“Think critically and you will be rewarded with great success”. This famous quote best describes the importance of cultivating critical thinking skills in students, especially tho in primary school. When taught at an early age, critical thinking abilities not only benefit the student in their academic lives, but also in their lives at home and in the world at large.
At the same time, there are a variety of approaches to fostering this kind of thinking in students. One such approach is to u examples. In the context of primary school English education, the Unit 2 of the Translin Primary School English program, “In the Library” provides a great example of how such an approach can be implemented with success.
By studying this unit, students will be expod to various aspects of the process of critical thinking. First of all, the text of the unit does more than just stipulates a story about a group of kids going to the library for some fun. It also provides enough hints so that students can engage in the activity of reconstruction of the original story from the quence of events given in the unit. As such, the text rves to help students understand the importance of logical thinking by offering practice in reconstructing the story logically.
Additionally, the activities in the “Language Handout” ction of the unit effectively guide students in forming their own opinions and perspective of given topics. For instance, in the “Family Book” activity, students are asked to make a collection of books that explain their family values and traditions. Through this activity, students can start to form their perspective of the importance of family and culture.
In addition to theoretical learning, the activities in this unit also guide students in their application of critical thinking. For instance, in the “Library Hunt” activity, students are asked to gather resources from the library bad on their rearch topic. This activity requires students to think through the entire rearch process, from forming rearch topics to doing evaluation of the sources gathered. Through this activity, students can learn how to form hypothes and how to make judgements among different sources of information.
All in all, the Unit 2 of the Translin Primary School English program, “In the Library” is an effective way of fostering critical thinking skills in students. It offers both theoretical under
standing and practical application of critical thinking skills in a fun and engaging way. This unit is a great way to introduce students to the important skill of critical thinking from an early age, and as such it can rve as a valuable resource for teachers in their efforts of imparting this kind of thinking to young learners.
