Critical Thinking Class Analysis

Critical Thinking, as an extracurricular class, is different than the normal classes that others take. In this class, Grace has written many different informative and explanatory essays. This aligns with one of the 6th grade English Writing Standards which says “Write informative/explanatory texts and draw evidence from literary texts.” These following papers have been tied in with this standard. This class has written self biographies, made slideshow presentations on famous people and even made videos on a complex topic. First, in the beginning of the school year, Mrs. Francia’s Critical Thinking Class had to write a self biography in M.L.A. They had to think about what made them critical thinkers. Grace had to go through the entire writing process which includes editing and revising. The students had to write their paper in M.L.A. which had been new to all of them until that time. That was the first time writing a five paragraph essay in M.L.A. format. This was one of their most important assignments this quarter. Next, one of this class’ more recent assignments have been to make a slideshow presentation on a famous person’s failures and success’. This assignment was related to the standard because we had to do research and learn to cite our sources. Each
individual had to stand up and present their slideshow to the entire class. This ties into the standards very well and was very educational. I do not think that this project was a waste of time, I think it was very useful. The last activity that Grace will talk about is the Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
This was one of the first projects that she did this school year. This project took a lot of research and time to complete. The average age for people who enter this contest is around 17 years of age, everyone in her class was under the age of thirteen so were unable to enter. This project was very challenging their organization and production skills. This was the most challenging project that Grace’s class have had this year. Many people were close to stressing it was so challenging, that is why it challenged their skills. This project was very time consuming though good for the critical thinking class’
brains. Overall, this class has been challenging but fun. Though not always completely fun, it was good for them and will benefit them in life. Life is not always roses and cookies, they need to learn that. Though the projects may seem a little random sometimes, they are always tied in with the standards no matter what. Mrs. Francia is always looking out for their education.