Delve into the Deep!

This second set of exercises in the series, Teaching Critical Thinking with Stories, helps you guide your students step-by-step through any story so they can come to understand:

• Why characters in the story act they way they do
• How the characters change throughout the story (or fail to change!)
• What happens in the story, and the effects of those actions
• Who is important in the story, and why

Knowing that there is a reason for everything that happens in fictional stories may also encourage your students to read more stories!

Why Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is thinking logically. Stories have an internal logic to them, and it's not just in detective or mystery stories! Many of the stories--either written in books or acted out in films and plays--are based on the pattern in Aristotle's Poetics.

The process of figuring that out in each story trains your mind to think logically.

Having to express that in writing greatly enhances that skill. It also allows you to delve deeper into other stories.