Teaching Critical Analysis (7)

One of the core things we learn in high school English classes is how to analyze texts for themes, literary techniques, and characterization. While these things are important skills for students to learn and develop critical reading and writing skills, there are also other ways of analysis that could help students beyond the classroom in any aspect of life. This is the skill of critical thinking. Last semester, I took a course called Philosophy and Critical Thinking through the University of Queensland. At the end of the course, I read supplemental resources from the course relating to a project through the university working to establish ore critical thinking and philosophy methods in education. This semester, since I was focusing more on independent research, I used the things I learned in my studies of philosophy and critical thinking to adjust how I did my research and actively practice critical thinking. The bulk of my research this semester has been focused on Black studies, with the specific intersections of feminism, art, history, and environmentalism. I have been reading books, essays, poetry, journal articles, and academic research, while also listening to and watching speeches from specific people I read about. 

In doing this, I found that there were significant connections between everything I was reading, all pertaining to the various topics aforementioned. This is something I noticed my sophomore year of high school as well, where the things I was learning in my AP U.S. History class were pertinent to what I was learning in my American English Literature class. However, these critical analyses skills are something I learned the following year when I took AP Seminar, and had I not participated in that program and learned about critical thinking in my first semester of GT ELS, I may not have been able to make the deep-rooted connections that I did in my independent research this semester. I am one of the students who has been privileged enough to have taken these classes at Central Academy, but these critical thinking skills are not something that should be subject to only a select portion of the student population. Every classroom should teach students how to make critical connections between the materials they are learning because the reality is that everything truly is connected. Causal connections are a fundamental truth of our society, and not teaching students how to make these connections hinders our ability to be more creative and our drive to keep learning. 

One example of how this could be done in the classroom is by giving students a list of materials to choose from to be used for the same assignment. This would give students more freedom in the classroom and allow them to pursue their individual interests. Furthermore, it could still fall into the demands of the curriculum and grading scales because tests or writing prompts could be uniform, but students would use their individual materials to complete the task. This would also be more beneficial for class discussions because students would still have to practice discussion skills, they would be talking about things that relate more to them personally and their interests, and they would be inherently relating those interests and experiences to others. Teaching critical reading analysis is necessary for all students to learn because it is a skill that is in practice every day as individuals navigate the world. In addition, it provides the opportunity for students to engage in identity exploration, developing their interests, and pushing for new ways of learning and thinking. 

Gabriella S. Hoard