CRITICAL THINKING AT KINRY ROAD SCHOOL

CRITICAL THINKING COMMITTEE - MEMBERS
John Farrell - principal
Liz Giangaspro - parent
Beth Kinney* – 4th grade teacher, Kinry Road School
Kenneth Louis-Jeune* – assistant coordinator, special education
Sydnie Vazquez – assistant principal, Roy C. Ketchem High School
*Attending Critical Thinking Institute, Summer, 2008

GOAL: With the Tri-State report’s recommendations in mind, the committee’s goal is to develop a
plan that will help infuse critical thinking throughout Kinry Road’s approach to instruction.
The committee is mindful of two significant initiatives currently underway at Kinry – Thinking
Maps and Six Traits Writing, and members concur that our critical thinking work must not be
viewed as another initiative. Instead, we are going to strive to weave discussions related to
critical thinking into the fabric of Kinry in a manner that compliments what teachers are
already doing, and supplements it in a way that will enhance their pedagogy and cultivate
students’ critical thinking skills.

QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES

We believe that this is an area which may arguably have the most significant impact on student
thinking, and we believe that significant gains can be achieved in this area. Teachers don’t
intuitively ask questions that necessarily develop critical thinking skills in their students.
Asking higher order questions is a skill that must be learned and developed. Asking higher
order questions that encourage critical thinking is something teachers must do deliberately.
Teachers will be continually encouraged to fine-tune their questioning techniques. Primarily
during grade-level meetings, but also on conference days and at faculty meetings, professional
articles related to critical thinking and refining higher order questioning techniques will be
shared with faculty and staff. Several articles have already been selected (see attachments).
Questioning techniques will continue to be an ongoing topic for discussion.
(Begin 2008-2009 – ongoing thereafter)

We will consider forming a Socratic Seminar learning community at some point during the year if
there is interest and we can arrange for someone who has been trained to come and work with
Kinry teachers.

VISIBLE THINKING

Harvard’s Visible Thinking site is extremely interesting and could potentially be invaluable as
we strive to help our students become better thinkers. Information from Harvard’s Visible
Thinking web-site will be systematically shared with teachers in much the same way that the
professional articles related to critical thinking will be disseminated. It must not be, and
will not be, presented in a way that makes it become a separate and additional initiative.
There will be a concerted effort to not “pile-on” the critical thinking information in a way
that turns teachers off and becomes counterproductive.
(Begin 2008-2009 – ongoing thereafter)

From Harvard’s Visible Thinking web-site home-page: “Visible thinking is a flexible and
systematic research-based approach to integrating the developments of students’ thinking with
content learning across subject matters. [V]isible Thinking has a double goal: on the one hand,
to cultivate students’ thinking skills and dispositions, and, on the other, to deepen content
learning.”

WRITING INSTRUCTION, WRITING INSTRUCTION, AND MORE WRITING INSTRUCTION AT KINRY
The very act of beginning with an idea and developing and refining it through the use of the
writing process requires significant critical thinking skills.

The February 6th Superintendent’s Conference Day will be devoted entirely to our writing
instruction program at Kinry. Time will be spent on this day talking about the role Thinking
Maps can play in the prewriting stage of the writing process.
(February, 2008)

The February (2009) Superintendent’s Conference Day will again be devoted to writing instruction
at Kinry. A more detailed plan for this day will be developed and submitted in early-January.

Our Literacy Committee has agreed that the primary focus of our literacy efforts in 2008-2009
will be related to writing instruction at Kinry. A significant emphasis will continue to be
placed on developing an exemplary writing instruction program at Kinry.

A learning community focused on writing instruction (writer’s workshop and sentence expansion)
will be formed. Plans for this learning community will be developed over the summer months.
(Begin 2008-2009 – ongoing thereafter)


THINKING MAPS

We will continue to promote the use of this excellent critical thinking tool throughout Kinry.
By the spring of 2008, all teachers at Kinry, including special area teachers, will have been
trained in the use of Thinking Maps. Teachers will continue to be required to keep Thinking
Maps posters on display in their classrooms and encouraged to use and display student maps in
the hallway. Next September and October, teachers will be required to introduce Thinking Maps,
one per week, according to a school-wide schedule. By the beginning of November, all teachers
and all students in Kinry will have worked with each of the eight Thinking Maps.

The use of Thinking Maps will continue to be encouraged and, when used, noted during the formal
observation and evaluation process.

Thinking Maps is, slowly but surely, beginning to be much more broadly used throughout Kinry.
More and more, teachers and students are using Thinking Maps on a daily basis. Steady progress
is being made with the implementation of Thinking Maps; this will continue, provided teachers
have the opportunity to receive further professional development and are encouraged to use the
Maps in appropriate ways. We recognize that additional professional development is needed, and
a return visit from Larry Alpers would be very beneficial.

Kinry will survey teachers to see if there is an interest in forming a learning community
focused on the use of Thinking Maps in math, ELA, social studies, and science.
(Begin 2007-2008 – ongoing thereafter)

PROMOTING INDEPENDENT PROBLEM SOLVING

Students often ask adults for answers to questions that they are perfectly capable of answering
themselves. We will strive to develop a school-wide approach that encourages students to think
for themselves and to problem solve independently when confronted with an issue, such as
assignment directions that they may not understand or a logistical problem they face during
their day.

For example, when a student reads the directions for an assignment and immediately raises her
hand to ask a question, instead of automatically giving an answer which the student is more than
capable of obtaining for herself, the teacher might respond with a question of her own, such
as “Did you read the directions carefully at least two times?”

In Kinry Road’s faculty handbook, a section exists that addresses the issue of students and
reading directions: “In an effort to strengthen students’ abilities in the area of independently
understanding and interpreting directions, the staff has made the following commitment to use
one or more of the following teaching strategies regarding students and directions.”
(Begin 2007-2008 – ongoing thereafter)

CHESS CLUB AT KINRY

Kinry Road and the PTA piloted a chess club program for about 30 students that met weekly for
six weeks in the spring this year. Chess is a game, by its very nature, that requires players
to think critically each time they make a move and to think about their moves several steps in
advance of making them. If I move my queen here, will she be safe? If I take his pawn, will I
lose my rook, Etc. If I move my knight here and my bishop there, will his king be in check
mate? Chess is entirely a thinking game, and several studies make a strong correlation between
playing chess and improving thinking skills. (Please see attachment.)

Kinry will work with the PTA, teacher, and parent volunteers next year to substantially expand
our chess club, in which 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students will be eligible to participate. We
will also consider submitting a proposal to have Chess Club added as one of our school sponsored
clubs, with a faculty member serving as its advisor. We are hopeful that we can increase the
number of students participating and have the club meet over several months instead of weeks.
(Begin 2008-2009 – ongoing thereafter)

THE BIG SIX

Through Ms. Inkeles, our school librarian, all Kinry Road students will be introduced to and
become conversant on “The Big Six”, which has been described as a six-stage problem-solving
process that is widely applicable, easy to implement, and a powerful tool to help students
access and work with information. The Six Steps: (1) Task Definition (2) Information Seeking
Strategies (3) Location and Access (4) Use of Information (5) Synthesis (6) Evaluation
(Begin 2008-2009 – ongoing thereafter)

KINRY ROAD MAC LAB PROJECT

A wireless computer cart containing several MAC computers, digital still camera, digital video
camera, Pro-scope, are coming to Kinry Road in September, 2008-2009. Clearly, there will be a
great deal of potential for students to engage, through technology, in a plethora of situations
that will require critical thinking skills.

We anticipate that as this project gets off the ground, it will become a more integral part of
our plan.
(Begin 2008-2009 – ongoing thereafter)

PEER MEDIATION

Through Kinry’s peer mediation program, several students will be trained as peer mediators.
Conflict resolution requires student participants, both the mediators and the ones involved in
the issue, to think critically and problem solve.
(Begin 2006-2007 – ongoing thereafter)

Funds have been allocated through the building budget codes for the 2008-2009 school year.

This critical thinking plan will be reviewed with faculty in September.

This plan will be reviewed semi-annually and revised and amended as needed.