critical thinking lesson high school

ChatGPT for Teachers

Trauma-informed practices in schools, teacher well-being, cultivating diversity, equity, & inclusion, integrating technology in the classroom, social-emotional development, covid-19 resources, invest in resilience: summer toolkit, civics & resilience, all toolkits, degree programs, trauma-informed professional development, teacher licensure & certification, how to become - career information, classroom management, instructional design, lifestyle & self-care, online higher ed teaching, current events, critical thinking resources for high school teachers.

Critical Thinking Resources for High School Teachers

Developing critical thinking abilities is a necessary skill for all high school students but teaching these skills is not the easiest task for high school teachers. Fortunately, there is a wealth of information online to provide teachers the resources needed for creating critical thinking lesson plans.

These online resources provide lessons plans, videos, and small but helpful tips that can be used everyday in the classroom to reinforce lessons and ideas. Below are some of the top resources for teaching critical thinking to high school students.

A site devoted to all things related to critical thinking

The Critical Thinking Community, from the Center for Critical Thinking, provides one of the best sites for critical thinking resources and has a special section aimed at helping high school teachers prepare appropriate lesson plans: Critical Thinking Community for High School Teachers .

“Critical thinking is essential if we are to get to the root of our problems and develop reasonable solutions,” reads the site’s About Us page. “After all, the quality of everything we do is determined by the quality of our thinking.”

Therefore it’s no surprise that the site provides many free online resources for high school teachers, as well as other materials that can be ordered online for a small fee.

One example of an online resource for critical thinking for high school students is the article “How to Study and Learn (Part One)”. This introductory article lays the ground work for the importance of thinking critically, illustrated by the following passage:

“To study well and learn any subject is to learn how to think with discipline within that subject. It is to learn to think within its logic, to:

raise vital questions and problems within it, formulating them clearly and precisely
gather and assess information, using ideas to interpret that information insightfully
come to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards
adopt the point of view of the discipline, recognizing and assessing, as needs be, its assumptions, implications, and practical consequences
communicate effectively with others using the language of the discipline and that of educated public discourse
relate what one is learning in the subject to other subjects and to what is significant in human life”

State critical thinking resources

Additionally, many states offer free online critical thinking resources, such as the handbook compiled by faculty members of Prince George’s Community College and put on Maryland’s official website: Handbook of Critical Thinking Resources .

In addition to providing a wealth of outside information resources, the handbook details how thinking critically can help students while they are in high school and in the future:

“Improving students’ critical thinking skills will help students:

improve their thinking about their course work
use sound thinking on tests, assignments, and projects in their courses
have the strategic, analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills they need when they transfer to another college
have the strategic, analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills they need when they transition to the workplace”

Keeping up to date on current trends

Other sites, such as Edutopia.org, are constantly updated with new information to provide teachers with the most current information possible. The site, which is part of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, is divided by grade level and has a special section focused on producing critical thinking high school students: Grades 9-12 High School .

The site describes three fundamental skills it believes necessary for students to become lifelong learners in the 21 st Century:

how to find information
how to assess the quality of information
how to creatively and effectively use information to accomplish a goal

The site combines original articles and instructional videos with other valuable critical thinking resources from around the globe. The site is set up like a blog and puts the most recent articles at the forefront, and also includes a community forum for both students and teachers to use.

LOST AT SEA activity (FREE Critical Thinking Lesson Plans)

Lost at Sea Critical Thinking activity last updated Oct 7, 2021:

The Lost at Sea Activity is a fantastic team-building activity.

Lost at Sea is a classic activity that can be found all across the Internet.

We’ve adapted it in our CRITICAL THINKING lesson plans to help teachers introduce the idea of criterion based decision making

Plus, we made the activity look visually appealing for school. Check it out!

Psst. it’s free 2 hours and 101 slides / pages of free content.

The original activity comes from PACE: Profession of Arms Centre of Excellence which is a dedicated champion to strengthening Air Force culture.

The Pace website provides a variety of tools on their teamwork page .
These include a series of TEAMBUILDER activities including the original “Lost at Sea” activity

Information presented on AF.mil is considered public information.

AF.mil is provided as a public service by the Office of the Secretary of Air Force (Public Affairs). Information presented on AF.mil is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested. SOURCE: https://www.af.mil/Disclaimer/

So, in this Educircles version of Lost at Sea, this activity has been adapted to highlight the importance of criteria based thinking (critical thinking), instead of relying solely on emotional intuitive responses.

In the original activity:

Students are divided into groups.
They are given a hypothetical scenario where they are on a yacht in the middle of the ocean.
The yacht catches on fire and the students are given a list of 15 items that they need to rank in order of importance.
At the end, the answers are given. (Rankings provided by an expert, in this case, the US Coast Guard)

The original goal according to PACEsetter is a tabletop scenario designed to

“help individuals work together in a time constrained environment,
collaborate on how a project should best be accomplished and
experience pressure to go along with the crowd and see the consequences.”

Lost at Sea is also a fantastic opportunity to help us think more critically.

In this Educircles version, we suggest three strategies to help students think more critically:

Use criteria

Be open-minded.

Be full minded (have lots of high quality information to help make an informed decision)

We have adapted the original activity for students as follows:

We provide a high-interest, visually appealing slideshow to introduce and explain the activity, objects, and answers to students.
We explain with images and words what each of the 15 items are.
We provide student worksheet that allows students to record their ranking based on their individual thinking, group thinking and based on criteria.

At the end of the activity, we invite students to think about strategies that might help them to

trick other people, and
think about strategies that might help them to think more critically.

Ultimately, the goal is to begin a conversation about what critical thinking is, and what it is not.

Critical Thinking Strategies used in the Lost at Sea Activity

After students have had an opportunity to rank the 15 items based on their individual ideas, and group ideas, students are then given the criteria that the experts used.
Criteria are a set of rules that we can use to help us make decisions.
In this case, the criteria (according to the US Coast Guard) are to select objects that 1) attract attention to ourselves, and 2)help us to stay alive until we are rescued.
in any group scenario, team members can disagree because they’re coming from different perspectives.
In critical thinking, it’s important to be able to stay open-minded and accept that other people’s points of view might be equally valid and deserve careful consideration.
In fact in this scenario, some objects can be used in different ways – and depending on how they are used, they might be rank higher or lower.
It’s up to the students to try to remain open-minded and consider opposing points of view.
For example, the oil and gas mixture could be used as fuel for an engine. However, the criteria is not to try to get the land, but to stay alive until we are rescued. So from that perspective the oil and gas mixture might not be very useful.
On the other hand, the oil and gas mixture can be lit and create a visible signal that can be seen from far away. In this case, this item becomes incredibly useful under the goal of attracting attention to ourselves.

Be full minded (have lots of high quality information to help you make an informed decision)

One of the challenges of this activity is that students don’t always know what all the items are, or why they might be significant.
In our slideshow, we explain what each item is and we provide a little bit of background information to help students make an informed decision about how to use the item.

LOST AT SEA ACTIVITY LESSON PLAN:

Note: the slides from this Taste of Critical Thinking come from our larger “ Exploring the 6Cs – Chapter 6 Critical Thinking ” lesson package, specifically the following slides: 1-35, 36-80, 97-101

How to make informed decisions (Critical Thinking Lesson Plans)

Critical thinking lesson plans help students make informed decisions by using strategies: use criteria, be open minded, identify bias, etc. Learn More

LOST AT SEA – DAY/LESSON 1 – Introduction / Lost at Sea Activity (slides 1-35) – 45 MIN

Introduce concept of Critical Thinking (slides 1-7) – 5 min
MINDS ON! Brainstorm strategies to trick people / think critically (slide 8) – 5 min
Introduction of scenario (slides 9-17) – 5 minutes
Explanation of handout / items (slides 18-33) – 5 min
Independent work period (slide 34) – 5 min
Step 2: IN GROUPS (slide 35) – 20 minutes

LOST AT SEA – DAY/LESSON 2 – Lost at Sea Activity continued (slides 36-80) – 55 MIN

Explain criteria (slides 36-39) – 5 min
Review items (slides 40-54) – 5 min
Work Period (slide 56) 10 min
Instructions (slide 57-58)
Answers with explanations (slides 59-73)
Step 5: Calculate Individual Scores
Step 6: Calculate Group Scores
Step 7: Calculate Criteria Scores
Discussion (slide 78-79) – 5 min
Reflection: Brainstorm strategies to trick people / think critically (slide 80) – 5 minutes
Discussion: Obstacles and strategies (slides 81-85) – 5 minutes

How do you do the Lost at Sea activity with your students?

Critical Thinking on Online Shopping (FREE LESSON for BLACK FRIDAY)

Critical Thinking on Online Shopping lesson with discussion questions: Should Amazon do more to shut down fake reviews? Should Jessica stop writing them?

Axe Body Spray has a Florida school bus stopped (FREE Critical Thinking mini-lesson slideshow)

Student sprays Axe Body Spray on a bus forcing evacuation and EMS response. Should there be consequences? Free slideshow and discussion questions.

High-interest reading response / written paragraph activity to do with your students.

Humanagrams! FREE Class Teamwork Group Activity

Need a quick activity to do with your class that encourages creativity, tinkering, collaboration and communication? Try this lesson in diversity/inclusion.

Character : Usain Bolt

For our Six Cs of Education Unit we have chosen Usain Bolt as one of the people to represent character. Usain Bolt is an 8 time Olympic gold medalist. He had won an unprecedented 9th gold for the 4×100 but was stripped of it after a team mate tested positive for a banned substance. He holds…

How to Co-Create Rubrics with Students (cover showing building blocks)

How to Co-Create Rubrics with Students (FREE Lesson Plan, handouts, slideshow)

Co-create rubrics with students so they gain a deeper understanding of the assignment. BTW, true collaboration means the rubric isn’t already photocopied…

Small business owner pays it forward by paying overdue utility bills for 36 families over the holidays

Business owner who once had his heating cut off because he struggled to pay the bills now gives back to his community by paying the utility bill for 36 families in need. Free slideshow and citizenship discussion questions.