Proposes a study of "Citizen Kane" in high school using a somewhat simplified version of post-modern literary critical theory. Chooses this film because of its familiarity and accessibility and because the ambiguity and indeterminacy of its text allow room for exploration by students. (NKA)

To help students develop a broadly generative approach to reading and writing about literature, teachers of literature should employ not only systematic procedures, but also the eclectic and utilitarian spirit of rhetorical invention. A semiotic perspective offers the most solid theoretical foundation for establishing a genuinely heuristic…

An adult educator who teachers General Educational Development (GED) test preparation conducted an action research project to determine whether learning activities requiring students to learn about and discuss famous paintings would equip them with critical thinking skills that they could eventually use when completing the reading and writing…

Suggests using debate in a composition class to teach decision-making skills, values clarification, and careful articulation of personal thoughts and opinions. (MKM)

Offers an essay on the "obscenities" of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," to be used as a class exercise in critical reading, diction, and tone. (RL)

Presents ideas for teaching the beginnings of literary criticism to secondary school English students that build on the confidence the students have in their command of the English language. (HOD)

This resource, which includes nine colored postcards, offers words and pictures to stimulate classroom discussion of the key issues relating to both the institutions of art and of education. It attempts to challenge and question the current relations of power, hierarchies, and received information in the field of art education. Part 1, "On…

Offers guidelines for teaching students to detect and analyze bias in films. Stresses that this enhances critical thinking. Suggests ways teachers can identify filmmaker's biases, and provides a Film Bias Analysis worksheet to help students identify bias and its methods of operation. (RW)

Three areas of the classical rhetoric of Aristotle, adapted for the modern discourse of inquiry and demonstration, provide a systematic framework for students to understand thought, investigation, and writing in other disciplines: aitia, kairos, and the enthymeme and the example. Aitia, or cause, has four aspects--the material cause, the formal…

Describes an assignment to focus students' attention on the thinking process in which students write dialogues that reproduce concretely the dialectic movement of a formal argument. Includes a more advanced exercise in which students' address the remarks of literary critics. (HTH)

Compares Richard Adams's "Watership Down" to the "The Odyssey," and offers a selection of classroom activities for students that use Adams's novel to study classic literature. (NKA)

Uses ideas contained in King's book as the basis for a unit on critical analysis of horror films for composition students. (NKA)

Suggests activities for fostering critical reading skills in social studies. Activities include assigning reporting roles to students; asking students to create a cartoon or a slogan; requiring students to review a favorite television program; and helping students identify exaggeration. (KO)

Responds to critiques of the National Commission for Social Studies in the Schools' curriculum report, "Charting A Course: Social Studies for the 21st Century" (Social Education, Nov-Dec, 1990). Contends that the guideline provides for citizenship education, disciplined knowledge, and reflective education. Argues that the debate…

Presents a case study of one teacher's method of teaching literature. Discusses the emphasis on a process of critical interpretation of subject matter, transformation of that content, and continuous learning based on the literal and metaphorical aspects of content. Concludes that critical thinking is encouraged by organizing imagery, forms of…