Meeting the Cognitive Goals of an Educational Plan for Gifted Second Graders

Date of Completion

12-31-1999

Document Type

Open Access Capstone

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

First Advisor

Millman

Abstract

In this synthesis I offer five sample lesson plans to show how a teacher can take knowledge of critical and creative thinking and teach it in a gifted inclusion classroom. Each lesson includes cognitive strategies and techniques from A. J. Binker's thirty-five dimensions of critical thinking or E. P. Torrance's summary of creative abilities. The goal of presenting these lessons is to help other gifted teachers understand cognitive strategies and how integrate them into lessons and meet the individual needs of every student. In the chapters that precede the lesson plans I provide the personal context in which I developed them. I begin by explaining my own personal journey to becoming a teacher committed to applying critical and creative thinking in teaching and learning as well as in personal relationships. Studying in the Critical and Creative Thinking Program was central in this journey. After completing the course work for the Program I found a teaching position in Palm Beach County, Florida. Over the last four years I have taught a variety of primary grades in two different elementary schools. I now teach gifted students and English speaking students of other languages included with regular education student at the second grade level. The County’s educational plan requires me to teach cognitive strategies to gifted students, but I teach them in some form to all my students. I believe that students who learn to use critical and creative thinking have a better chance of coping with the rapidly changing world and living peacefully in the future.

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