This page shows one example of a Critical Thinking Scaffold in action–in this case, in a unit on “rhetoric and persuasion” for a college writing course. Learners are asked to analyze a social media post, but the process is broken down for them.
As you look through, consider two things in particular:
- Each part of each scaffold is tagged with metadata that corresponds to the particular critical thinking moves that learner will necessarily employ as they work through the experience. In a platform that can capture metadata from learners’ behavior, imagine the robust analytics we could provide.
- Imagine also that each of these scaffolds was generalized and available in an app filled only with scaffolds. When learners were finished with this particular lesson, they could take away the tools working through other situations.
rhetoric and persuasion
This is just the normal title of whatever is being taught. In this case, this is from a rhetoric course.
Rhetoric is fundamentally about persuasion. When you engage a text rhetorically, you are trying to figure out the strategies being used to influence how you think, feel, and act. The more rhetorical work you do, the better you understand how these strategies actually work. And the better you understand these strategies, the more able you are to develop rhetorical agency, the ability to think, speak, and act for yourself.
Here we just see the normal text of what’s being taught. This could be any subject, but in this case is about persuasion and rhetorical agency.
Here we just have what comes next in the regular instruction. In this case, students are analyzing the rhetoric of a social media post. But you could imagine embedded videos, photos, illustrations, maps, documents, case-studies, interactives, etc.–really, anything that gets the point across about the subject.
exercise: close reading (Part one)
How would you describe the main elements or features that make up this Instagram post? How would you characterize what is being said or shown to you overall?
This is the regular exercise/assignment–that students would expect in any learning experience.
the critical thinking scaffold: encounter
The scaffold, shaded in blue, starts here, and will break down the activity. “Encounter” encompasses the scaffolds of “Attention,” “Description,” and “Classification.”
“Dig ins” are designed to familiarize learners with the vocabulary of critical thinking.
Attention
Define the main elements that make up the text.
Make a list of the elements that first caught your notice.
Make a list of the elements that didn’t at first catch your notice.
Explain why you think paid less attention to the second list of elements What aspects or details made them less noteworthy to you?
Identify the key difference(s) between the elements you noticed and the elements you didn’t notice
What the elements I noticed all share in common is . . .
What the elements I didn’t notice all share in common is. . .
Based on this comparison, what would you say is the standard you’re using for whether or not an element is noteworthy? Do you think this is the right standard to use? Why or why not?
This is the “Attention” scaffold, since attention is a particularly important element of critical thinking. Notice how the titles of the scaffolds give learners a vocabulary for their thinking process, which helps them transfer the skills to other situations.
This bolded text is a kind of restatement of the original exercise, but in smaller pieces to refocus learners’ attention, so to speak.
As the “attention scaffold moves along, notice how learners are taken into more and more detail, and how the thinking process is broken down into smaller pieces. This is what we mean by “scaffolding.” The exercise is broken into climbable steps.
Description
Describe in your own words the main characteristics of each element
Make a list of the most important words or phrases you used to create each description
Why do you think these are the best descriptive terms to use? What do they highlight about each element that you feel should be highlighted?
Write a description of each element that uses an alternative set of words or phrases. How do these changes alter the definition of each element?
Why, in your view, are these less useful or accurate definitions? What aspect(s) of each element do these definitions get wrong or overlook?
Here the “Description” scaffold begins. Take note of how each activity carries forward information about what learners have already completed, helping them build upon their critical thinking skills they’ve already employed.
While critical thinking is far too messy of a concept for us to evaluate learners’ answers, it is enough to be pretty sure that they have employed them as we collect their activity data.
Imagine how much useful, actionable data can be generated from the metadata framework our scaffold provides.
Classification
How would you characterize what is being said or shown to you overall?
In two or three sentences, describe how you would characterize this text overall.
Based on this description, consider how you would characterize this text according to the following categories:
I would describe this type of text as ________ (form)
I would characterize the kind of information it includes as_________ (content)
I think the goal or purpose of this text is to ________ (function)
What kinds of questions about a text get raised when you classify its form as you did above?
What kinds of questions about a text get raised when you classify its content as you did above?
What kinds of questions about a text get raised when you classify its function as you did above?
Evaluate what you think makes each type of classification useful
It is important to classify a text according to its form because
It is important to classify a text according to its content because
It is important to classify a text according to its function because
Which mode of classification do you think is most useful? Which mode of classification do you think is least useful? Why?
exercise: close reading (part Two)
How would you describe the main elements or features that make up this Instagram post? How would you characterize what is being said or shown to you overall?
This is simply part 2 of the overall assignment.
the critical thinking scaffold: questioning
Dig in on Questioning–>
Evaluation
Dig in on Evaluation –>
Which of these elements do you find most interesting or important? Why?
List the elements you think are most “interesting” or “important,” and explain why you chose each element.
- ____________________ is interesting/important because
- ____________________ is interesting/important because
- ____________________ is interesting/important because
- ____________________ is interesting/important because
Use this space below to list any more, following the same pattern as above:
Determine the standard of value you are using for choosing these elements.
What my answers above all share in common is:
Based on my answers above, an element is more “important” when . . .
Based on my answers above, an element is more “important” when . . .
Based on my answers above, an element is less important when. . .
Based on your answers above, write a description of the standard you are using for measuring the importance of an element.
Describe at least one alternative standard for measuring the importance of an element. Explain why you think your own standard is more preferable.