Critical Thinking and

Reading

Critical thinking begins

when you question
beyond what is given.
You want to know more:
-how something happens,
-why it happens, and further
-what will happen if something changes.
Critical thinking therefore requires a conscious
level of processing, analysis, creation and
evaluation of possible outcomes, and reflection

If youre a critical
thinker,
You are willing to examine your beliefs,
assumptions, and opinions and weigh
them against facts. You are willing to
evaluate
the
generalizations
and
stereotypes you have created and are
open to change, if necessary.

Critical thinkers listen

carefully

If you are a critical thinker, you listen

carefully to what others are saying and are
able to give feedback.
You are able to suspend judgment until all
the facts have been gathered and
considered.

Critical thinkers look for

evidence
If youre a critical thinker, you look for
evidence to support your assumptions and
beliefs. You examine problems closely and
are able to reject information that is
incorrect or irrelevant.

BLOOMS TAXONOMY

A HIERARCHICAL

CLASSIFICATION OF THE LEVELS OF THINKING

COMPLE
X

EVALUATION
assessing, inferring,

SYNTHESIS

critiquing, rating, grading, assaying,

drawing conclusions, forming opinions

redesigning, recreating, putting back

different way

examining, taking apart, breaking down

using knowledge & comprehension;

together in a

ANALYSIS
APPLICATION

solving problems

COMPREHENSIONunderstanding, paraphrasing, interpreting

SIMPLE

KNOWLEDGE
reciting, etc.

naming, recognizing, identifying, recalling,

Understanding Blooms
Taxonomy
It hierarchy is a sequential organization
It progresses upward from simple to complex
Each level builds upon the preceding level(s)
It is an appropriate concept map of Blooms Taxonomy is pyramidal
in shape, beginning at the base with knowledge and
progressing upward

At the highest levels there is no one right answer

Ex.: What is your opinion of . . .?
What conclusions can you draw from . . .?
How would you rate the movie . . .?

Checkpoint
Which level of Blooms Taxonomy are you thinking on when you . . .
1.

paraphrase information you just read in your history textbook?

2.

summarize a case study presented in clinical psychology ?

3.

write a movie review for English class?

4.

prepare a book review?

5.

recite the Gettysburg Address?

6.

work some problems in math?

7.

make a timeline for the historical period referred to as The Stormy

Sixties?

8.

use a microscope to see what kinds of markings an onion skin has.

9.

identify a fellow student by name?

10.

translate a story from Polish to English?

Checkpoint Answers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Comprehension. Paraphrasing is a simple rewording of information.

Rephrase the information for clarification or improved understanding.
Synthesis. Summarizing requires weeding out of non-essential
information then putting the remaining information together
sequentially.
Evaluation.
Requires opinion. Reading and reacting to the
facts presented.
Evaluation. Calls for ones personal response to ideas presented, style
of presentation, etc.
Knowledge. Rote memory requires little if any thinking. It is simply
recall of sequential presentation of information.
Application. Paraphrasing in graphic formata step above
comprehension.
Synthesis. Requires weeding out and organizing in order to
chronologically arrange events.
Analysis. Examinationexactly what analysis is!
Knowledge. Putting name and face togetherlow-level skill.
Comprehension. Being able to translate indicates understanding (of
language and material!)

Why Is Critical Thinking

Important?
It . . .
reading, writing, listening and speakingbasic
underlies
elements of communication.
an important part in social change. Institutions in any
plays
societycourts, governments, schools, businessesare the
products of critical thinking.

plays a major role in technological advances.

blazes a path to freedom from half-truths and deceptions.

How Can One Become a

Critical
Thinker
pertinent questions
By(ofasking
self as well as others);

listening carefully to others, thinking

By
about what they say, and giving

assessing statements and

By arguments;

By observing with an open mind;

developing a sense of
By observation
and curiosity;

By becoming interested in
finding new solutions;

examining beliefs,
By assumptions,
and opinions

and weighing them against truth.

developing a thinkers
By vocabulary.

feedback;

making assertions based on sound

By
logic and solid evidence;

By sharing ideas with others;

becoming an open-minded listener
By
and reader;
engaging in active reading and
By
active listening!

In other words

Critical thinking is higher level thinking.

It often requires us to think outside the
box.
Many occupations/ careers require critical
thinking.
The things we enjoy in everyday society are
the
result of critical thinking.
By adopting certain habits and behaviors we
can
learn to think critically.

Research invariably
requires critical reading
In order to read critically,
you have to be a critical
thinker.

Critical Reading
It is not just reading between the lines.
Its reading what is stated and unstated by the author
to figure out what the author is saying, interpreting the
facts along with the authors attitude, using implied
meaning to make accurate assumptions, and drawing
accurate conclusions.
Critical reading is referring to information collection and
analysis with identification of strengths and weaknesses.

Critical Reading
Critical reading involves a higher level of
sophistication in reading through:
analyzing facts, opinions, and bias
statements
It also involves a higher level of sophistication in
reading by:
synthesizing groups of supporting statements
to summarize or paraphrase, bringing
individual clarity to the piece read
15

Critical Reading
In addition, it requires the reader to
evaluate how the information fits into
the his/her historical perspective and if
it meets standards of critical reading.

Critical Reading
What are some things you can do to
ensure you read
critically

Use the

SQ3R

method every time you

read

SQ3R Method in Reading

Survey
Question
Read
Recall
Review

1. SURVEY
Survey the document:
scan the contents, introduction, chapter
introductions and chapter summaries to
pick up a shallow overview of the text.
Look at:
Titles
Pictures
Introduction and conclusion
Bold or italicized print
Questions
First and last sentences in paragraphs
Footnotes

2. QUESTION
Make a note of any questions on the subject
that come to mind, or particularly interest
you following your survey. Perhaps scan the
document again to see if any stand out.
These questions can be considered almost as
study goals - understanding the answers can
help you to structure the information in your
own mind.

QUESTION:
1. Talk back to the
author
If you have been reading critically, you must

have been thinking; you have something to

express in words.
If you are not creating responses to the text as
you read, paragraph by paragraph, you are not
really thinking. You are merely absorbing the text
and falling into passive reading for information.
Take the time to jot down responses, even if
only a few words, as you write:
"Huh?" Yes! I don't know "Not in the case
of..."
"I disagree here because..."
When you talk back to the text, you can
expand on the author's ideas with original ones.

QUESTION:
2. Ask questions to the
text
The key to convert yourself from a passive reader to an
active one is simple. You must ask questions, and then you
must try to answer them.
If I tell you, "Think about starvation," your thoughts
probably consist of disconnected images of suffering you
have seen on television. There is very little direction implied
in that command.
However, if I ask, "How could we prevent starvation?" Your
brain probably will start whirring, generating lists,
considering various approaches to dealing with the issue.
Questions by their very nature generate thinking, provided
that we take the time to try and answer them.
So, as you read, ask Why did the author say that?" Or
"What does this part mean?" Asking and answering
questions forces you to read actively rather than passively.
It forces you to think, and that is the point of critical
reading.

QUESTION:
3. Ask questions about
yourself
What is your attitude toward the issue?
What are your pre-judgments about the issue?
Does your attitude affect how receptive you are to
the author's viewpoint?
What preconceptions do you have about the topic?
What past experiences have you had that are
pertinent to the issue?
Monitor your own emotions as you read. Do
certain sections make you feel pleased? Guilty?
Angry? Annoyed? Smug? Saddened?
Do you think the author intended to create that
effect? If not, where did that emotional response
originate?

QUESTION:
4. Ask questions about
context
Think about the author. Why do you think the author
takes the position he or she does? Is there a personal
investment in the matter? What larger social,
economic, geographical, or political circumstances
might have influenced the creation of this piece of
writing?
Read between the lines and think about the context in
which the material was originally written and what that
might mean today. Are the original conditions so
different today that they render the argument invalid in
other circumstances? Or does it hold just as true? Why?

QUESTION:
5. Ask questions about
broader implications
The author asserts that X is true. What logically

follows if we accept that statement? Ideas do not

exist in a vacuum; they spread outward like ripples
in pond water.
If an essay asserts that all life is holy, and killing
any other living organism is always an absolute
wrong, does that imply we should stop using
pesticides to kill bugs? We should outlaw flyswatters? That we should cease washing our hands
with soap lest we kill innocent bacteria? That
capital punishment is unethical? Euthanasia?
What follows from that statement if you accept it
unconditionally?
If
we
cannot
accept
it
unconditionally, what exceptions must we take into
account?

Seek Relevant Connections:

So what? Why does it matter? Why should you care? How does
the argument have personal importance to you? Does it have
communal importance for those around you? How does it connect
to your life now? Thirty years from now?
Essays on economics have implications for people who are not
economists themselves. Arguments about education and public
welfare have implications for anyone who goes to school or who
pays taxes. Arguments about raising children one way or another
not only have implications for potential parents, they also affect
everyone who must live with the next generation of youngsters. It
is the sign of a weak or lazy intellect to suggest that such
material has no relevance in the individual's life. Apathy is an
intellectual sin, and boredom the fruit of that vice. Seek out the
relevant connections, and you will find them. If the topic does not
seem important to you immediately, why does the author think it
is important?

Make your Mark, Answer Your

Own Questions
Make Notes in the Margin: When you underline or
mark important passages, jot down quick reactions like
"wow!" Or "huh?" Or "maybe." Yes, it will reduce the
resale value of that textbook by ten or twenty dollars
at the end of the term, but consider that you are
paying thousands of dollars more in tuition in order to
extract the information within it. Making notes will help
you extract and remember that material more
effectively, as well as find the exact passage that
confused or dazzled you. Active reading implies a
reaction on your part. If you have prejudices against
marking up a book (they are, after all, holy objects),
use a notepad, or jot down some ideas on stick notes.

3. READ

Read the document.

Read through useful sections in detail,
taking care to understand all the points
that are relevant.
In the case of some texts this reading
may be very slow especially if there is a
lot of dense and complicated information.
Take notes in concept map format.

4. RECALL

Once you have read appropriate

sections of the document, run through
it in your mind several times.
Isolate the core facts or the essential
processes behind the subject, and
then see how other information fits
around them.

RECALL
Mark Confusing Sections: Many students read through a
tough essay all the way through. When it is complete, they are
confused, but they are unable to indicate what confused them.
As you read, keep note of whether or not you are understanding
the material. As soon as you realize you are lost, make a note in
the margin so you can try to remedy your confusion at that
moment.
Reread
passage
passage
passage

Confusing Sections: Sometimes, rereading the

after some thought is all it takes to make a confusing
clear. Take the time to slowly re-read it. Try rewriting the
in your own words once more.

Talk it over with other Readers: Ask other students who have
read the passage to explain it to you. If you are both confused,
talking about it may be all you need to break the mental barrier.
Sleep on it: Sometimes putting the essay aside for the day and
returning to it fresh in the morning is a good way to cure
confusion. It gives your subconscious mind a chance to chew on
the problem.

5. REVIEW
Once you have run through the exercise
of recalling the information, you can
move on to the stage of reviewing it.
Reread the document, expand your
notes, or by discuss the material with
colleagues.

 A particularly effective method of reviewing information is to

paraphrase and summarise the ideas.
Paraphrase: Ever read through a difficult passage seven times in a
row? Find that your eyes slide over the words, but at the bottom of
the paragraph you can't remember a single bit of what you read? To
avoid this tragedy, make a habit of repeating passages in your own
words. Readers do not intellectually possess the subject-matter until
they make it their own by translating it into their own, familiar
terminology. Do it aloud, or write brief paraphrases of hard
passages in the margin.
Summarize: If you are truly reading critically, at the end of each
paragraph you should be able to give a one-sentence summary of
what that paragraph said. You might also make a two or three word
summary at the top of every couple of pages, then a longer two- or
three- sentence summary at the end of the reading.

SQ3R is a useful technique for extracting the

maximum amount of benefit from your reading
time. It helps you to organize the structure of a
subject in your mind. It also helps you to set study
goals and to separate important information from
irrelevant data.
To recapitulate, SQ3R is a five-stage active reading
technique. The stages are:
Survey
Question
Read
Recall
Review
1.If you use SQ3R, you will significantly improve the
quality of your reading time.

Active, interactive &

critical reading strategy
Activity:
For EACH significant section you should ask
yourself :
What is this paragraph about?
Where is the writer coming from?
Who would agree/disagree with this position?
What is the argument? Who would agree/disagree?
What is the evidence? Is it valid? How do you know?
TIP: index all sources re-cycle reading

Write questions
What is this paragraph about?
What exactly is that?
What is your argument? (Tell me more)
What is the evidence (for and against)?
What does it mean?
How does this relate back to the question
as a whole?

Reading for Meaning

As you read, you transfer what you
understand from the words on the page
into your own words.
Certain aspects of the text come to
the foreground, while others retreat
into insignificance.
Meaning, therefore, is influenced by
who you are as an individual.

Annotating (write notes)

It is not important HOW you annotate, but

that you annotate at all.
The more you interact with a text, the more
your attention and comprehension increases.
Annotations should reflect your reactions to
the text, questions it raises, new ideas it
suggests, and your
reactions to it.

Differentiate between
facts vs.
interpretation/opinion
To non-critical readers, each piece of text
simply includes facts.
Critical readers take interpretation of text
one step further. They ask,
How does this text convey its main idea?
They move beyond summary to looking at
how the pieces of the text function together.

Example of restatement
Statement : Mary Had a Little Lamb
Restatement
: Mary had a lamb that followed
her
everywhere.
Description :
The nursery rhyme describes a pet that
followed its mistress everywhere.
You are just paraphrasing or restating the ideas,
nothing more.

An interpretation would
be
An image of innocent devotion is conveyed by the story of a
lambs devotion to its mistress. The devotion is emphasized
by repetition that emphasizes the constancy of the lambs
actions:
everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go.
The notion of innocence is conveyed by the image of a
young lamb being
white as snow.
By making it seem that this is natural and good, the
nursery
rhyme asserts innocent devotion as a positive relationship.
Here you are justifying your interpretation using evidence
in the text, instead of just paraphrasing.

Goals of Critical Reading

To identify the authors purpose.
Finding the central idea.
Identifying pertinent supporting
details.
To understand tone and persuasive
elements.
To recognize bias.

Critical Reading Skills

Identify Line of Reasoning (angle; viewpoint; position held;
case made)
Critically Evaluate Line of Reasoning (logical progression;
relevant, contributing & sufficient propositions; flawed reasoning)
Question Surface Appearances (sufficient evidence; other
explanations; biases; hidden agendas etc)
Identify Evidence in Text (statistics; case histories;
experiences; case histories)
Evaluate the Evidence Valid Criteria (date of research;
source; bias; allure of numbers; emotive language; persuasive
language)
Identify the Writers Conclusions (therefore; so; hence; thus;
must; should; need to; recommend)
Evaluate Whether the Evidence Supports the Conclusions
(are the conclusions supported by the evidence and argument
presented?)

Critical Reading Tips

Some questions to bear in
mind
What is the line of argument here?
Who wrote it? When was the research
whencarried
out? How up-to-date is it for the argument put
reading
forward?
Statistics use of percentages with no overall
numbers given.
Assumes a causal connection between one
issue and another.
Use of emotive language and isolated incidents
(fox) to support argument.

When reading a piece

of research article,
what do you look for?

1. AUTHORS OBJECTIVES

Research question
Hypothesis
Exploratory goals
Try to understand why the objectives were chosen.
Assessment should be based on the author's
objectives,
Not on the assessors interests.
D. Gile Critical reading

45

2. AUTHORS METHOD

Theoretical development/logical testing/empirical

Observational/Experimental
Survey/Interview/Text analysis/Lab experiment
...
What did the author actually do ?
Could you explain the procedure in a few
sentences ?
D. Gile Critical reading

46

3. RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Facts
Categories
Numbers
Opinions

AUTHOR'S CONCLUSIONS (If any)

Hypothesis strengthened or not
Valuable method or not
Problems discovered
Other methods/further studies required
47

4. ASSESSMENT OF
SUBSTANCE
OBJECTIVES
Relevant to general issue?
Useful?
Feasible?
METHOD
(Design, implementation)
Appropriate?
Best under circumstances?
Can you think of a better one?
D. Gile Critical reading

48

5. INFERENCES
Logically appropriate?
(No skipping, over-interpreting, over-generalizing)
Explicit, including references/explanations?
Are facts fully exploited?
Statistics
CONCLUSION
Based on results?
( Inferences OK?)
D. Gile Critical reading

49

PRACTICAL ADVICE (1)

Read with a pencil
Use a pencil to underline and write in
margins
Always write down full references of text
(including place where available)
Write down verbatim important text
segments
Write synopsis of objectives, methods,
results and conclusion
D. Gile Critical reading

50

PRACTICAL ADVICE (2)

Write down verbatim segments that you are going to
criticize.
Read several times any segment that you feel critical
about to make sure your criticism is justified.
Try to get clarification from author by writing to him/her.
Symbols for relative importance (underlining, *).
Keyword method.
(Note keywords in the margin)

D. Gile Critical reading

51

The Connection

To write better, we must learn to

read
better: Reading is primary.
Dan Kurland

RESOURCES
This Powerpoint has been adapted from:
Reach resources for academic achievement: contact Dorothy S. Golden, Seminar
Coordinator, REACH at dsgold01@louisville.edu
Halvorsen encouraging critical thought in the EFL classroom.ppt
Nist, Sherrie L. and William Diehl. Developing Textbook Thinking, 5 th ed. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Co., 2002.
Ruggiero, Vincent Ryan. Becoming a Critical Thinker, 3 rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1999.
Spears, Deanne Milan. Developing Critical Reading Skills, 5 th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill
College, 1999.
www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/definitions.htm
www.criticalthinking.org
www.chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/critthnk.html
www.calpress.com/critical.html
www.coping.org/write/percept/intro.htm
www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/handouts/1414.html
www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/crit.html
For additional information about critical thinking development and other topics included in
the on-line modules, please contact Dorothy S. Golden, Seminar Coordinator, REACH at
dsgold01@louisville.edu, (502) 852-2320, or (502) 852-6706.