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The Basics of Critical Thinking

Lessons and Activities

Grades: 4-9

Critical Thinking

Full curriculum

Grades: 4-9

Critical Thinking

Full curriculum

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The Basics of Critical Thinking

The Basics of Critical Thinking 3 5 5 1
$25.99

Description and Features

SKU
08001BBP

Description and Features

Students learn critical thinking in a way they can understand!

Description and Features

This engaging, colorful 152-page book teaches the most important critical thinking concepts every student should know. Many workbooks claim to teach or develop critical thinking skills, but most of these products never define critical thinking or try to teach the meaning to students. This book defines and teaches critical thinking in a way all students can understand through simple explanations, diagrams, and short, engaging activities. In addition to being a course in critical thinking, the activities in this book can be used to supplement lessons in all subjects.

Although this book teaches common argument forms, its primary focus is identifying and evaluating evidence–the very basis of critical thinking. Most propaganda, advertising schemes, legal trickery, and bad science are not the result of complex arguments; they are the result of half-truths and simple arguments. Students who successfully complete this book will have a fundamental set of critical thinking skills they can use their entire lives.

CONTENTS
     •  What Is Critical Thinking?
     •  Conclusions and Decisions
     •  Beliefs and Claims
     •  Finding (Identifying) Evidence
     •  Evaluating Evidence
     •  Inferring and Inferences
     •  Facts and Opinions
     •  Facts and Probable Truths
     •  False and Probably False
     •  Facts, Probably True, and Probably False
     •  Venn Diagrams
     •  Logical Connectives
     •  Advertising
     •  Agreements and Contracts
     •  Common Errors in Reasoning
     •  Arguments
     •  Valid and Invalid Arguments
     •  Fallacies
     •  Analogy Argument

Product Details

Item#: 08001BBP
Author(s): Michael Baker
TOC: View Table of Contents
Subject: Critical Thinking
Type: Student Book with Answers
Media: Paperback Book
License: Reproducible
ISBN–10: 1-60144-507-5
ISBN–13: 978-1-60144-507-0
Pages: 152, Color

Awards

Tillywig Brain Child Award, 2015

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What a difference your products have made!
5
May 2, 2022
I have been homeschooling for four years and I just found out about your company a couple of months ago. What a difference your products have made in our homeschool! We all love working together to answer the problems. We feel like mini-detectives in our own home and that's so much fun. Thank you!
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Love It
5
Feb 11, 2021
I've used other critical thinking and reasoning books with my homeschooled children. This one is the best I've found. It goes beyond reasoning in mathematics and reading and moves into the word of logical thinking in everyday situations. Looking for evidence and evaluated the quality of the evidence is a key part of the program. It doesn't just cover true/false and fact/fiction. The book moves into the ideas of probably true and probably false concepts. And the kids don't grumble about working on it! Bonus!
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5
Jul 27, 2015
That this book is so effective in helping children develop and hone critical thinking skills is due, in part, to a format kids find both pleasurable and engaging. It is filled with short exercises and activities students experience as a fun detective game rather than work. It is an active, step-by-step learning process, with plenty of practice of a sort that instills in readers a growing sense of mastery and, with it, a desire to continue to improve. The illustrations, diagrams, and easy to understand explanations help kids learn to assess available evidence and use it to intelligently evaluate claims and arguments before making decisions. The clarity and conciseness of the writing contribute to the ease with which readers absorb and apply the concepts. The result is a marked improvement in students' critical thinking skills and a growing tendency to employ them often, traits that are likely to serve them well for the rest of their lives.
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