This webinar, "Developing Your Students' Vocabulary and Grammar for Critical thinking," identifies key vocabulary and grammatical structures and models classroom approaches for introducing and practicing them in critical thinking exercises. These exercises will include the use of visual media and will be presented in a sequence from low to high levels, focusing on key elements for your students to interpret and use correctly.

A key component of global citizenship is an awareness of experiences, ways of living, and points of view different from one’s own. The English language classroom provides an opportunity for students to practice English language skills while developing this awareness.

In this week’s World Tour project, students will select a region, continent, or country to learn more about. Students will conduct research in English and collect information using graphic organizers. They will use the information collected to create a poster or other visual representation. Students will also orally present information about the area they have researched to their classmates. After all presentations are complete, students will have a chance to reflect on the experience by writing a journal entry.

This activity works best with intermediate to advanced students. However, in a mixed-level class, beginner students can be paired with higher-level peers during all parts of the activity.

Reading, writing, speaking, and listening

During this activity, students will be able to complete the following tasks:

• Collect information from multiple sources
• Complete graphic organizers to organize their ideas
• Prepare a visual representation of the information collected
• Present about a country or region of their choice

• World map or globe, or a list of regions, continents, or countries students will research
• Access to the Internet or to a library with information about different countries (one suggested resource is the CIA World Factbook online)
• Poster board or poster paper (1 piece per group)
• Markers
• Scissors
• Glue or tape
• Notebooks, paper, or index cards for each student
• A printer (to include photos, if desired)
• Timekeeping device

• This activity can be completed in one week, as described below. It can also be extended over a longer period where students complete portions of the work as time permits.
• Consider the size of the class and how you will group students for the activity. Ideally, groups should be 4-6 students and have an equal number of students in each group.

1. Create a list of the groups beforehand.
2. Each research group will need a name, perhaps the same as their assigned continent, region, or country.
3. Within each research group, each member should also be assigned a number; for example, in a group of six students, each student would be assigned a number between 1 and 6.
4. If pairing beginner students with a higher-level peer, assign the pair one number. Pairing students together also means that groups that include beginner students will have additional members.

• Depending on the number of students in the class, you may wish to assign each group a continent or region rather than individual countries. A smaller class size will have fewer groups, and therefore assigning regions or continents may work best. Assigning individual countries would work better for a larger class with many groups.  If access to resources for research is limited, you may wish to assign only areas of the world for which you know information is available.

1. Explain the purpose and steps of the activity to your class by saying, “We are going to complete a research project that will allow us to go on a world tour and learn about areas of the world that are different from where we live. You will work in a group to collect information about a specific part of the world. Then, everyone will have the opportunity to present information about his/her research to others in the class, as well as learn about different places from those in other groups.”
2. Tell students their group information and the area they have been assigned to research. If they choose their own location, explain that they will have time to choose once they get into groups.
3. Have research group members gather together and be sure that each student (or, in some cases, pair of students) has been assigned a number for later in the activity. If needed, give students time to choose a location to research.
4. Tell students that they will use a graphic organizer (Appendix A) to collect information about the area of the world they will research. You can copy the graphic organizer onto the board or project it for students to copy into their notebooks, or make copies for students.
5. Explain that students can split up the research task by giving each group member a portion of the information to locate, such as the area’s population, demographics, imports and exports, climate, etc. Alternatively, group members can all work together. Regardless, each group member must complete all of the information on the graphic organizer.
6. If needed, demonstrate how to complete a portion of the graphic organizer.
7. Review any Internet research guidelines that students should be aware of, or review any information they may need about using the library.
8. At this point, you can either provide students with time to conduct research and fill in their graphic organizers and then explain the next steps later, or you can continue on to explain each part of the activity before giving students time to research. Depending on your students’ proficiency levels and their access to resources, provide at least 1–2 class periods for students to gather information.
9. Once all members in each group have completed their graphic organizers, tell students that they will create a poster about the area of the world that they researched.

• Along with the poster, students will orally present information about their research. Therefore, they do not have to include every piece of information on the poster. Rather, the poster should be a visual representation of the country, region, or continent that will accompany the information they share.
• Allow students some creative freedom. Emphasize to students that the poster should be visually interesting and not just a list of facts.
• Ideas for posters include drawing a map and labeling cities or important landmarks, drawing or printing photos of items that represent important ideas or facts about the area, or illustrating important parts of the research with graphs, lists, or other visuals.

10. In addition to creating a poster, groups will need to decide how to verbally present information about the area they have researched to their classmates.

• Each member should have their own set of notes about the key facts they wish to share with their classmates. Remind students that each person (or beginner student paired with a peer) must have the research ready to present to a group of their classmates.
• You may wish to require students to present a certain number of facts, such as population, literacy rate, geographical characteristics, etc.
• If desired, give students time to practice their presentations within their research groups.

For the presentation portion, a jigsaw activity will be used. Students will learn about the areas that their classmates have researched.

1. Students will form “exploration groups” with the classmates assigned the same number. For example, all of the students assigned number 1 will gather together as one exploration group. All of the students assigned number 2 will form a group, and so on.
2. Exploration groups will walk around the room to each poster. At each poster, the one student who researched the area will present facts gathered by his or her research group to the rest of the students in the exploration group.
3. As they listen, members of the exploration group should write down 2–3 interesting facts they would like to remember about each of the places their classmates researched. These notes will be used later after the rotation is complete.
4. Groups should spend about five minutes at each poster.
5. Once the exploration groups have had a chance to visit each poster and learn about all of the different places that groups researched, they can return to their seats. Each student should have his or her own notes to use for the reflection part of the activity.

1.     Tell students that for the next part of the activity, they will use the information they have learned to write a journal entry.

2.     For inspiration, have them choose a discussion question from a list. The following questions can be used, or you can create your own list for students. Copy the discussion questions on the board for students to choose from:

• What was one thing you learned about today that surprised you? Why was this information surprising? How is it different from our country/city? How do you think this affects the people who live in this place?
• Choose one of the places you learned about today that you found interesting. Think about the ways your life might be similar or different if you lived there. Write about what you think your daily life would be if you were living in that place. What would you eat? What jobs might you or your family members do? Would you go to school? What types of problems or opportunities might you have?
• Is there a place you learned about today that you would like to visit? What do you think you would see and do there? Imagine you are able to travel to this place. Describe what you think you would see, smell, taste, hear, or touch. What would be happening around you? Where would you go? Who would you like to meet?
• Were there any problems you learned about today? How are they affecting people? What can people from different places in the world do to help with these problems?

3.     Once students choose a topic, allow them to write freely for at least 30 minutes. Remind students that they should not worry about making the writing perfect, but to just get their thoughts and ideas down on paper. This reflection can take a class period, or could be assigned for homework.

4.     After students have had time to write, you can choose from a few follow-up activities:

• Have students form small discussion groups to share their journal entries and discuss their ideas with peers. Students can talk about what they found interesting about each other’s entries and if they share similar ideas.
• Collect the journal entries. Redistribute them to the class so that every student has a different classmate’s entry. Ask students to read the entry and write a response. They can write about whether they agree or disagree with the opinions, or they may add to an idea or reflection.
• Collect the journals and write a response to each student individually. Let them know if you found their ideas intriguing or interesting, and share your own thoughts on the topic as well.

This week’s activity allows students to increase their understanding of different ways of life while practicing language skills. By conducting, presenting, and listening to research, students learn about different areas of the world and how these areas are similar to and different from their own. As students reflect on this knowledge, they start to see the interconnectedness of people around the world and the possible effects of actions they take.

Making predictions in reading and listening activities is a great way to develop learners’ critical thinking skills. In order to make predictions, learners need to evaluate the components of the information they have while also making reasonable judgments about possible outcomes.  Evaluating, reflecting, and making judgments are all part of the critical thinking skills needed for learners to fully engage in learning and to use what they learn beyond the classroom.

In this Teacher’s Corner activity, students use the first part of a comic strip as a starting point for creating their own endings. This activity is simple and fun, and can be used with any age group at any level. As you work through the activity, think about possible variations in addition to those offered below.

Beginning and above

• Reading
• Writing

During this activity, students will be able to do the following tasks:

• Read a comic strip and make a reasonable prediction about an ending.
• Plan, write, and draw their own version of the comic strip’s ending.

• Comic strip from American English: Why English? Comics for the Classroom (see Appendix A)
• Comic strip template (see Appendix B)
• Paper, pencils, or any drawing materials available

• Print enough copies of the comic for each student in the class.

1.     Begin class by asking students to describe a comic strip.

• Let students offer suggestions, but also ensure that they know comic strips are short stories presented through pictures and words.

2.     Write the title of the comic strip on the board, “Lost in the Desert.” Ask learners what they think the comic might be about, based on the title.

3.     Tell students that they will read the first part of the comic strip in class and then write new endings.

4.     Hand out a copy of the comic strip to each student in the class.

5.     Tell learners to look at the pictures and read the language silently.

6.     After giving learners time to work individually, read the comic as a group by calling on different students to read aloud.

7.     Check learners’ reading comprehension by asking the following questions of the whole class:

• Where is the person in the comic?
• What problem does the person have?
• What does the person try to do to solve the problem?

8.     Once the story has been discussed, begin a group brainstorm.

• Ask learners to think about what happens next in the comic strip.
• Encourage students to share some of their ideas with the class.
• Write students’ ideas on the board for everyone to see. Spend at least 5-7 minutes listening and writing their ideas on the board so that students have a chance to hear from their classmates and refine their own ideas.

9.     Tell students that it’s now their turn to write and draw the rest of the comic.

• Give them a blank comic strip template (Appendix B) and any additional drawing materials you have available.
• Tell students to use all six squares to complete the story. All six squares must have a drawing. At least three squares must include language.

10.  After students have finished their comics, put students into pairs by having students work with the person sitting to their left.

11.  In the pairs, students will read the comic with their new endings to their partners.

Instead of having students finish a comic strip, students can make their own comic strips. Then they give the first half of their comic strip to a partner. The partner will then write their own endings to their classmate’s comic strip.

Another alternative is to give students short stories or poems to finish. American English has both poems and short stories available for free to teachers and learners. 

Reading aloud is a popular reading task in English language classrooms. The task typically targets skills associated with reading, such as fluency, word recognition, and pronunciation. In this week’s Teacher’s Corner, a read-aloud task is used as the framework for a more demanding task that targets critical thinking skills as well. The task asks learners to process and then summarize the content of a story while reading aloud in a group.

Intermediate and above

• Reading
• Speaking

During this activity, students will be able to complete the following tasks:

• Read a story aloud.
• Consider, evaluate, and plan a summary of a story while reading.
• Present a verbal summary of a story.

Reading: “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe

• Print enough copies of the story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe for each student.
• Place students into groups of 3-4 students before class by creating a list of students in each group.

1.     Begin by putting students in the groups planned before class.

2.     Tell the class that today they are going to read a story by Edgar Allen Poe called “The Black Cat.”

3.     Have each group discuss what they expect the story might be about based on the title and on what they know about Edgar Allen Poe.

4.     Ask the class to share what they’ve discussed in groups, and write the ideas on the board. For example, one group might say they know Edgar Allen Poe wrote scary stories so they expect this story to be scary. Another group might say that black cats are believed to be bad luck in some cultures.

5.     Give each group a single copy of the story. Tell the class that one student will read three paragraphs aloud to the group. As the person reads, they will stop at the end of each paragraph to summarize the paragraph for the group. After the first student has read and summarized three paragraphs, the next student in the group will read and summarize the next three paragraphs. The group will continue reading the story by taking turns reading aloud and summarizing.

a.            If possible, model the activity for students using Appendix A as a sample of reading and summarizing. For example, read the first paragraph in Appendix A aloud to the students. At the end, summarize the paragraph using the suggested summary in Appendix A.

6.     Once all of the groups have completed the story, hand out more copies of the story so each student has a copy.

7.     Direct students to read the story silently.

8.     While students read, write the following questions on the board:

a.            What was difficult about reading aloud while summarizing?

b.            What part of the activity was easiest?

c.            Were your group’s summaries accurate?

9.     When everyone has finished reading, ask students to discuss the questions written on the board in their groups.

10.  Finally, bring the class back together and ask for some responses to the questions.

Any reading can be used for this activity. The reading should be easy enough for the students to successfully complete the activity, but also difficult enough for them to find the activity challenging.

Another variation might include giving each student a different short text. For example, each student gets a different poem. Students would read aloud and summarize their text, and then the group would evaluate the reader’s performance.

Sample Annotated Read-Aloud

The Tell-Tale Heart

Edgar Allen Poe

It’s true! Yes, I have been ill, very ill. But why do you say that I have lost control of my mind, why do you say that I am mad? Can you not see that I have full control of my mind? Is it not clear that I am not mad? Indeed, the illness only made my mind, my feelings, my senses stronger, more powerful. My sense of hearing especially became more powerful. I could hear sounds I had never heard before. I heard sounds from heaven; and I heard sounds from hell!

Suggested summary:

The person has been sick, but is not crazy. The sickness made the person smarter and improved his hearing. He heard wonderful sounds and horrible sounds.