Critical Thinking: Readings in Nonfiction High School Student and Key

For the high schooler, this series develops critical thinking and reading skills which focus on nine particular competencies. These nine fundamental skills were selected based on a survey of English teachers that asked them to identify the skills which are most important to student success in English. The "winners" were: recognizing and remembering key ideas; identifying the main idea; recognizing similarities; identifying sequences; the ability to cite evidence to support a position or point of view; recognizing differences between fact, probability, and opinion; the ability to judge the adequacy of information for specific purposes; selecting criteria to use for making judgments; drawing valid conclusions from the data studied. As you can see, these are not just skills to aid in reading and understanding, but abilities that will help students to succeed wherever problem-solving skills are needed. The apt title of the book was chosen because the authors "want students to be able to perceive what's important, valid, and the main idea of what they're reading, and not be misled or distracted by superfluous details or spurious arguments." Answers to the questions (which you will probably need) are included with the student book. Reproducible.