By Donna Metreger,
Reading/Writing Specialist in TVI's Tutorial Learning Center

Here is  a critical thinking exercise I use with students who can’t decide what to write about.

I ask: What do you think needs to be changed the most in our society?
Or
What do you think is the most wrong (or right) in our society?
Or
If you had absolute power and could change everything in our country, what would you want to change the most?

The student discusses with me his/her values, ideas, etc. I suggest the student write them down. I ask the student which items on his/her list he/she feels the strongest about. The student highlights or circles them.

Next I ask the student about which of those items he/she would most like to write. The student chooses and circles the item. If the student chooses more that 1 item, I suggest the student list those items.

We discuss those items for a few minutes; then I ask which item the student now thinks he/she wants most to write about. If the student circles only 1 item, I suggest he/she get a new sheet of paper, then put the item in a circle (or oval) in the middle of the paper.

I ask the student what he/she wants most to say about the subject he/she has chosen, and I have the student list what he/she says. Then I suggest the student put the things he/she wants to say into 1-word categories to put in circles (ovals) around the center topic oval on the sheet of paper.

I ask the student what procedure he/she thinks we have been doing so far and what he/she might call it. I have the student list his/her procedure labels, then choose what seems to him/her to be the most likely label for the procedure. If the student asks, I tell him/her the English term for the procedure; if not, I suggest we use the student’s label for the procedure.

Next, I ask the student what he/she can use the procedure for in and out of classrooms (i.e. writing anything, creating priorities, solving problem, etc.) and suggest the student list those activities.

I ask the student to choose another topic from the list made originally, then to create a brainstorm diagram similar to the one he/she just did. Next I ask the student to explain to me how he/she did the brainstorming diagram. Last, I tell the student to pretend I am a student and teach me how to do the procedure.