Dear Readers:
Shira Cohen-Goldberg delivered a presentation at the 34th International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform (July 2014) for teachers and elementary school students. Shira is a lead facilitator at the HILL for Literacy, Inc.
Here is an abstract of her talk. Slides and handouts can be located at
http://hillforliteracy.org/resources/presentations (at the top of the page).
The Common Core State Standards establish that teaching practices and related tasks that help students cultivate their thinking are to be prioritized in classroom instruction. This presentation is designed to help participants explore novel ways to bring the core concepts of critical thinking to elementary and middle school students. By nature, digital information (including social networking sites and YouTube) is continuously accessible, abundant, and often requires careful analysis. Social media is a timely and appropriate means to help young students analyze new information and is an engaging point of access for all students. Cohen-Goldberg uses digital media to help participants explore the concepts of information/inferences/assumptions, touch on paraphrasing and explication, and deeply engage in the analysis level by exploring the logic of an internet persona’s thinking. She offers methods and tools to help students move their thinking beyond digital media and into textual analysis.
Critical Thinking Now! 