Extending Critical Thinking Past the Text: Strategies for creating supplemental printouts that focus on students’ needs

by James Dunn

While there are some excellent options available when it comes to English language learning textbooks, no one textbook will perfectly fit every class.

This presentation will look at how to deconstruct units of a sample of course books with an eye on pushing students into the higher order thinking skills, critical thinking skills, and supplementing the information covered to support a more CLIL type of curriculum.

This is achieved by viewing a unit among two interconnected dimensions, the knowledge dimension and the cognitive dimension, in which gaps in higher order thinking or critical thinking skills in a unit can be identified. Once identified, the areas of information supporting the students’ needs and or interests can be integrated into the classroom with original supplemental printouts.

Attendees will leave with ideas to help maximize the CLIL and Critical Thinking potential of any classroom for a student experience that better matches their needs.