How to Teach Thinking Skills Within the Common Core: 7 Key Student Proficiencies of the New National Standards

by Dr James A Bellanca, Robin J. Fogarty, Brian M. Pete

Ensure your students develop the complex, higher-order thinking skills they need to not just survive but thrive in a 21st century world. The latest edition of this best-selling guide by James A. Bellanca, Robin J. Fogarty, and Brian M. Pete details a three-phase teaching model and dives deep into how to teach seven key student critical thinking, creative thinking, complex thinking, comprehensive thinking, collaborative thinking, communicative thinking, and cognitive transfer. How to teach higher-order thinking skills for student engagement and Part Critical Thinking
Chapter 1: Analyze
Chapter 2: Evaluate
Chapter 3: Problem Solve Part Creative Thinking
Chapter 4: Generate
Chapter 5: Associate
Chapter 6: Hypothesize Part Complex Thinking
Chapter 7: Clarify
Chapter 8: Interpret
Chapter 9: Determine Part Comprehensive Thinking
Chapter 10: Understand
Chapter 11: Infer
Chapter 12: Compare and Contrast Part Collaborative Thinking
Chapter 13: Explain
Chapter 14: Develop
Chapter 15: Decide Part Communicative Thinking
Chapter 16: Reason
Chapter 17: Connect
Chapter 18: Represent Part Cognitive Transfer
Chapter 19: Synthesize
Chapter 20: Generalize
Chapter 21: Apply

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction

221 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2012

Reviews

[MARY Brazeau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased this last year and just got to it. Skimming is sufficient for the average teacher to then be able to find and use the strategies to explicitly teach thinking. A better use might be to identify within lesson plans where your questions and tasks specifically target thinking by separating thinking into discreet actions and connecting to standards.

[Helene · Rating 4 out of 5]

In December I attended the Learning Forward Conference in Boston. I had the pleasure of hosting Robin Fogarty's session on this book. She recognized me though it has been a long time since we have seen each other. I try to catch her sessions at conferences since she is always in her game, gives practical and usable strategies. I had brought her in to do a workshop on Thinking Skills many moons ago when I was first president of NHASCD. The Boston session was very clever, she went through a lesson with activities and discussion and used one of the thinking skills as the content. Robin, as so few presenters do, models good teaching in her sessions.

As a "thank you" for hosting the session, she gave me an autographed copy of her book. Little did I know, this was also the book that the teachers in Chichester choose for their book study this year. The base is of course thinking skills which is Robin's forte. And true to the title, 21 thinking skills are highlighted in teaching Common Core standards. The CCSS are referenced more than two dozen times, though I thought some were a stretch for some of the thinking skills, a little too tangential a reference. Though the book is formulaic, each chapter uses the same format, in the same exact words in some instances (yes, in EVERY chapter0, the strategies are excellent and useable right away. Using thinking skills within lessons would make them more enjoyable for students, not just give them the building blocks of 21st century skills.

The book took only four hours to read though I did drag that out. It is full of great strategies, builds student skills, and offers educator a chance to reflect on thier craft and their own learning. I would recommend it highly.

[Sau53]

Written in a style reflecting the very thinking skills they adamantly support, Bellanca, Fogarty, and Pete prompt educators to think critically, creatively, and comprehensively about the complex realities of integrating the Common Core State Standards in each classroom. The practical and clear strategies they detail foster crisp communication and purposeful collaborative efforts to generate mindful and cognitively rigorous learning experiences.

[Darlene Andre · Rating 4 out of 5]

As we look more and more at how the CCSS will fit into instruction and what we need to do to allow for deeper thinking it's nice to have a book focused on the thinking skills our students need. While the acronyms for the many strategies is helpful, I'd wish they had another name for them other than "order of operations." Steps - Talk - Walk -Drive Through

[Erica Sonzogni · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started reading this book, I felt that it was very dull and dry. Then, around chapter 3, there was an onslaught of activities and lessons to complete with students that were simple yet effective in teaching Common Core standards! From then on out I loved the book and can't wait to try the strategies with my students to make them proficient in these 21st century skills.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a struggle...to say the least. It is so firmly rooted in ELA that it is difficult to apply it to other subject areas. I found it to be a very difficult book to read (the entire group did) but I forced myself to finish before the end of break...and I did, with just under 20 hours to go.

[Mj · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my teaching friends switching over to the common core, this book has great ideas for teaching the big thinking skills and ideas. I sticky noted a lot of pages!

[Matt Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but repetitive.

The book had good ideas but it was repetitive. As a math teacher I did not find a lot of great ideas.