Class handout prepared by Dvg Martinez

1. October 2012
HAND-OUT
DEVELOPING CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING SKILLS

2. Class Hand-Out:
I.
Developing Critical and Creative Thinking Skills
Post-Reading Activities
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Critical Thinking
 Analyze and evaluate information and ideas to determine appropriate actions or develop a point of view
 Is the active and systematic process of Communication, Problem-solving, Evaluation Analysis Synthesis Reflection
 Purposeful reflective judgment concerning what to believe or what to do
Creative Thinking
 Generate original ideas, unique skills and associations of existing ideas of an aesthetic or practical purpose
 Is all about being able to come up with ideas and thoughts that are not something the average person would come
up with.
Critical Thinkers
 A person who uses broad in-depth analysis of evidence to make decisions and communicate his/her beliefs clearly
and accurately
Creative Thinkers
 A person who uses the mind creatively
II.
DISCUSSION
Nature of Critical and Creative Thinking Skills
High cognitive skills
Indeed, emergent learners are critical
Very inquisitive of many things
and creative; therefore they must be
developed through the support of the
Very creative in finding answers to their queries
family and other literate adults.
Hypothesize, experiment and attempt to feed their curiosity
Participating in adult conversations
Emulating actions and speech
Browsing and scrutinizing pictures in books, magazines and other print materials
Inquire a lot about “how’s” and “why’s”
Not satisfied with simple affirmative or negative response
Literate adults can do instead to
promote the critical and creative
thinking of young learners is to
guide their thoughts, reasons, ideas
and opinions and to enrich them
with substantial literacy materials
and appropriate literacy situations.
Barriers to Developing Critical and Creative Thinking Skills
Inquisitiveness and creativity are not nurtured
Not exposed to challenging activities
Contented with simple answers
Confined to easy activities
Allowing children to believe in something that is not true
Attitudes
Benefits
Allows a person to come up with multiple ideas
Can make a person a perfect problem solver
Can give a person a completely new outlook
Can change a person's whole attitude
Can be a ticket to success and great accomplishment
III.
ACTIVITIES – Figure out your thoughts
Activity 1
Identify specific barriers to children’s critical and creative thinking. Indicate home and classroom situations that
may impede their development. Give concrete solutions.
Home
Classroom
1.
2.
1.
2.
Problems:
Solutions:
Problems:
Solutions:
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3. Class Hand-Out:
Developing Critical and Creative Thinking Skills
Post-Reading Activities
Post-Reading Activity
 Post-Reading activities encourage student to reflect upon what they have read. For the information to stay with
the students, they need to go beyond simply reading it to using it. Using it can involve answering questions,
summarizing main ideas, drawing conclusions, or applying the information to a new situation.
 The activities in post-reading can extend student’s reading experiences; comprehension,appreciation, and social
interaction develop children’s love for reading.
 Is not strictly limited o another reading activity,instead,these would depend:on the kills bing developed in the
reading process,on the grammar points introduced in the reading text,on the theme emphasized o the kids,on the
elements of the genre presented such as characters an plot, specially t ginning readers.
Activity 2
Post-Reading
Questions:
1. If you were given a chance, will you exchange your family to a person who can give all your wants and needs?
2. Do you consider wealth as a source of love, happiness and fulfillment? Why or why not?
3. Which do you prefer; a big but an empty house or a small yet a happy home?
“The Boy and the Mermaid”
Maximo Ramos
It happened once that a boy, while playing on a riverbank, saw a beautiful woman
bathing in the water. She smiled sweetly at him and said: “Come here, son. I shall tell you a
wonderful story.”
The boy was attracted by her long curls and her charming smile and he walked to her. No
sooner had his feet touched the water and then the river rose and the woman caught him in her
arms.
Let me go! Let me go!, screamed the boy. But the woman held him firmly and said, “Be
quiet son, and I shall take you to my home.”
“My father and mother will be looking for me!” said the boy. The woman replied, “You
will forget them when you see my wonderful home.” “Please let me go!”
After they reached the sea, they came to a beautiful house with a golden door and a
gorgeous hall. They sat down and the woman asks the following questions:
“Tell me what vegetables you love to eat?”
“Do you eat fish?”
The boy replied, “We never eat those things at home. I never eat fish. We eat nothing but
rice and tomatoes.”
Suddenly, while hearing those questions, the boy remembered that the woman asked
those questions to test people.
“That’s alright!” said the woman with a smile. “He who eats fish is my enemy.” The
woman showed him rooms with silver and gold furniture. All rooms contained treasures.
Left alone the boy tried to enjoy himself, but he kept yearning for his parents, friends, his
real home. He pretended to enjoy all the luxuries and wealth, but his heart was not there. This
went on day after day, but the longer he stayed in this house, the more he longed for his parents.
“Please tell me how soon I can get back home,” the boy said. She replied. “Forget about
home. This is your home now. Call me mother.” Everyday, the woman would leave the house and
returned home at the end of the day. But the boy began to wonder why the woman always went to
the back part of the house before leaving.
As he was looking this way one day, he suspected that there might be some passage that
she kept from him, till he found out that it was a secret door, a door well hidden.
The following morning, as soon as the woman was gone, the boy opened and entered the
secret door. There he found a large jar of shining gold, with golden liquid. Then the boy
remembered that since he came into woman’s house, he had not taken a bath yet, so he poured
the golden liquid into his body.
Then a strap door opened beneath his feet. He ran down and followed a sandy path with
bright sunlight. Soon he found himself back to the river where the woman had caught him. The
whole village rejoiced, specially his parents for his return. Everyone was overjoyed and amazed at
his story.
For many nights after that, the villagers heard the voice of the woman crying in the river.
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4. Class Hand-Out:
Developing Critical and Creative Thinking Skills
Post-Reading Activities
Questions:
1.
2.
3.
What can you say about the behavior and attitudes of the characters in the story?
Will you able to predict the outcome of the characters’ behavior?
What are your conclusions?
Activity 3
Connecting the dots
Your task is to go all through the dots using only four lines.
The next line has to start where the last one ended!
“Creative thinking can be
defined as thinking outside
the box, which means
thinking beyond the normal
scope.”
IV.
EVALUATION
Evaluating the students’ critical and creative thinking skills is through the activities to be conducted. The results will be
compiled and the reporters will identify which group/participant has higher order thinking skill
V.
RESOURCES
Developmental Reading 2
Servillano T. Marquez Jr., Ph.D.; Neliza C. Casela, MAT; Bryan Eli Sadorra, MAT
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking
Foundation for Critical Thinking
www.criticalthinking.org
***end of report***
Hand-out prepared by: DGM
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