I did like this green box

(For new teachers and others.)

crit stems

I’m afraid Mentoring Minds no longer makes this box. I can’t find it on their website, www.mentoringminds.com. You might look for a used set online. Based on my green box above, I’d consider giving their Critical Thinking Educator Wheel a shot. On those tired days when the coffee cannot seem to cut through the fog, a tool like my box or the critical thinking wheel will do your critical thinking on critical thinking for you.

Eduhonesty: Cue cards can be used to make good opening activities. Leafing through questions may inspire you to expand your lesson in unexpected directions. One great advantage to my cue cards was that I could pass them out to students based on individual levels of understanding, passing easier cards to students who needed more scaffolding and support.

If you don’t want to spend money on another classroom aid, you could also create your own sentence strips for critical thinking questions. Brainstorming questions could be a fun lesson with opportunities to discuss metacognition, to get students thinking about their own thinking processes. I would laminate my sentence strips for long-term classroom use.