Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/2788
ABOVE: Betty Lightfoot, a teacher at Earl Warren Elementary School in Lake Elsinore, introduces her kindergartners to critical learning. INSET: Kindergartner Debrea Allen. Create a thinking map don't understand why. And we need students to be critical thinkers when it's time to vote and get involved in civic responsibilities." Craig says he embraced the teaching method after soul-searching. "By t he end of t he s cho ol ye ar, I wou ld s ee s eniors w ho had b een in s cho ol 12 years and despised reading books and hated learning. I thought to myself, ' There's something wrong when you are getting t he opp osite results of what you profess to want.' Instead of ge tt i ng k i ds w ho w ant to go out into t he world and le ar n, t he y hate learning and reading books. "I b e g an t o a s k qu e s t i ons ab out w h at te a ch e rs d o i n t h e cl a ss ro om that contributes to killing the joy of Thinking maps help students organize their ideas, says Betty Lightfoot, a teacher at Earl Warren Elementary School in Lake Elsinore. She believes that kindergarten is the perfect age to foster critical thinking skills and get students excited about learning. Thinking maps were developed two decades ago by Dr. David Hyerle to improve reading comprehension, writing, problem-solving and reasoning. A circle map shows context, a flow map sequencing, and a tree map classifying and grouping. Lightfoot draws thinking maps when teaching writing and literature to her kindergartners, many of whom are English learners. "Let's say you are talking about eggs," says Lightfoot, who is National Board Certified. "We might talk about what comes from eggs, sort it out and put it into groups. You might have birds, amphibians or Easter eggs. After they see groupings in a map they write it out themselves. It helps them process their thinking." "It's all about questioning," she says. "When I asked them about what things float and don't float, they had to come up with their own predictions and hypotheses about what would float and why. They had to create their own boats and test their hypotheses. When you encourage critical learning, students become excited and enthusiastic. They become so involved it takes away from discipline problems." To learn more about thinking maps, go to www.thinkingmaps.com. june 8-21 June.09.indd 15 2009 | www.cta.org 15 6/4/09 1:57:49 PM