Session Description: Critical thinking is fundamental to 21st century success, but many teachers overlook its essential role in developing linguistic proficiency and intercultural competence. This session offers practical ways to transform typical classroom activities at beginning levels into cognitively challenging tasks that develop linguistic and cultural capacity.
Session Content: The purpose of this session is to demonstrate how critical thinking skills can be successfully integrated into beginning language activities in ways that strengthen the development of proficiency and intercultural competence. Drawing on research findings, the session will explore definitions of critical thinking, identify contributions that several frameworks for critical thinking make to language education, and highlight key misconceptions that impact language learning. Following this brief overview, the session will provide interactive demonstrations of key principles and practical strategies for incorporating critical thinking into beginning-level language activities. The session will conclude with ideas for transforming existing language activities into tasks that require more critical thinking. Participants will be provided with handouts containing sample activities in at least three different languages, templates, technology tools, and additional resources. Session Outcomes: 1) I can identify key characteristics of critical thinking. 2) I can explain common misconceptions about critical thinking in world language education. 3) I can integrate critical thinking into existing language activities in ways that better develop proficiency and intercultural competence. |
Pedagogical Strategies |
Research |
Workshop Materials |
Explore pedagogical strategies shared during the workshop
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Explore Bethany Daniel's thesis on
Defining Critical Thinking for the 21st Century WL Classroom |
Explore materials from the workshop
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Videos
Sherlock Bloom's Taxonomy: An excellent 4:59 min. video that explains Bloom's Taxonomy with examples from an episode of the TV show Sherlock
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Bloom's Taxonomy Inside Out - A 4:23 min. video that shows video clips from the movie Inside Out and then identifies the element of Bloom's Taxonomy and explains how the previous scene demonstrates it.
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Bloom's Taxonomy Through the Lion King - A 4:42 min. video that explains each stage of the taxonomy and illustrates it with an example from the movie The Lion King
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Bloom's Taxonomy Feat. Harry Potter - A 6:11 min. video that explains each stage of the taxonomy and illustrates it with an example from one of the Harry Potter movies
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Bloom's Taxonomy Friends - A 6:47 min. video that explains each stage of the taxonomy with food-related examples from the TV show Friends
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Bloom's Taxonomy: Finding Nemo - A 8:07 min. video that defines each stage of the taxonomy and then provides an example from the movie
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Bloom's Taxonomy Midterm: A 6:14 min. video that defines and explains Bloom's Taxonomy with examples from the movie Moana.
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Bloom's Taxonomy with Trolls: A 5:49 min. video that identifies each stage of the taxonomy and illustrates it with examples from the movie Trolls.
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