Critical+Thinking+Tools+Rotation

Critical thinking is an essential skill for a media-rich, fast-paced and ever changing world. Moving beyond content, simple worksheets and rote knowledge assessments can help students develop the ability to reason effectively, analyze how the parts of a whole interact with each other, make judgments and decisions based on the evidence available, and solve problems.

//“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”//

In this rotation you will learn about technologies and techniques for building students' critical thinking skills. **Explore one (1) or more** of the critical thinking technologies below. Be sure to leave enough time to for a lesson that develops students' critical thinking skills.

Diigo | Mind Maps | Polling | Google Docs

Diigo is a social bookmarking and annotation tool that allows users to add highlights and notes to any web page and share them with others. It combines aspects of social bookmarking, full-text search, annotations, tagging and sharing. A Diigo group creates an opportunity for students to do collaborative research, evaluate resources together and have an ongoing discussion about the value and perspective of online articles and resources.
 * Diigo**

Examples:
 * Student assignments with Diigo
 * How to use Diigo in Education
 * Diigo in Education Group

Resources: Using Diigo in the Classroom Diigo Lesson Plans 12 Reason Teachers Should Use Diigo



Mind maps can be used as graphical organizers by teachers, but are also great for allowing students to analyze a topic, create categories and analyze topical connections. Mindmaps can be used for brainstorming, analysis, planning and collaboration. Mind mapping presents an opportunity for students to demonstrate their thinking about a topic in a visual format. Through mindmapping students can analyze how the parts of a whole interact with each other.
 * Mind Maps**

Examples:
 * Basic English Grammar
 * The Industrial Revolution
 * Climate Change

Resources: The Best Mind Mapping Tools and Apps 10 Mind Mapping Strategies for Teachers The Case for Mind Mapping



Polling activities engage students and gauge student understanding through formative assessment. Formative assessment through polling provides data that lets the teacher know whether to adjust the lesson plan or to continue. Polling also allows students to compare their thinking to that of their peers. Each student answers the poll question, but also gets to see the cumulative responses from everyone. Polling presents an opportunity for students to demonstrate their thinking about a topic. There is also an opportunity to reflect on that thinking by comparing their response to that of their classmates and the teacher’s response to poll results.
 * Polling**

Examples:
 * Digital Toolbox Workshop Poll
 * Celly Case Studies
 * Micropoll Featured Polls

Resources: 7 Online Polling Tools to Help You Collect Student Feedback Cell Phones as Classroom Tools “Any questions?” Engaging your students with interactive polls. Art and Science of Teaching / Using Polling Technologies to Close Feedback Gaps



Google Docs promote collaboration and critical thinking by allowing multiple users to access the same online document. Students can create documents, presentations, drawings and forms together. Features in the documents allow commenting, discussions and collaborative editing. Peer collaboration, review and feedback in Google Docs provide students an opportunity to evaluate each other’s work and to communicate in a supportive manner when doing so. There is also an opportunity for students to reflect on their own work by seeing the work of others, as well as by receiving direct feedback.
 * Google Docs**

Examples:
 * Google Docs for English Class
 * Common core in Action: Teaching Critical Thinking and Questioning
 * Google Docs for Collaboration

Resources: Google Apps in Classrooms and Schools Docs & Drive Level 1:The Basics Google Docs editors Help Center