These are my slides from my session, Developing Critical Thinking in Our Youngest Learners, that I gave at the PK1 Conference in Santa Clara, CA in January 2015. In this presentation, I shared 9 instructional strategies to help Kindergarten and First Grade teachers teach critical thinking to their little ones. Many of the posters included in the slides are either free or for sale in my TpT store at www.hellojenjones.com Keywords: Language Frames, Critical Thinking Rubric, because, Picture of the Day, Daily Analogies, Morning Meeting, Rules for Discussion, Speaking & Listening, Be Opinionated, Vocabulary Notebooks, Hello Literacy, Jen Jones

1. Critical Thinking
With our Youngest Learners

3. #pk115
@hellojenjones

5. “close, attentive reading”…”critical
reading”… “reasoning and use of
evidence”… “comprehend, evaluate,
synthesize”… “understand
precisely…question…assess the
veracity” …. “cite specific evidence”
… “evaluate others’ point of view”…
“reading independently and
closely”…

6. Teaching is NOT Telling Kids What to Think...

7. Where in the day could
critical thinking occur?

9. Where Are You With This?
Are Your Kids There?

10. Clearly Understanding
Lower vs. Higher Level Thinking
the answer is already known

15. instead of asking kids…
Is 10 bigger
or smaller
than 7?

16. Or, instead of asking kids…
Which is
bigger,
10 or 7?

17. Ask students this…
Why is 10
bigger
than 7?

18. Clearly Understanding
Lower vs. Higher Level Thinking
the answer is already known
Are we communicating this
language WITH students?
$

19. ….followed
by our
evidence
based
thinking,
tells others
the
rationale
for our
thinking.

20. Critical Thinking
Rubric

23. First
We must be Critical
Thinkers…
Form an opinion
and justify it!
Agree or disagree.Image: http://www.1vigor.com/brain-power/Clear-Thinking/index.html

27. Build
Community
Justifying Our Opinions

29. Communication Clubs

30. Analogy Poster
Daily Analogies
“Mrs. Jones, this is hard!”
“I don’t know.”

31. Who Remembers DOL?
www.greatsource.com

32. : :: :

33. : :: :

34. : :: :

35. : :: :

36. : :: :

37. : :: :

38. : ::D d :H

39. : ::D d :H h

40. Venn Diagrams

41. Making Inferences with…
Picture of
the Day

42. Pictures
*are*
Informational text
RIT.7 “Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and
formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.”

43. observing
describing
AnaLyzing
Inferring

44. Describing & Inferring Pictures
is most like…
Reading ReaL Life.

46. *and* research-based

47. .65

49. .34
.2000.10
.123 .003 .9
.765.7054
.888
.5566012 .04

52. cat
Pictures = Brain-based

54. Making Inferences with…
Picture of
the Day

56. What Do You
Think?
What Do You
See?

57. observing details
describing details
AnaLyzing details
Making inferences
about the details $

59. $

60. Justifying Scientific Claims

61. Sorting, Classifying & Ranking

62. Character Analysis
With Text Based Evidence
Images: www.julieballew.com

65. The Take-Aways
Image: D. Garland

69. Thank You!