Climbing up to Critical Thinking

One new technique I've added in my classroom this year is quick-write questions. I give each student a third of an index card and present a question on my projector. This has included topics like questions about their class, their teacher, or silly warm-ups to get to know each other. I like this format because students can answer anonymously with no fear of judgment. I decided that I wanted to use this format with level four (critical thinking) questions. It took me a bit to come up with the question, but I was pleased with the thinking some students displayed as a result.

All choir students are singing Bring Me Little Water Silvy arranged by Adam Podd. In order to get to critical thinking, my students first needed to know the origins of the song, the definition of a folk song, and the definition of a spiritual song. I used this article as a starting point. We talked about who was given credit for the song, but that nobody can be truly sure about the origins. We settled on the fact that it was either a folk song or a spiritual. Most of my students understood what a folk song was, but I explained spirituals and give them some well-known examples like Follow the Drinking Gourd and Wade in the Water. The most important point I wanted students to take away was that spirituals have an outside meaning and a hidden meaning. After this, we arrived at our level four question: If Bring Me Little Water Silvy is a spiritual and not a folk song, what is the hidden meaning?

Because this was one of our first times digging into critical thinking, I asked our level four question as a group first to give students opportunities to hear other answers and see how these deeper-level questions can be answered. I assured students there was no right or wrong answer, as this was an opinion question.

The next day, I started with my index card quick-write. I put our level four question about Bring Me Little Water Silvy on the projector and had my students write down their answers. This way, I could see where each student was at in understanding this deeper-level question without the pressure of it being a true assessment or having a name attached to it. Even anonymously, this gave me the information I needed to move forward. I have included photo examples of some high-level answers and answers from students who struggled with the question. In general, second hour understood the basic definitions and was able to give thoughtful answers that used critical thinking. I saw more discrepancies in my first hour. A lot of them stated that the inside meaning of the song was the water or didn't understand the question. After reading their responses, I decided to review the definition of a spiritual with that class. They need to understand the double-meaning aspect of a spiritual to then make deeper connections.

Overall, this was a quick activity that encouraged deeper thinking and gave me quick insight into my students' critical thinking abilities. And it took less than five minutes. I may not employ a level four question every day, but I will definitely be using more of the in the future to further my students' thinking and writing skills. There is some amount of thought involved in creating these activities, but it doesn't take a lot of time. I highly recommend trying something simple like this in your classroom to increase critical thinking.