As a teacher, I found that I often wrestled with wanting to create opportunities for critical thinking, but feeling like the planning of it took more out of my critical thinking stores than the students’! If you’ve felt this way, too, you’re not alone!
As you think about promoting critical thinking and building your students’ critical thinking muscle, consider using the following strategies throughout your lesson. These are suggested time during the lesson when they might take place. The goal is to naturally incorporate opportunities for critical thinking that are low-prep (low to medium upfront work from the teacher) and high-yield (the majority of the thinking falls on the students).
Let us know how you’ve promoted critical thinking in your classroom!
What strategies have you used and how did it go?