TTP Critical Thinking, Week 5

Hour 1

Review (5)

• What do you do last week?
• What did you learn last week?

This week (5)

• new critical thinking concept – analyze
• practice analysis — analysis plus cause and effect
• new negotiation concept – interest vs position
• practice negotiation (i.e. applied critical thinking)

Patterns in Space (5)

We are going to do a lot with patterns in this lesson. Patterns are interesting. Sometimes we think we see a pattern, but its not there.

Sometimes it is there, but we don’t see it. Like the fish test.

This video shows us the patterns in space. It suggest that perhaps our old ideas about space patterns are not right.

New Critical Thinking Task (35)

This slide show describes the next group work task.

Data Sets

Here are the data sheets that students need for this exercise.

• These are the happiness rankings. Data source: World Happiness Report 2013.
• OECD data for countries ranked by per capita GDP for 2015. 

Hour 2

Part 1. Mini Lecture (5)

• Positions versus interests. 

Part 2. Reading Exercise – Apply your knowledge (10)

You are going to read a short story that involves a problem and a solution. The problem is in the story, but the solution is not.

Here is what I want you to do while working with a partner

• Read the story.
• Summarize the key points of the story in negotiation terms.
• Answer the questions at the end of the story. 

Part 3. Negotiation Activity (30)

The Texas Oil Role Play Game. 

• introduce it (5)
• read role card (10)
• negotiate (10)
• debrief it (5)

Debrief Questions

• Here are some debrief questions for the Texas Oil Role Play negotiation game.

Hour 3

Read and Retell (30)

Now it’s time to combine your critical thinking skills into a single exercise. This blends:

• critical reading
• critical listening
• critical speaking

You will read stories with a moral, or life message. They are koans.

1. Read a short story.
2. Summarize the story.
3. Describe the moral. What life message does the story teach us?

Here are the 4 stories. You will get one of the stories.

• The Empty Pot
• The Elephant and Blind People
• The Stone Cutter
• The Tea Cup

Get all four ESL reading stories here.

Extra (15)

Practice Describing Cause and Effect Links (15)

Each sentence below suggests a cause and effect relationship. But, the details are not provided. If you agree there is causation, describe the links in detail. 

This is similar to what we did for the wealth and long life exercise.

Causation Examples:

1. How do smartphones affect elementary school kids?
2. How does traveling affect people?
3. How do hagwons affect elementary school children?

Signs (10)

Work with a partner. Look at the signs and answer 2 questions.

1. Where can you find each sign?
2. What does it mean?