Xmagic Ballerina 8

Instructors frequently worry that their students are simply parroting lines from the previous night's reading, and not thinking critically about important topics. Nowhere is this more important than for students just learning the ins and outs of American government. So how do you get students to move beyond merely describing an author's point of view? How do you get them to dig deeper, to actually uncover evidence and evaluate conclusions? The answer is to model critical thinking and close reading.

Barbour and Streb have created an effective and simple device that pushes students to actively engage with readings and tease out each writer's argument. Through a series of probing questions, students are trained systematically to read through a selection and:

Consider the source,
Lay out the argument,
Uncover the evidence,
Evaluate the conclusion,