This is my first semester teaching Freshman Composition for ESL. I mean, on my own. I was a "grader" for ASU's online Freshman Composition classes (English 101 and English 102), but I didn't design those courses. I didn't have any say on the assignment sequencing. But, in a way, it was an ideal gig. I learned a lot about freshman comp writers (from all around the world!), the goals of freshman comp (including the WPA outcomes) and more. (It's because of this gig that I learned about Weebly and created this website!)
So it's not surprising that when I agreed to take on this English 107 (English 101 for ESL) at the community college, I thought about the assignment sequences, discussions, and other teachings in those online ASU modules. In fact, I constructed my own essay assignments based on what they did in those courses. I had a lot of fun designing the course! But as I executed these assignments and was with my students throughout their writing processes (not just the final draft grading, like I did for ASU), I found something I didn't expect. My ESL students struggled to exhibit critical thinking. What is critical thinking? It's something, I realized, I do all the time but never really thought about where I learned it or even what it is--- let alone how to teach it! Stumped and unsure about where to begin in defining and/or teaching critical thinking skills, I reached out to some experienced colleagues of mine. One of them shared an entire module on Canvas about critical thinking. In it, it defined critical thinking in this way: "Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following:
She also shared this video with me, which I asked my students to watch and respond to. I asked them to think about and rate their own critical thinking skills. The answers were interesting, varying from some students never having heard about critical thinking, to student claiming that they do it all the time. The challenges in teaching critical thinking So, I'd defined it and asked them about their abilities. Now it was time to "test" them on it. (Not a formal test or anything, but I wanted to see how they did at a critical thinking task.) I created an in class activity, which consisted of them watching a ted talk and reflecting on how the concepts taught might relate to their own lives. I picked an awesome ted talk, probably my favorite ever ted talk: The Danger of a Single Story. Here's what happened: 1) they complained, and 2) they summarized the ted talk on the worksheet I gave them. /face palm/ I didn't know what to do next, so I went to another colleague of mine, and we talked about the challenges of critical thinking skills in different cultures. See, this friend of mine had taught in a lot of different places and had learned a thing or two about the way some cultures view critical thinking. It turns out (and this makes sense!) that some cultures discourage and/or don't practice critical thinking skills. Not all cultures celebrate or value the individual. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but it explains why (maybe) my students didn't know how or didn't feel comfortable exhibiting critical thinking skills. What I did... So I went back to the drawing board. I discovered that there was nothing wrong with my critical thinking activity. In fact, when I assigned it as homework, they did quite well on it! They just needed some time on it, I guess, which makes sense. Thinking (let alone critical thinking) takes time. Oftentimes, I tell students (particularly in the tutoring center) that you know you're doing critical thinking right if you're head hurts. I suppose that's true. But I think what ESL students really need to learn critical thinking skills is 1) practice and 2) permission. The moment I gave them permission to talk about themselves (my writing projects were critical thinking driven), they took off like a rocket. It was amazing to see their unique, and interesting responses to the prompts I gave them. After all, it's one of the reasons I love teaching ESL so much. They have worthwhile perspectives.
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