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How to encourage critical thinking?


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This is for my oldest who is 11. She was in tears three times today (and I'm not mean, at least I don't think so).

 

She is reading Number the Stars and one of the questions she was asked to answer was:  Whose thoughts do we know in this novel? How does that affect our understanding and perspective? How does that point of view create suspense? I asked her to answer it with a short paragraph. First of all, she hates to write and has gotten away with doing much too little of it so far, so I'm trying to get her to step up her game because it is a skill that seriously needs work.  So, she scribbled Anne-Marie over the first part of the question and then just stopped. I reminded her that she needed to answer in full sentences in a paragraph and she said she was just making some notes. Ok, great!  But then she stalled. I tried to ask some other questions to get her thinking, but she got so frustrated that she started crying. I told her to put it away for now and just think about it. (It's not due until Friday.)

 

We are also doing RSO Biology 2 and we made applesauce and canned some of it and left some of it in a loosely sealed container on the counter. She was asked to explain the dangers to food safety with questions like, "If old rotting apples were used..." and she just wrote "don't".  "Don't what?" I asked, very puzzled. "Don't eat it." So I asked her if she had read through the directions and we read them again together and I told her I needed her to answer in complete sentences and explain why she shouldn't eat it. Tears. More tears. (I wanted to rip my hair out, but resisted the urge.) I have no idea how to draw her out.

 

When we are trying to talk about things that don't require her to state an opinion or original thought, I can't get a word in. She's a font of information to the point that it is frustrating. I can't get through material with her younger sister because of constant interruptions to supply some extra information (usually quite interesting, but if we let her do this all the time, we won't get ANYTHING done). But she can't/won't answer questions like:  What's your favorite subject to study? (from the pediatrician at her well check) Answer=shrug. Favorite food? Shrug. What is the dance class you enjoy most=Shrug. I'm going to lose my mind. And the tears! She's always on the edge of tears and it's only getting worse now that we are closing in on puberty. Heaven help me.

 

How can I encourage this child to really think??? (She's an excellent math student BTW. She's great at creative problem solving.) What gives? Will this improve with maturity?

 

 

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First, I would pick your battles.  Choose one area where you will have her write her answers in complete sentences/paragraphs, and then have her do everything else orally (or with one word/fragment answers).

 

Then for the topic that she is to complete a written assignment, discuss her answers with her first and *you* take notes.  You want to separate thinking from writing.  And it's ok if you're helping her with her thinking.

 

Then sit with her while she writes her responses.  Have her write on the computer if possible since it's so easy to make corrections that way.  Show her what you're looking for.  Help her start her sentences and help with transitions.  That sort of thing.  

 

Then over time, gradually hand over the writing part to her.  Finally, the last thing you'll do is had off the discussion piece.

 

Repeat this process every time you ramp up the difficulty or you make other changes (such as a different subject or format).

 

 

Edited by EKS
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My DS11 who gave blank paper for writing tests to his public school teachers until 4th grade did fine for his CTY tutors for 5th and 6th. What helped was typing which makes revising paragraphs of answers much easier. Also he did 3 drafts on average for the book analysis and the writing class.

 

His perfectionism in writing hinders his pen to paper. His factual essays, argumentative essays are okay. It is the descriptive essays, opinion essays that stump him.

 

I'm tempted by the short Bravewriter ACT/SAT essay prep class. He has taken ACT and SAT without writing but he is horrid at churning an essay in a timed environment. There are some programs he is interested in that requires the student to write why they want to participate. So I do need him to be able to advocate in writing.

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I think you're asking her to work on two skills that are difficult for her at the same time - writing and thinking/reflecting. I would break those up. I know it feels like, by this age, kids should be able to bring them together, and many kids can, but look at it this way... there's no point in being upset about what is. She can't yet. Telling her to do it won't change it. And the way to scaffold it is to break them up for now.

 

I feel your pain. My 11 yos can be like this too - especially with the random questions from adults and especially if I'm there listening. It's like, what's your favorite thing to do, it's not a hard question! I can tell you what I do wrong - and maybe it's one of your challenges too - I have trouble not answering for them or explaining to them or providing too much framework and not just sitting back and letting them answer for themselves, even if they're slow, even if it's stilted, even if it's nonsense. They have to be able to try and fall a little with thinking things through, you know?

 

This past year, we did parts of Philosophy for Kids, and we did much of it orally, and that was a good activity for eliciting conversation. Movie discussions are another good place to develop this skill - it's like literary analysis and potentially politics or morality discussion except for something really appealing and immediate. Reading news articles has also been good for us this past year. We got Upfront magazine and that was a good way to open up conversations about current events. I know a lot of people use CNN Student News for this. Really, I think working on it sideways like this - as a skill on its own instead of tying it to literature she didn't choose or science from a program or whatever is a good thing to do.

 

And, in terms of the literature and science and so forth, I'd just keep being willing to break it down. Take that lit question about Number the Stars. It's complex and multipart. Breaking it down from the beginning - instead of later when anxiety has already risen - could be important to helping get her to where she can answer it in a more whole way.

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You are combining multiple difficult skills:

 

1. Forming an opinion -- as in, thinking the thought.

 

2. Saying an opinion in a sentence.

 

3. Writing an opinion sentence.

 

4. Answering multi-question questions.

 

5. Writing a paragraph.

 

6. Writing a paragraph that correlates to a multi-question question.

 

And, tangentially related:

 

7. Understanding the social concept of 'simplified

favorites' (which is actually kind of hard for concrete thinkers who have been taught to be truthful).

 

I think she needs step-by-step scaffolding for each skill. That's not unexpected. Show her how to construct an answer sentence for each question element. Demonstrate how answering each question element in order builds a paragraph automatically. Tell her how to use 'if we didn't know x's thoughts, then (?) Since we do know, then (?)' to answer 'how' questions.

 

Teach her (generally) the skill of using her imagination to compare 'the way it is' to 'the way it would be if x was different'. Start easy/playful: "How would this tv show have turned out differently if so-n-so didn't do xyz but did lmnop instead?"

 

Teach each thing in isolation while letting her practice factual writing at paragraph length. Combine the skills gradually over a few months until she can do the whole exercise.

 

Also, 11 is tearful, but it's not the beginning of the horrors of a teenager. It's a very specific pre-teen thing where their coping skills don't yet match up to their emotional intensity -- for neuro-scientific and developmental reasons. It shouldn't last much longer, and it's not her fault. The emotions just ambush her. She's trying hard to handle them, but it legitimately *is* hard to handle them -- because the 'handing feelings' part of her brain is not growing as fast as the 'creating feelings' part of her brain.

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Not sure I have an answer, but you might start by explaining that there's no right answer and the answer doesn't have to be deep.

 

If you ask my kids what their favorite activity is, they are stumped. They think they have to come up with the #1, absolute top, 100% FAVORITE thing they like to do. But when that question is asked, no one really means it literally. They just mean, "What are some of the sorts of things you like to do that you can think of right now, and you might think of another one an hour from now and that's ok?"

 

I try to teach them about etiquette and conversation. It's all about just connecting and making chit-chat. Some kids are horrible at it. Some kids are great at it. The ones that are bad at it are trying to answer the exact question, as asked, with the 100% correct answer. So, no, they don't know. They don't know what their favorite activity is. There are too many to choose from and they're not sure how to rate them, so they just honestly don't know which is the favorite.

 

Also, some questions are so obvious that kids think, "Surely it can't be that obvious! I must be missing something. I mean, if you use rotten apples of course you wouldn't eat it because you'd get sick. They can't really be looking for something so ridiculously obvious. I must have missed something and I don't know what I missed."

 

I don't know all the above for sure, but it seems to be how it plays out in my house. They don't know the answers to thinking questions because they think there is only 1 answer, when really there could be many. And they don't know the answers to easy questions because they're too easy and they think that maybe they've missed something.

 

I just asked my 11 yo the other what his favorite thing to do was. He had no idea. I tossed some ideas out and told him, "It doesn't have to be one thing. It can be a few things. Like, maybe you have a favorite thing to do with friends and a different favorite thing to do alone." He still couldn't think of a single thing he liked to do except play a video game. When I gave him ideas, he agreed he likes them (Birthday parties, laser tag, go to his favorite restaurant, etc.). He did finally come up with one thing on his own that he likes to do, but it took a lot of suggestions from me before he was able to come up with something on his own.

Edited by Garga
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In worst case scenarios we've used the bravewriter freewrite thing with some success -- just keep your pencil moving for 5 minutes, find a couple of points to expand, write on those, and keep going. I don't think you could do this with every single question though, it would take forever.

 

I do find that particular question hard though... it's three questions. 

 

This thread makes me so not look forward to my kids being 11, though. That does seem like a complicating factor!

Edited by tm919
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I don't have an 11 year old and I'm a newbie homeschooler BUT I am also a writer, and somebody who needs time to mentally process the things I want to say. So....

 

 

Can you stop asking her more than the question you REALLY want her to answer? (The directions I presume)

 

Because when you give her the directions and their questions, and then you toss some extra "idea generating" questions at her, you're taking away her opportunity to think through and process, let alone get to the writing stage. Not all writers (even academic writers) operate the same way, you know? That's why in public school we're given different methods of brainstorming/mapping. Or we used to be, back in the stone ages when I was in school.

 

Something like this software/app might help her put thoughts down and organize them, if she's allowed computer work/computer time: http://www.inspiration.com/ -- Inspiration is really excellent and I've used it to brainstorm, plot and organize novels. It has some interesting functions, like creating a visual map with blocks you can move around, as well as a "show as outline in word document" feature.

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It sounds like you have more of a writing problem than a critical thinking problem. It doesn't sound like she has any problem thinking things through, and it sounds like she's got a mind as sharp as a knife when it comes to gathering facts and information to think about. It sounds like she point blank hated those questions. 

 

(For what it's worth, I don't blame her. Those were weasel questions. There are much clearer ways of asking those same things.)

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She has to feel safe stating opinions. She may well be one of those people who don't have strong opinions.

 

Can she do these assignments orally?

 

You are right, she doesn't have strong opinions about things usually. She's kind of like my husband in that way. They both kind of go with the flow (unless she gets frustrated and cries :crying: ).

 

She can do exercises orally and we have done that almost exclusively in the past. Even orally though, she couldn't answer the questions and I really wanted her to think and draw conclusions. I guess I was thinking I would force the writing issue because I really want her to stretch and improve. From reading through the other comments, I realize now that it was quite a leap and just too much.

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It sounds like you have more of a writing problem than a critical thinking problem. It doesn't sound like she has any problem thinking things through, and it sounds like she's got a mind as sharp as a knife when it comes to gathering facts and information to think about. It sounds like she point blank hated those questions. 

 

(For what it's worth, I don't blame her. Those were weasel questions. There are much clearer ways of asking those same things.)

 

OK, so an ornery part of me that loves thinking critically agrees with this.

 

For the first question, at least, I think a good starting question is:

 

DID she find Number the Stars suspenseful?

 

The question as you posed it assumes that Number the Stars is suspenseful for all readers, has a pre-packaged answer for why it is suspenseful, and is constructed to try to get the student to arrive at that answer. What happens if you work the other way around? Useful critical thinking questions might help her understand why she arrived at a particular answer rather than assuming that she has a particular answer to begin with. She can use all that wonderful knowledge she possesses in abundance to prove others wrong rather than to come up with their prepackaged answers. If she needs prodding, then give the prodding, but maybe don't begin with it.

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First, I would pick your battles.  Choose one area where you will have her write her answers in complete sentences/paragraphs, and then have her do everything else orally (or with one word/fragment answers).

 

You are right, I was expecting a lot and I really need to slowly build up to that over time.

 

Then for the topic that she is to complete a written assignment, discuss her answers with her first and *you* take notes.  You want to separate thinking from writing.  And it's ok if you're helping her with her thinking.

 

Then sit with her while she writes her responses.  Have her write on the computer if possible since it's so easy to make corrections that way.  Show her what you're looking for.  Help her start her sentences and help with transitions.  That sort of thing.  

 

She does frequently use the computer for final drafts, but she's a pretty slow typist. We've been working on that. I don't know if she would find it frustrating to type her rough draft or not. I'll ask. I know I always preferred to use the computer for mine.

 

Then over time, gradually hand over the writing part to her.  Finally, the last thing you'll do is had off the discussion piece.

 

Repeat this process every time you ramp up the difficulty or you make other changes (such as a different subject or format).

 

You are right. I guess I'm just worried because she seems so behind. It's hard for me I think because I always found writing easy and struggled with math. She's just the opposite. I need to keep that in mind.

 

 

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I agree with the points about the challenge of writing plus critical thinking plus... all at the same time.

 

One technique is to 'scaffold' the assignment. You could make questions with only short answers required, or take notes on what she says, or do a cloze activity, or a graphic organizer. The steps would depend on the child's learning style. By the time actual writiyng is required, most of the assignment will be practically written.

 

You could also vary the outcomes -- writing, posters, power point, etc.

 

I love Number the Stars, but I have to say that I found your second and third questions pretty challenging. Maybe something intermediate, like a chart -- how did the girl view the political situation? How did her brother view it? Her parents? Neighbors? Then ask if the reader sees it from the girls point of view only, leading up to your second question. Etc.

Edited by Alessandra
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