SOME CRITICAL JOB TO DO….

Monik Vinueza

Universidad Técnica del Norte

2015

THIS IS THE PLAN…

1. Do the KWL chart

2. Review a definition

of critical thinking

3. Explore the proposal

4. Get some ideas

WHAT DO YOU KNOW….?

What is critical thinking?

How can we develop in class?

Can it be done?

Results?

TWO DEFINITIONS…

Beyer (1985) ability to gather, evaluate and use information effectively.

It involves thinking skills: judging, posing and solving problems

Smith (1990) reflecting , arguing, and propoing different alternatives of solution

It means … not taking everything for granted……

Open your eyes

Develop skills

Activate your curiosity, motivation and mental skills

THE PROPOSAL…..

SOME DEFINITIONS…..

Riddles

Nursery rhymes

Puns

Funny anagrams

Jokes

Oxymorons

A riddle is a

statement  or question or phrase having a double or

veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. 

Examples:

1. Which month has 28 days?

All of them of course!

2. What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

Short

MORE RIDDLES……

1. What word begins and ends with

an ‘e’ but only has one letter?

2. What has a neck but no head?

3. What gets wetter as it dries?

4. Why did the boy bury his flashlight?

5. Which letter of the alphabet has the most water?

6. What starts with a ‘P’, ends with an ‘E’ and has thousands of

letters?

7. What has to be broken before you can use it?

ANSWERS… TO THE RIDDLES

1. Envelope

2. A bottle

3. A towel

4. Because the batteries died.

5. The C

6. The Post Office!

7. An egg

Nursery rhymes

Short rhyming poems (18th century).

Tell stories with unusual and implausible plots.

Promote literacy skills which include oral language

development, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency

comprehension and vocabulary.

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE….

What might be all the ways to keep Humpty Dumpty from falling off the wall?

In what ways might the King’s men put Humpty Dumpty back together again?

How might the King’s men reach Humpty Dumpty before he falls?

How might you prevent Humpty Dumpty’s shell from breaking?

How might you lessen the damage of Humpty Dumpty’s fall?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the King’s horses

And all the King’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together

again!

OTHER NURSERY RHYMES

Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet sat on a

tuffet

Eating her curds and whey,

Along came a spider,

Who sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet

away.

Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a

merry old soul was he;

He called for his pipe in the middle of the night

And he called for his fiddlers three.

Every fiddler had a fine fiddle, and a very fine

fiddle had he;

Oh there's none so rare as can compare

With King Cole and his fiddlers three.

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/old_king_cole.htm

PUNS…

A form of word play which take advantage of words,

or similar sounding words, with multiple meanings,

often to create a humorous situation or joke.

Puns can sometimes be created unintentionally, in

which case the saying ‘no pun intended’ is used.

For example:

Let’s talk about rights and lefts. You’re right, so I left.

http://www.funnyjunk.com/

EXAMPLES…

1. When a clock is hungry it goes back four

seconds.

2. Without geometry, life is pointless

3. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a

banana.

4. She had a photographic memory but

never developed it.

5. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love

and got married. The ceremony wasn't

much, but the reception was brilliant!

What is a pun?

Why is this a pun?

What is a spelling bee?

How can you develop

critical thinking through it?

How can you use this pun

in class?

What are the possible

questions that can be

formulated?

Are images important?

FUNNY ANAGRAMSA word, name or phrase formed by

rearranging the letters of another,

using each original letter only once.

The best anagrams manage to link

the new word, name or phrase to

the original one in some way, such

as when ‘listen’ becomes

‘silent’ or

‘Elvis’ becomes ‘lives’.

EXAMPLES…

1. A gentleman =

Elegant man

2. Eleven plus two =

Twelve plus one

3. Hot water =

Worth tea

WHAT ABOUT SOME JOKES???

(1)"I am not surprised," replied the weary

salesman,

(2) A man went to a shoe-shop to buy

shoes.

(3)  Finally, he was satisfied.

(4) He put many pairs on his feet. 

(5) "They are your own shoes.“

(6) "At last," he said, "I have found a pair of

shoes that fit me."

SOME JOKES????

Elementary:

Why didn't the skeleton go to the party?Because he had no-body to go with!

Intermediate:

How do you count a herd of cattle?With a cowculator.

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody

and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that

Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job.

Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that

Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what

Anybody could have done.

Advanced(1)What did the mayonnaise say to the fridge?

Close the door please. I'm dressing.

(2)What's round and dangerous?A vicious circle!

(3)A: Shall I tell you a secret about butter?B: You'd better not. I might spread it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Using Nursery Rhymes to Boost Your/Your Child’s Creative IQ

http://alicia-arnold.com/2011/03/30/using-nursery-rhymes-to-boost-your-childs-creative-iq/

/www.google.com.ec/

http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/logic/puzzles.php

https://www.englishclub.com

http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/lesson-share/extras/teenagers/teenagers-lateral-thinking/145220.article

https://neltachoutari.wordpress.c http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kabilan-CriticalThinking.html om/2011/11/01/critical-thinking-in-esl-classrooms/

CRITICAL THINKING…FACTS TO CONSIDER..

Critical thinking, like many other phenomena, has been defined variously by many scholars.

Critical thinking, a hard-to-define concept, has philosophical and psychological roots (Lewis & Smith, 1993).

Critical thinking refers to a type of lateral thinking that enables individuals to analyze and evaluate information about a situation or phenomenon or a problem and to make appropriate decisions that befit in their contexts.

The third approach to critical thinking is within the field of education (Sternberg, 1986).

Critical thinking is not an easy concept to define as it can mean quite different things to different people in different contexts and cultures.

It takes time to develop

Generally speaking, to think critically about an issue is to consider that issue from various perspectives, to look at and challenge any possible assumptions that may underlie the issue and to explore its possible alternatives.

TO SUM UP..

Critical thinking in EFL teaching…..

Based on the study of King (1995) and Taba (1966), the level of students’ thinking is strongly influenced by the level of questions which are asked in class.

According to the study of Paul and Elder (2001), critical thinking can be defined as a mode of thinking about any subject, content, or problem.

“Critical thinking includes the component skills of analyzing arguments, making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning, judging or evaluating, and making decisions or solving problems”

monikvinuezam@yahoo.com