TAP

1. Teaching
Approach

2. I have adopted a critical thinking approach
(tailored for 3rd graders) because I would like
to help students understand the reasons
behind social phenomena. In the classroom
we are dealing with human affects and needs
and therefore it is essential to help students
understand the basic relational character of a
topic, whether it be social or language
oriented, since it will affect their lives one way
or another at some point. By understanding
the links involved they can compare, analyse,
synthesize and evaluate the information being
learnt. When they can critically think about
information they can develop objective
answers.

3. Definition of Critical Thinking
"Broadly speaking, critical thinking is concerned with
reason, intellectual honesty, and open-mindedness.
[…] critical thinking involves: following evidence
where it leads; considering all possibilities; relying
on reason rather than emotion; being precise;
considering a variety of possible viewpoints and
explanations; weighing the effects of motives and
biases; being concerned more with finding the truth
than with being right; not rejecting unpopular views
out of hand; being aware of one's own prejudices
and biases, and not allowing them to sway one's
judgment."
Kurland, Daniel J. I Know What It Says . . . What
does it Mean? 1995.

4. Why apply this method in an English
classroom?
• Because unacknowledged difference
creates prejudice and a foreign language
touches upon so many disparate aspects
compared to a mother tongue, aspects
which students do not know how to master.
• Once the students develop an ability to
reason they are more careful before they
arrive at conclusions, yet this caution is not
a constraint but the time required by an
informed individual who is trying to identify,
infer and then support his/her particular
reasoning.

5. Why use the visual approach?
• Because our culture nowadays is basically visual, a fact
that affects society in both negative and positive ways.
• Students are surrounded by images on a daily basis, on
the streets, on TV, on the net and they are bombarded
with superficial and unreal situations through
advertisements. Given that their lives are greatly impacted
by what they see, it is important to help them be aware of
that. Through awareness they can reverse media logic by
using different mediums to spread info and communicate
in a beneficial way.
• When students process information, they are able to grasp
it faster once it is connected to an illustration. Images help
organise our mental capacities by retaining information
and structuring details in connection with one another.

6. Generally speaking if students are able to
think critically about words through pictures:
• they have a higher rate of recalling or recognizing
what has been learnt.
• then they can think about how words are related
and form more connections.
• then more words mean more ideas.
• they learn to answer as the result of reasoning
and not memorization.
• then understanding intrigues them to the point of
wishing to find out more about related information
- the more they know the more the learning
process becomes challenging and rewarding.

7. Finally:
• Students should be encouraged to reflect on the
knowledge provided not by choosing from a
selection of readymade answers but through skills
that reinforce individual answers that matter.
• Once a student understands that answers are
crude forms of decisions and that decisions are
the AZ of life, they start caring about how and why
they answer in a particular way.
• Thus, they are motivated and interested in the
learning process, which will continue in many for
the rest of their lives.
• This approach requires a lot of effort and it will
take a while before it reaches any fruitful outcome
but it is certainly worth the try, since a mature
mind is the basis of a just individual.

8. Teaching goals and objectives
•Students improve skills acquired previously.
•Students read and write with a focus on
comprehension and critical thinking.
•Students exhibit an understanding of new
concepts and an effective use of new vocabulary.
•Students develop an understanding of various
grammatical structures derived from the present
perfect simple and continuous that are often
confused and they also develop reasoning skills
through grammar to decide what people do in
different situations.
•Students utilize critical thinking and inferential
skills in reading, answering, writing, grammar and
vocabulary exercises.

9. Teaching Environment
Students demonstrate active
participation by teacher elicited
questions and written exercises that:
• check and evaluate student
understanding and learning
• encourage critical thinking.

10. Motivation is produced through 5 stages:
1. Students’ previous homework
assignment regarding the study of media
vocabulary.
2. Eliciting more synonyms of the new
vocabulary via the powerpoint
presentation.
3. Providing core information on terms.
4. Identifying new vocabulary by means of a
puzzling yet stimulating gif.
5. Developing grammar awareness and
usage through collages.

11. Activity I
Reading
• Students are exposed to basic media
concepts/vocabulary and the present
perfect simple and continuous in a
variety of sentences via a powerpoint
presentation.
• Students demonstrate understanding
of the reading by answering related
questions and using new vocabulary
in context.

12. Activity II
Building Vocabulary Skills
• Students work in pairs and
concentrate on vocabulary
identification and categorization
through a gif and then complete a
worksheet according to what part of
speech the words are.

13. Activity III
Grammar
• Students read illustrated notes on
present perfect simple and continuous
via a powerpoint presentation.
• Students differentiate between both by
providing their own examples.

14. Homework Assignment
• Students are given worksheets on
which they must complete a text
constructed solely of sentences in the
present perfect simple and
continuous.
This sentence completion exercise is
offered by:
http://www.englishexercises.org.

15. Materials and references
• Two powerpoint presentations
• A gif
• http://www.udlap.mx/promueve/ciedd/
CR/pensamiento/CriticalThinkingAcro
sstheCurriculumProject.pdf
• http://www.englishexercises.org