's angry complaints about the
television he had purchased.
The salesman was ________. (impatient, rude, polite)
3. The contestant looked at the announcer with wide eyes and asked, "Did you say
I won fifty thousand dollars?"
The contestant was _________. (angry, astonished, amused)
4. As the driver promised that he would be more careful, the policeman continued
to write the ticket for speeding.
The policeman was _________. (lenient, weak, firm.)
Keyword Sequence and Cloze Exercises
1. girl - red hood - grandma - forest - wolf - woodcutter - ax
2. lottery - village - stone - death - tradition
Placido Domingo's ability to thrill an ________ is such that a legendary curtain call
_____ Vienna lasted over an hour. "It would have ______much easier for me to
sing the entire ________ all over again," Placido said.
Exploration -- why in the world?
The traditional reason for exploration - to boldly go where no man ______ gone
before - has become a _____ out of date now. Corners ____ the world that
have not ______ explored are rare indeed. They ____ exist, however, and
from polar _____ to tropical rainforest, from 8,000 m ______ in the Himalayas
to submarine______ in the Caribbean, the attempts _____ discover still
continue. The increasing ________in exploration is reflected in ____ growth of
companies which specialise _____ holiday-length expeditions to the foothills
____ the Himalayas, Africa and South _______. Such tours are unlikely to
_____ real danger but they offer ______ challenge to allow the traveler some
____the achievement of full-scale ______. Nowadays, the dividing line between
exploration and ________ is difficult to draw.
Exploration -- why in the world?
The traditional reason for exploration - to boldly go where no man ______ gone
before - has become a _____ out of date now. Corners ____ the world that
have not ______ explored are rare indeed. They ____ exist, however, and from
polar _____ to tropical rainforest, from 8,000 m ______ in the Himalayas to
submarine______ in the Caribbean, the attempts _____ discover still continue.
The increasing ________in exploration is reflected in ____ growth of companies
which specialise _____ holiday-length expeditions to the foothills ____ the
Himalayas, Africa and South _______. Such tours are unlikely to _____ real
danger but they offer ______ challenge to allow the traveller some ____the
achievement of full-scale ______. Nowadays, the dividing line between
exploration and ________ is difficult to draw.
to, interest, America, has, peaks, exploration involve, little, sufficient, do, in,
vacation, caves, the, of, been, regions
Listening: Bette Midler's "The Rose"
Some say love, it is a river
that drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor
that leaves your soul to ______.
Some say love, it is a hunger,
an endless aching ______.
I say love, it is a flower,
and you its only ______.
It's the heart afraid of
breaking
that never learns to dance.
It's the dream afraid of
______
that never takes the ______.
It's the one who won't be taken,
who cannot seem to give,
and the soul afraid of dyin’,
that never learns to ________.
When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been to long,
and you think that love is _____
for the lucky and the _______,
just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed that with the sun's love
in the spring becomes the ______.
Listening: Bette Midler's "The Rose"
Some say love, it is a river
that drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed.
Some say love, it is a hunger,
an endless aching need.
I say love, it is a flower,
and you its only seed.
It's the heart afraid of
breaking
that never learns to dance.
It's the dream afraid of
waking
that never takes the chance.
It's the one who won't be taken,
who cannot seem to give,
and the soul afraid of dyin'
that never learns to live.
When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been to long,
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong,
just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed that with the sun's love
in the spring becomes the rose.
Applying
VERBS: Solve, Show, Use, Illustrate, Construct,Complete,
Examine, Classify, Choose, Interpret, Make, Put together,
Change, Apply, Produce, Translate, Calculate, Manipulate,
Modify, Put into practice
SITUATIONS/MATERIALS: Diagrams, sculptures,
illustrations, dramatisations, forecasts, problems, puzzles,
organizations, classifications, rules, systems, routines.
ACTIVITIES/TECHNIQUES: Construct a model to
demonstrate how something work. Make a scrapbook about the
theme. Make a map to include relevant information about an
event.Take a collection of photographs to demonstrate a
particular point. Make up a puzzle game showing the ideas from
an area of study./Problem solving. Minute mysteries.
LANGUAGE: I will show you ….Use…Please illustrate
how….Construct a model of…Complete the following…
I’ll examine the…..to classify according to
Problem Solving: The Doctor
A man and his son are traveling in a car when they have an accident. The
man is killed and the boy is gravely injured and is rushed to the
emergency room of the hospital for an operation. The doctor looks at the
boy and says, "I can't operate on him. He is my son." How can this be?
Minute Mysteries
The object of minute mysteries is to unravel a mystery based
on very limited and somewhat ambiguous clues. You are given
a scenario (usually involving a death of some sort). and you
have to decide what has happened. Someone must look at the
solution so that you can ask them questions to try and figure
it out. the questions have to be phrased so tha the only
possible answers are "yes", "no" or "not relevant. There is no
limit to the number of questions. and it can be to have several
people working on the same case.
Minute Mysteries: Examples
1. A man is lying dead, face down in the desert wearing a backpack.
2. A man walks into a bar and asks fora drink. the bartender pulls
out a gun and points it at him. The man says, "Thank you," and walks
out.
3. In the middle of the ocean is a yacht. Several corpses are
floating in the water nearby.
4. A man marries twenty woman in his village but he isn't charged
with polygamy.
5. A man is dead in a puddle of blood and water on the floor of a
locked room.
Minute Mysteries: Solutions
1. He jumped out of an airplane, but his parachute failed to open.
2. The man has hiccups; the bartender scares them away by
pulling a gun.
3. A bunch of people are on an ocean voyage on a yacht. one
afternoon they all decide to go swimming, so they dive into the
water. Unfortunately they forget to set up a ladder on the side
of the boat, so there’s no way for them to climb back in, and they
drown.
4. He's a priest; he is marrying them to other people, not to
himself.
5. He stabbed himself with an icicle.
Analyzing
VERBS: Analyze, Distinguish, Examine, Compare, deduce.
Contrast, Investigate, Categorise, Identify, Explain,
Separate,Advertise,Take apart,Differentiate,Subdivide
SITUATIONS/MATERIALS: Surveys, questionnaires,
arguments, models, displays, demonstrations, diagrams,
systems, conclusions, reports, graphed information
ACTIVITIES/TECHNIQUES: Design a questionnaire.
Write a commercial. Construct a graph to illustrate selected
information. Make a jigsaw puzzle. Make a family tree showing
relationships. Write a biography. Prepare a report. Arrange a
party. Review a piece of art including form, colour and texture
LANGUAGE: to be classified according to…to be divided into
to be categorized according to…bigger than...as big as...How is
....similar to....same as…also, too similarities…Both...and..
neither......nor...not only...but also...different from…differences
Categorizing - elementary
1. tea, apple, bread, coffee, cake, water. egg, chocolate, potato, rice, pasta
Food
Drink
2. shout, scream, whisper, crash, sigh, rustle, roar, bang
Loud
Soft
3. sun, book, ball, window, moon, pizza, DVD
Round
Square
What is the category ?
category
cricket soccer tennis
_________
Mexico China Russia
_________
mother aunt niece
_________
Cross out one that does not belong; say why
student bus classroom desk blackboard
egg milk chicken butter sugar flour
first four third sixth eighth
Categorizing - continued
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Categorizing exercise: Theme “sports”
- Elicit names of sports from students
- Have students (in pairs and small groups) put them into natural
categories with a principle of classification (sports played as a
team, sports played with a ball…..)
- Have students share their lists while others must guess what
principle of classification they use.
(“Is your list categorized/classified according to……”)
- Have students write sentences (or a classification essay)
Mini-Photo File
1. Put students into small groups. Randomly give each group 10-15
cards. Tell them they must use at least 5 cards to make a cohesive
story. You could have them write the story together or simple tell it
orally. After groups have finished constructing their stories, they then shae
them with other groups.
2. Have students get into pairs or small groups. Give each group 20 or so
picture cards. Tell them to put the cards into 4 or 5 groups and give each
group a title or heading. Their categories might be adjectives (beautiful,
ugly, sad, red. etc.) or nouns or verbs. When students finish categorizing
their cards, they shoukd pass the cards in the piles in which they have put
them to a neighbouring group. The new group should try to figure out what
the categories are.
Mini-photo file (continued)
3. Have students pair off. Give each pair a pile of 20 or so picture
cards. Each partner picks a card off the top of the pile and is careful not to
show the other. they then talk and ask questions of each other until they find
3 similarities (e.g. shapes, colors, people, animals, etc.) between the
pictures. They show each other their cards and continue in this fashion
through the rest of the pile.
4. Have students pair off. Give each pair 20 cards. Tell them to spread the
cards in front of them. Student A should say a sentence about one
picture. Students B should listen and try to point to the correct picture, S/he
keeps the card i fthe guess is correct. The game conitnues with roles reversed
until all the cards are gone.
Evaluating
VERBS: Judge, Select, Choose, Decide,Justify, Debate,
Verify, Argue,Recommend, Assess, Discuss, Rate, Prioritize,
Determine, Critique, Evaluate, Criticise, Weigh, Value,
Estimate, Defend
SITUATIONS/MATERIALS: Recommendations, selfevaluations, group discussions, debates, court trials, standards,
editorials, values.
ACTIVITIES/TECHNIQUES: Conduct a debate about a
special issue. Prepare a list of criteria to judge something.
Form a panel to discuss views.Write a letter of complaint.
Write a report advising on changes needed at …Present your
point of view./Debates. Discussions. Values Clarification.
LANGUAGE: What is the best way to......How would you feel
if....What do you think about....Do you believe....
I am convinced that........for the following reasons.
Topics for Discussion or Debate
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Money invested in space travel should be better invested in helping the poor
and needy
Experimenting on animals in laboratories is cruel
Genetic engineering is a violation of the laws of nature
Cloning could have disasterous consequences for mankind in the future
The energy crisis is 'necessary' to maintain the world balance in power
Man is his own worst enemy
There is always a price to pay in protecting the environment.
Animals should not be kept in captivity
It is right to meddle with Nature
Too much knowledge is a dangerous thi
Any method is justifiable to preserve life
Language for Discussion or Debate
* In my opinion____
* I think that_____
* I feel that______
* I believe that______
* It seems to me that___
* If you ask me_____
* I'd say that_______
* The point is________
* As I see it_______
* I'd say that______
* The point is______
* You're right
* I think so, too
* I agree with you
* You could be right
* That's a good point
* I see what you mean
* That's just what I was thinking
* Yes, but_____
* I disagree
* That's not the point
* No, I think you're wrong
* Yes, that's quite true, but_____
* I'm not sure I quite agree
* I see what you mean,but_______
Evaluating: Finish the Sentence
Start this activity in silence, with each student writing down his
or her own completion. This guarantees that people will not be
stuck for words, which usually happens if you present somebody
with a half-finished sentence and ask for an immediate verbal
reaction. If you give students time to think, they will produce
better sentences. If, for example, you have a group of seven,
each student will probably come up with a different finish. At
the end of the exercise have the students compare their
answers first in pairs and then in the group, promoting
discussion and debate.
Evaluating: discussion exercises
My sister...
o My sister is my best friend./My sister and I fight all the time.
Now you try it.
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My best friend ...
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Last night ...
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I have never ..
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Politicians ...
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Parents ...
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I once dreamt that ...
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Christmas ...
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I get really angry when ...
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Some people ...
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Going on holiday ...
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Having my hair cut ...
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Talking to a drunk ....
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A millionaire ...
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When it rains, I ...
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Vegetarians ...
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Values Clarification: Who Gets the heart?
Read
You are members of a heart transplant surgery team at a hospital. At the
moment you have 6 patients who desperately need a transplant in order to
live. All six patients are classified as "critically ill". You have just received
news that the heart of a 16-year-old boy killed in an auto accident, has
become available.. Speed is extremely important as you decide which of the
following patients is to receive the heart.
Consider
-The age and sex of the donor has no relationship to the age and sex of the
recipient.
-For each patient give reasons why he/she should or should not receive the
heart. Rank the patients in order, 1 to 6.
Who gets the Heart? (cont.)
1. Jonas Kasperak, male, 55. Mr. Kasperak is employed as a steelworker. He
and his 47-year-old wife have 7 children.
2. Elena Rodriguez, female, 31. She is soloist in the national opera. She is
divorced and has 2 children (2 and 3).
3. Franklin Johns, male, 42. He is a university research scientist and a leading
authority in genetics. He is unmarried.
4. Hiroki Tanabe, male, 10. He is the son of the Japanese ambassador's and
would someday like to be a doctor.
5. F. Lincoln Bradley, male, 65. He is Vice President of the U.S. with 3 grown
children and 5 grandchildren.
6. Helen Thomas, female, 39. She's a recent widow, and is unemployed and on
welfare. She has three children (4,8,10).
Other Values Clarification Exercises
What School Program to Cut
Situation: You are members of a school committee whose task is
to decide which of a list of school programs to cut to save the
Ministry of Education money.
List: Sports, Foreign Languages, Arts Programs, School Lunches,
School Bus Transportation, School Health Office
Task: Discuss each program, considering the merits of
each. Prioritize your list: 1 for the programs you think should be
cut first to 6 for the programs you'd least like to see cut.
Who(m) do you admire?
Working in pairs students rank the
following list for their contribution to
society.
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David Beckham
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George Clooney
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Annita Roddick
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President Michele Bachelet
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JK Rowling
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Hillary Clinto
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Pablo Neruda
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Angelina Jolie
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Vladimir Putin
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Fernando Gonzales
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Richard Branson
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Bill Gates
Now as a group consider:
[A] How have women fared compared
to men?
[B] How have these categories fared?
- Business
- Literature
- Showbiz
- Sport
- Politics
[C] What sort of people appear on TV
and in print most often?
[D] Does media coverage fairly
represent how important people are?
[E] Who is missing from the list?
Creating
VERBS: Create, Invent, Compose, Predict, Plan, Construct
Design, Imagine, Propose, Devise, Formulate, Combine,
Hypothesize, Originate, Add to, Forecast
SITUATIONS/MATERIALS: Experiments, games, songs,
reports, poems, speculations, creations, art, inventions, drama,
rules.
ACTIVITIES/TECHNIQUES: Design a new classroom or a
school…Create a new product, give it a name and then devise a
marketing strategy…Write about your feelings in relation to
…Design a record, book or magazine cover…Imagine what you’ll
be doing in 10 years …Compose new words to an old
song….Write a poem…
LANGUAGE: What would you do if...I would...If I were.....
Critical Thinking: Writing
Comparison Essay
To write a comparison or contrast essay, first decide what the similarities or
differences are by writing lists,plan to discuss the less significant first,
followed by the more significant. You can discuss the similarities. the
differences, or both.
Classification Essay
In a classification essay, a writer organizes or sorts things into categories,
makes sure all the categories follow a single organizing principle. and gives
examples that fit into each category.
Argumentative or Persuasive Essay
The function of an argumentative essay is to show that your assertion (opinion,
theory, hypothesis) about some phenomenon is correct or more truthful than
others.
Critical Writing
Cause and Effect Essay
Cause and effect essays are concerned with why things happen (causes) and
what happens as a result (effects). Cause and effect details are commonly
organized chronologically, according to importance For causes: because, due
to, on cause is, another is, since, for, first, second For effects:consequently,
as a result, thus, resulted in, one result is, another is, therefore.
Expository Essay
The purpose of an expository essay is to present, completely and fairly,
other people's views or to report about an event or a situation. Expository
writing, or exposition, presents a subject in detail; i.e., the writer elucidates
a subject by analyzing it. Such writing is discourse designed to convey
information or explain what is difficult to understand. Exposition usually
proceeds by the orderly analysis of parts and the use of familiar illustrations
or analogies.
Planning a CTS around a theme: Sports
SKILL:
remembering:
understanding:
applying:
analyzing:
evaluating:
creating:
ACTIVITY
Planning a CTS lesson around a theme: Sports
SKILL:
ACTIVITY
remembering: List all the sports you play with a ball
understanding: Explain the rules of one of the sports
applying: Classify sports into natural categories
analyzing: Compare the abilities of men and women in sports
evaluating: Debate the value of sports in school
creating: Create your own sport
Planning a CTS lesson around F. Scott Fitzgerald
SKILL:
ACTIVITY
remembering: Make a timeline of the key dates in the life of
F. Scott Fitzgerald
understanding: Summarize the plot of The Great Gatsby
applying: Illustrate how incidents in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life may have found
their way into his writing
analyzing: Compare the styles of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway
evaluating: Evaluate the place of F. Scott Fitzgerald in American literature
during the 20th century
creating: Imagine an interview with F. Scott Fitzgerald
Planning a CTS lesson around ___________(topic/theme)
SKILL:
remembering:
understanding:
applying:
analyzing:
evaluating:
creating:
ACTIVITY