This workbook is a time saver that helps teachers and home school parents:
- organize a class,
- increase student interest by addressing why the topic is important
- and how the skill can positively impact their daily lives.
This guide enables the teacher to devote their time and talents to help students learn how not what to learn. To build the habit of evaluation of the sources of material and become respectful skeptics capable of engaging in informed, vigorous, and polite discussion.
This workbook includes the rationale and guidance to develop successful adults capable of making good choices based on accurate information.
Carefully designed lesson plan outlines developed by an experienced educator and trainer include the points to cover and a self-evaluation at the end of the discussion of any topic. The guide includes suggested coursework starting in the earliest grades to college level preparatory courses.
The author of the book EMPOWER YOUR CHILDREN- Teach kids to ask meaningful questions, recognize bias, and stand up for themselves, is an Advocate who believes critical thinking (CT) is important.
It is a combined obligation of both the parents and teachers to get students in the habit of discovering who wrote the material they are studying, why the author wrote it, and who was the author's intended audience. That is usually clear by reading the preface and doing at least cursory investigation into the reputation and reliability of the author(s).
This Guide provides a worksheet for each class with notes and reminders on how to utilize the basic questions with each text or article that is being covered in that lesson.
Included is a series of worksheet pages for a two-semester schedule, teacher's notes for implementation, and time to be allocated of the class to the CT aspects.
They are two-sided pages with open spaces for teacher's notes. The first page is a Teacher Planning Page. It includes:
- Topic for the day.
- The author and their credentials.
- Why this is valuable for the student to understand and how it applies to them.
- How the teacher will develop and approach the subject: Lecture / Q&A / summary with exercises to practice application and demonstrate understanding.
The back page serves as a self-evaluation of the effectiveness of the exercise:
- Notes on student responses (positive/neutral /negative).
- What went well.
- What didn't go as planned/anticipated.
- What the teacher would do differently next time to improve student involvement, understanding, and growth.
