Pedagogy of the 21st century, first of all, considers the personality of the student. Its formation is the goal of the educational process. A modern teacher should develop the best qualities in a child, taking into account the characteristics of the pupil and forming a positive "I - concept". In addition, it is important for the teacher to encourage children to acquire knowledge with passion. Many technologies are used for this. One of them is RKCHP, or Developing Critical Thinking Through Reading and Writing.
Background
Technology RKMCHP was developed in the 80s of the 20th century. The authors of this program are American educators Scott W alter, Kurt Meredith, as well as Jeannie Steele and Charles Temple.
What is RKCHP technology? This is a system of methodological techniques and strategies that can be used in various forms and types of work, as well as in subject areas. The technology of American teachers makes it possible to teach students the ability to work with a constantly updated and increasing information flow. And this is true for the mostvarious areas of knowledge. In addition, the RCMCHP technology allows the child to develop the following skills:
- Solve problems.
- Form your own opinion based on the understanding of various perceptions, ideas and experiences.
- Express your own thoughts in written and oral form, doing it confidently, clearly and correctly for others.
- Study independently, which is called "academic mobility".
- Work and collaborate as a group.
- Form constructive relationships with people.
The technology of RKMChP came to Russia in 1997. Currently, teachers in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara, Novosibirsk and other cities are actively using it in their practice.
Technology Feature
Developing critical thinking through reading and writing is a holistic system. With its use, children develop skills in working with information. The RKCHP technology contributes to the preparation of such members of society who will be in demand by the state in the future. This will strengthen the ability of students to work as equals and cooperate with people, as well as lead and dominate.
The purpose of this technology is to develop the thinking skills of children. Moreover, they will be able to use them not only for study, but also in everyday situations.
What is the need for the formation of critical thinking in the younger generation? The reasons for this are as follows:
- Critical thinking is independent. It allows each student to formulate his ownassessments, ideas and beliefs. Moreover, each child does this regardless of the people around him. Thinking can be called critical if it has an individual character. The student should have enough freedom to think and find answers to all, even the most difficult questions on their own. If a person thinks critically, this does not mean at all that he will constantly disagree with the point of view of his interlocutor. The main thing in this case is that people themselves decide what is bad and what is good. Thus, autonomy is the first and probably the most important characteristic of critical thinking.
- The information received is considered the starting point for a critical type of thinking, but far from the final one. Knowledge creates motivation. Without it, a person simply cannot begin to think critically. In order for a complex thought to appear in the head, the human brain must process a huge amount of data, theories, concepts, texts and ideas. And this is impossible without books, reading and writing. Their involvement is mandatory. The use of RCMCHP technology allows the student to be taught the ability to perceive the most complex concepts, as well as to retain various information in their memory.
- With the help of critical thinking, the student is able to pose a question and understand the problem that needs to be solved much faster. Man is quite curious by nature. Noticing something new, we always strive to find out what it is. Using technology developed by American educators, students analyze texts, collect data, compareopposing points of view, while using the opportunity to discuss the issue in a team. Children themselves look for answers to their questions and find them.
- Critical thinking involves persuasive reasoning. In this case, a person tries to find his own way out of the situation, supporting the decision with reasonable and reasonable conclusions.
Distinctive Features of Technology
The RKCHP methodology contributes to the formation of skills for working with various information in the process of writing and reading. This stimulates interest in the student, promotes the manifestation of creative and research activity, and also allows you to use the amount of existing knowledge.
Thus, conditions are provided for understanding a new topic, which helps the student to generalize and process the data received.
The development of critical thinking according to the method of American educators is different:
- non-objective character;
- manufacturability;
- learning information and developing communicative and reflective abilities;
- combination of writing skills and further communication about the received data;
- using word processing as a tool for self-education.
Critical reading
In the RKCHP technology, the dominant role is assigned to the text. They read it, and then retell it, transform it, analyze it, interpret it.
What is the benefit of reading? If it is the opposite of passive, being active and thoughtful, then students begin toapproach the information they receive. At the same time, they critically assess how justified and accurate the author's views on a particular issue are. What are the benefits of critical reading? Students using this technique are less vulnerable to manipulation and deception than anyone else.
Why do we need books in the lessons that develop critical thinking? Their use allows the teacher to devote time to the strategy of semantic reading, as well as to work on the text. Those skills that are formed in students at the same time belong to the category of general educational. Their development makes it possible to successfully master knowledge in a variety of subject areas.
Semantic reading means one in which children begin to understand the semantic content of the text.
Why do we need books in the formation of critical thinking? The fact is that the success of such a process largely depends on the development of the student's intellect, on his literacy and education. That is why reading books is so important. For the development of intelligence and vocabulary, it is necessary to carefully select a list of references. It should help increase the amount of memory that will be needed to remember information.
An important point is the increase in vocabulary. After all, only with such a conversation, when a person expresses himself eloquently, will he attract the necessary attention to himself.
In addition, books for the development of intelligence and vocabulary stimulate mental development, form experience. The images in the books are remembered so that in a similar case"surface" and be used.
Literature, depending on the age of the student, should be selected scientific or philosophical. Such books may also include various works of art and poetry.
Technology Goals
Teaching reading and writing, which contributes to the development of critical thinking in schoolchildren, will allow:
- to teach children to identify causal relationships in the information received;
- reject incorrect or unnecessary data;
- consider new knowledge and ideas in the context of what students already have;
- trace the relationship between different pieces of information;
- detect errors in statements;
- draw conclusions about whose ideological attitudes, interests and value orientations are reflected in the text or in the speech of the speaking person;
- avoid categorical statements;
- talk honestly;
- identify false stereotypes that can lead to wrong conclusions;
- be able to highlight biases, judgments and opinions;
- reveal facts that may be subject to verification;
- to separate the main from the unimportant in the text or speech, focusing on the first;
- question the logical sequence of written or spoken language;
- to form a culture of reading, which involves a free orientation in the sources of information, an adequate perception of what is read;
- stimulate independent search creative activity by launching the mechanisms of self-organization and self-education.
Features of the obtained results
Using technology developed by American educators, teachers need to understand that:
- The goal of education is not the amount of information or the amount of knowledge that will be "stowed" in the head of the students. Children should be able to manage the data received, search for the material in the most optimal way, find their own meaning in it and then apply it in life.
- In the learning process, there should not be an assignment of ready-made knowledge, but the construction of one's own, born during the lesson.
- The principle of teaching practice should be communicative and active. It provides for an interactive and interactive mode of conducting classes, the implementation of a joint search for solutions to problems with partnerships between the teacher and his pupils.
- The ability to think critically developed in students should not be about looking for flaws. It should be an objective assessment of all the negative and positive aspects of the cognizable object.
- Unsupported assumptions, stereotypes, clichés and overgeneralizations can lead to stereotyping.
Basic Model
The RKCHP lesson is built using a certain technological chain. It includes such links: challenge, as well as comprehension and reflection. At the same time, the methods of RKCHP can be applied in any lesson and for students of any age.
The task of the teacher is to becomea thoughtful assistant for their pupils, stimulate them to constant learning and guide children to develop skills that allow them to develop productive thinking. Let's take a closer look at each of the stages of technology.
Challenge
This is the first stage of technology. Its passage is mandatory for each lesson. The challenge stage allows:
- generalize and update the knowledge that the student has on a particular problem or topic;
- cause the student's interest in new material and motivate him to learning activities;
- decide on the questions you want answered;
- activate the student's work not only in the classroom, but also at home.
At the “challenge” stage, students begin to think about this or that material even before they get acquainted with the text, which is understood not only as written information, but also as a video, as well as the teacher’s speech. At this stage, the goal is determined and the motivation mechanism is turned on.
Comprehension
The tasks of this stage are completely different. At this stage, the student:
- receives information and then comprehends it;
- correlates material with existing knowledge;
- is looking for answers to the questions that were posed in the first part of the lesson.
The comprehension stage involves working with text. This is a reading accompanied by certain actions of the student, namely:
- marking, which uses the icons "v", "+", "?", "-" (all of them are placed in the margins on the right as they are read);
- looking for an answer toavailable questions;
- compiling tables.
All this allows the student to obtain information by correlating new knowledge with existing ones, and systematizing them. Thus, the student independently monitors his understanding.
Reflection
The main thing at this stage is the following:
- generalization and holistic understanding of the information received;
- learning new knowledge by a student;
- formation of each child's personal attitude to the material being studied.
At the stage of reflection, that is, where information is summarized, the role of writing becomes dominant. It allows not only to understand new material, but also to reflect on what has been read, expressing new hypotheses.
Basket of Ideas
Technology for the formation of a critical type of thinking involves the use of a variety of techniques. So, at the initial stage of the lesson, the teacher needs to organize individual and group work, during which experience and knowledge will be updated. What techniques of RCMCHP technology can be used at this stage? As a rule, teachers make a "basket of ideas".
This technique provides an opportunity to find out everything that students know about the upcoming topic of the lesson. The teacher conducts work using the following algorithm:
- each student for 1-2 minutes writes in his notebook everything he knows on a given topic;
- information is exchanged either in groups orbetween couples;
- pupils name one fact, without repeating what was said earlier;
- Information received is recorded on the chalkboard "Basket of Ideas" even if it is wrong;
- Inaccuracies are corrected as new information becomes available.
Let's consider an example of the application of this principle of the RCMCHP technology in literature lessons. The topic of the lesson is the study of the novel "Crime and Punishment" by F. Dostoevsky. At the initial stage, students write in their notebooks everything that they know about this work. On the board, the teacher draws a basket or attaches a picture with its image. After discussing the issue in groups, the following information can be recorded:
- Dostoevsky - Russian writer of the 19th century;
- punishment is..;
- crime is…;
- the main character is Raskolnikov.
After that, the teacher conducts a lesson, during which the students analyze each statement, comprehending it.
Clusters
Techniques that develop critical thinking can be very different. To systematize the acquired knowledge, a method called "Cluster" is often used. It can be applied when using the RKMCHP technology in elementary school and high school, as well as at any stage of the lesson. The rules used to build a cluster are quite simple. To do this, you need to draw a model of our solar system. The sun is in the center of the image. It is the topic of the lesson. The planets around the Sun are the largest semanticunits. These images of celestial bodies should be connected to the star by a straight line. Each planet has satellites, which, in turn, also have their own. Such a system of clusters allows you to cover a large amount of information.
Quite often, teachers use this principle of RKMCHP technology in mathematics lessons. This allows students to form and develop the ability of students to highlight the most important features of an object, compare geometric shapes with each other and highlight the general properties of objects, building logical reasoning.
True-False
Some of the techniques that develop children's critical thinking skills are based on the intuition of students and the application of their own experience. One of them is the one called "True-False". Most often it is used at the beginning of the lesson. The teacher offers students some statements that relate to a specific topic. Among them, children choose the faithful. This principle allows students to set up to study new material. The element of competition that is present at the same time allows the teacher to keep the attention of the class until the end of the lesson. After, at the stage of reflection, the teacher returns to this technique. Then it turns out which of the initial statements are true.
Let's consider an example of how this principle is used when studying a new topic using the RKMCHP technology in Russian language lessons. Children are invited to answer a series of questions in the form of "yes" or "no":
- Nouns of the thirddeclensions are written with a soft sign at the end.
- After the letter "e" and hissing, "e" is written in the endings under stress.
- Nouns change by gender.
- The section that studies parts of speech - morphology.
Insert
When working with this method of developing critical thinking technology, the teacher uses two steps. The first of these is reading, during which the student takes notes. The second step of receiving involves filling in the table.
In the process of reading the text, students need to make some notes in the margins. These are “v”, which means “already knew”, “-”, which indicates that the student thought differently, “+”, meaning a new concept or previously unknown information, and “?”, indicating that The student has questions and he did not understand what was said. Notes can be made in several ways. Icons can be combined two, three and four at a time. It is not necessary to label each idea or line when applying this principle.
After the first reading, the student should return to their initial guesses. At the same time, he needs to remember what he knew and what he assumed on the new topic.
The next step of the lesson is to fill in the table. It should contain as many graphs as the student indicated marking icons. After that, the text data is entered into the table. The "Insert" technique is considered quite effective at the stage of reflection.
Fishbone
This technology technique for developing critical thinking in children is used while working with problematictexts. Translated from English, the word "fishbone" means "fish bone".
This principle is based on a schematic diagram, which has the shape of a fish skeleton. Depending on the age of the students, the imagination and desire of the teacher, this scheme can be vertical or horizontal. For example, it is better for elementary school students to draw the skeleton of a fish in its natural form. That is, the image must be horizontal.
The scheme includes four blocks interconnected by a connecting link in the form of the main bone, namely:
- head, that is, the problem, topic or question that is being analyzed;
- upper bones (with a horizontal image of the skeleton) fix those reasons for the main concept of the topic that led to the problem;
- lower bones indicate facts that confirm the existing reasons or the essence of the concepts depicted in the diagram;
- tail serves for generalizations and conclusions when answering the question.
There are many other principles of RKCHP technology that are quite effective ways to develop critical thinking in children.
