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Critical Thinking
We try to employ critical
thinking in every subject and book that we study. Our
oldest has taken a particular interest in argumentation,
and we've let him study this more systematically.
Because critical thinking takes time, we often try to
strike a balance between breadth and depth. What this
means is that we don't study all topics in great depth,
but we punctuate our study plan with lessons that
involve deeper critique and analysis.
Critical Thinking
Throughout the Curriculum
Computers - study
game design, critique and revise
Formal Argumentation -
outstanding resources are
available for logic and argumentation. These include
sites like this from
Stanford, the
Trivium Pursuit,
Classical Homeschooling sites,
or
Stephen Downes' Guide to Logical
Fallacies. Books we used and enjoyed
included
The Fallacy Detective,
The Thinker's Toolkit,
and
Rulebook for Argumentation.
Foreign Language - study
different languages, notice similar words, differences
in organization, evolution of slang over time.
Language Arts- read and
analyze like a writer - what works, what doesn't,
emulate a style, study great speeches and poor ones,
identify patterns, practice the persuasive essay, read
kid mystery or detective books like Encyclopedia Brown.
We have also had the children take writing classes
through
EPGY and
CTD Northwestern. These
programs enrich a child's critical writing ability
because students have their work evaluated by outside
teachers and students, and they have the opportunity to
see how other students' writing evolves over time with
drafts.
Mathematics - problem
solving requires critical thinking, study hard word
problems, brain puzzlers, design your own, and read
books like
How to Lie with Statistics.
Moral Education -
apologetics, read about the culture wars, challenge your
children to defend their beliefs. For current events and
controversies, we talk about the issues and read
different points of view from newspapers, magazines, and
some blogs.
Science - read History of
Science books (e.g. How Did We Find Out About..."),
distinguish fact from theory, study science fallacies
(like the
Bad Science
pages), and do experiments at home yourself that you
critique. Not all experiments work - if they did, then
we wouldn't have to do nearly as much as we do. Look for
design errors, human errors, and sampling mistakes.
Social Studies -
reading primary sources,
different points-of-view in current events as well as in
texts, study topics currently being debated for policy
reasons, and encourage your students to take
point-of-view and defend them. We often take little
breaks to study historical controversies or compare how
different historians or different textbooks discuss
historical events or religious movements. This past
year, we've been studying U.S. History, and have used
the following books in our studies:
The History of US,
American Courage,
You Decide: Applying the Bill of
Rights..., and
Reasoning with Democratic Values.
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