Lesson Plans and Worksheets
- Home /
- Teacher Resources /
- Social Studies /
- 21st Century Learning Skills /
- Information, Media, & Technology /
- Critical Thinking Skills
Browse by Subject
Featured Testimonial
Lesson Planet has been a reliable way to quickly prepare resources for sharing at team meetings. It has given me great confidence in my first year of teaching.
- Clinton L., Student Teacher
- 07-30-10
Critical Thinking Skills Teacher Resources
Find teacher approved Critical Thinking Skills educational resource ideas and activities
Title
Resource Type
Views
Grade
Rating
A brief, dialogue-rich passage from Jerry Spinelli's novel Maniac Magee is accompanied by a well-written literacy assessment tool. Thematic content lends itself to age-appropriate discussions about race relations and social justice. Seven questions address main idea, supporting details, key events, inference, figurative language, and cause and effect. Paragraphs labeled with letters and sentences numbered for reference develop useful test taking skills.
Want to explore the process of writing a persuasive essay and tie it in with the upcoming elections? Class members use Venn diagrams and the hamburger model of persuasive writing to write a five-paragraph essay on elections and candidates. After they describe the candidate they believe should be elected, they participate in an election, and tally the results. Links and lesson components are included.
Develop the critical thinking and technology skills of your class members through debate. After selecting a topic, groups research the material available, and prepare for a debate on the issues. A provided Inspiration outline and a PowerPoint illustrate the closing arguments. Links to a list of debate topics, a rubric, and a detailed assignment sheet are included.
Here is an excellent set of five short lessons and activities intended to help learners not only gain an understand of current issues in Africa, but build critical thinking, synthesis, analysis, expository writing, research, and evaluation skills. Each lesson focuses on one of the following topics: women in Zimbabwe, agriculture, economy, education, racial issues, and land redistribution.
A woven rug depicting birds and cornstalks becomes the inspiration for a lesson on critical thinking and creative writing. Learners analyze the symbolism found in the rug and then compose a descriptive paragraph or poem that embodies the rug's symbolic meaning.
Explore the fables of today along with Aesop's ancient fables. Learners will understand the structure of a fable, critically think about the fable's message, and create a lesson plan that they would like to teach through a fable. Suggested fables are included along with follow-up activities. There is also a rubric for writing a fable.
Creating learning centers with artifact-related activities are a great way to promote deductive reasoning and critical thinking skills.
Get your young scientists excited about geology through the study of dinosaur tracks! They will use their power of observation to learn how tracks are made and use critical thinking strategies to suggest a scenario in which they were made. The suggested inquiry activity could be whole group or individual projects. They will be assessed on inference and sequence of events. While this lesson isn't detailed, the ideas for outcomes are very strong and highly engaging.
Learners analyze several stories and poems from Spider magazine. In this analysis lesson students demonstrate through oral response, group work, and written work their comprehension of the reading. There are several activities that include reading, writing, speaking, and vocabulary. Learners strengthen their critical thinking skills and practice connecting literature to real life.
After reading the provided arguments regarding FDR's implementation of the New Deal during the Depression, learners answer eight critical thinking question. They analyze each argument then pull our supporting details from the articles to substantiate their claims. The last learning exercise includes two political cartoons to analyze.