One method to help your students with their critical thinking is to use the
Facts, Questions, Response (FQR) strategy. This is a note taking method that helps student's to organize their thoughts as they read.
Facts:
The first column is used to record different important facts of the story. This can be difficult for some students because they want to record EVERY fact. So to help them take better notes that they will remember tell them, "Write the facts in your own words and don't copy every fact." If the students record the facts in their own words, they will remember them much easier.
Questions:
The Questions column is used to help the students think about what they are reading. They may ask why a character did something and later can discuss it with the class or a friend. The student may even have the question answered by the end of the story. If not, the student can do more independent research to answer these questions. This column aims to help with the comprehension of the story.
Response:
Response is a way to make personal connections to the story or relate to the students' personal feelings and thoughts. Students may make connections to other texts (text-to-text connections) or to personal experiences. This helps the student to build on prior knowledge.
This method can be used for both picture books or chapter books. It can even be used in textbooks or instructional books.
Below is an example you could create in class to show the students when you teach them how to use it. Remember to model your critical thinking when teaching this strategy! Do this by reading a book, thinking out loud, and recording your thoughts.
One of my professors was talking to us about a student she had who kept struggling with being extremely self conscious about her work. She tried to tell her that she had nothing to be self conscious about but that didn't seem to work. She then she came across with a cute idea that really helped her student. She created her student the "eye can". She gave it to her student to hold her pencils so every time her student was feeling self conscious, she could look at the "eye can" and think "I can!".
