teaching critical thinking, cause and effect

Are you talking about the reading comprehension part of the test? When my dd took the Iowa test at about that age that score was about her lowest. I bought Reading Detective from the Critical Thinking Co. I haven’t had her tested since, but I can tell her skills in that area improved. She struggled a lot when she started the book but then caught on to what she was supposed to be looking for. I just had her do one exercise per week. HTH some:). Gina

Hi Kristen-

One thing that we struggle with for DD8/3rd grade is when having her narrate, she embellishes quite a lot, making up tiny insignificant details, things that she imagines will happen or that might have happened. Often she is telling what she would have written if it were her own story, or how she will later act it out with her sister. Admittedly, they are tiny details such as the color of a dress, whether a character was wearing boots or slippers, or how they had their hair styled. These are all things she uses her imagination to picture and then they come out as part of the story, as if they were actually included in the text.

SO. We have her narrate twice. Once with “just the facts, Ma’am” and the other with her colorful and interesting variations and embellishments. It is critical to me that she know the difference between the two and it seems that this type of exercise has also helped her with her reasoning and logic.

For instance, say a character is upset because she had planned a picnic and the day dawned very cloudy. Even if the text didn’t spell it out, it is apparent that possible rain may ruin the picnic. Okay, that is a cause and effect concept (a poor example, sorry). My daughter may imagine that the character also had a new hat that would be soggy at the end of the day so she was upset that she had to choose whether to wear the hat and get it ruined or not wear her new hat at all. My daughter can sometimes make these ideas seem so real that I have to reread the text to make sure I didn’t miss something! 🙂

At first I kept asking her questions after her narrations such as “Did that really happen?” “Are you sure?” “Really?” It dawned on me that those were a bit attack-like, especially when she reacted defensively. So, I came up with the idea to have her do two narrations, one fact and one fiction. I let her chose which to tell first and she has to announce it so we know ahead of time. Sometimes I have her do one for me during the day then the other at night for Dad. She enjoys both, but I think she just loves to let her imagination soar. It has helped so much to do this – her focus is intense and she really concentrates to make sure her narrations are factual.

BTW, the reason I feel so strongly about the distinction between these two is that my mother tends to mull conversations over after they happen and then give a more exciting version of whatever story she is telling. Often she directly quotes me back to myself saying things that I did not say. It’s a source for confusion and angry feelings for sure. Admittedly I have a tendency to do it as well, although DH has been faithful in his gentle reminders to me. We emphasize to DD that it is a form of lying and that we all need help being truthful in all things.

Also, we don’t use any curriculum for this, just good conversation and good books. Sometimes I will have her do pencil sketch (or two) as well as, or instead of, the narration.

My that was a ramble! Hope it helps a little, though.