Reading and Writting for Critical Thinking

My presentation will discuss about one of inovative concepts in education. About the Reading and Writting for Critical Thinking. This koncept offers concrete, practical methods, techniques and strategies integrated into an open but compact system which is very easy to use directly in school. The program itself does not emphasize pedagogical, psychological or literary theoretical expertise, even though these constitute its basis. This way of education is specialized in active learning. The aim of all activities in critical classes is developing of the independent thinking, stressing the need for lifelong learning and the ability to sustain this, inspiring a creative approach to new situations, the ability to co-operate and to respect the opinions of other people.

The process of active learning is carried out in three stages: evocation - realization of meaning - reflection.

1. evocation - every learning process starts when students are able to realize and express verbally the things they already know about the chosen topic or what they think about it; at the same time they should also be able to formulate their questions and those areas of the topic they feel ambiguous about and which they would like to find answers to in the course of the following stage.
1. realization of meaning - confronting the student's original concept of the topic with the source of new information, opinions, newly formulated context (text, film, narrative, lecture...).
1. reflection - students re-formulate their understanding of the topic with regard to the newly acquired information and the discussions with their colleagues, they fully realize what they have learnt and which of the original concepts proved to be correct and which were disproved, and they realize the opinions and attitudes of other people (classmates, the teacher) with regard to the topic.

The program uses a lot of methods. For example:

• free writing
• keywords
• discussion web
• brainstorming, thought maps
• double diary
• "Save the last word for me"
• I.N.S.E.R.T
• cinquains.

Reading and Writting for Critical Thinking brings a change in the teacher´s position in the process of education and learning and a change in the communication between the teacher and the students, as well as between the students themselves.