Virginia Department of Education
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
Introduce pupils to the two types of reasoning, inductive and deductive. Classmates work in pairs or small groups to learn the difference between the two and apply these reasonings to develop valid conclusions.
Education Development Center
Thinking Things Through Thoroughly
Problem solving is a skill of its own. Learners use a variety of problems to encourage mental math and logic to get the correct answer. Guiding questions are provided along the way to encourage the right way of thinking to help tackle...
Student Handouts
Logical Fallacies
Help your learners grow their critical thinking and analytical skills by asking them to examine logical fallacies. After reading an example, pupils determine if two sets of premises and conclusions are logical fallacies or not and...
Scouts
The Deadly Picnic: A Lab on Deductive Reasoning
Whodunnit? Find out who killed Mr. Brooks through a logical examination of evidence. Class members fill out a couple of data tables to help them pin down the suspect. After they've figured out just who the culprit is, pupils compose...
Education Bureau of Hong Kong
Fundamentals
"Fundamentals," the first lesson in a series of eight, introduces the basic concepts and strategies covered in a series of resources designed to teach high schoolers critical thinking skills. The worksheets and activities in this first...
iCivics
So You Think You Can Argue
What defines an argument, and how can someone properly formulate a counterargument? This resource provides two options—an interactive PowerPoint presentation or worksheet—that will support your learners as they begin to explore how to...
Student Handouts
Ad Hominem Arguments
Give your class a lesson in logical reasoning. This worksheet, which focuses on ad hominem arguments, goes step by step through an example. After examining the argument, learners assess a second conversation for ad hominem arguments...
K20 LEARN
Writing Is Elementary, My Dear Watson: Writing Paragraphs With Evidence And Reasoning
Did Smitty do it, or is he a victim? Sleuths apply their observation and reasoning skills to build a case for an argumentative paragraph. Class members closely observe a cartoon, make a claim, cite evidence from the image, and support...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Identifying Author’s Opinion, Reasons, and Supporting Evidence: “Courage on the Field”
What do you think? Scholars complete a mid-unit assessment in which they identify an opinion in Courage on the Field along with evidence that supports it. After the assessment, pupils complete Tracking My Progress, Mid-Unit 2...
Math Stars
Math Stars: a Problem-Solving Newsletter Grade 7
Put on your thinking caps because middle school math has never been more interesting in this huge resource full of thought provoking questions. Written as a newsletter, the resource has 10 two-page newsletters with a variety of...
Math Stars
Math Stars: A Problem-Solving Newsletter Grade 6
Think, question, brainstorm, and make your way through a newsletter full of puzzles and word problems. The resource includes 10 different newsletters, all with interesting problems, to give class members an out-of-the box...
Education Bureau of Hong Kong
Evaluating Casual Claims
Responsible decision making relies on the ability to a recognize, analyze, and evaluate claims. The worksheets and activities in this 32-page packet teach learners how to distinguish among opinions, reasoned arguments, facts, and logical...
Noyce Foundation
Photographs
Scaling needs to be picture perfect. Pupils use proportional reasoning to find the missing dimension of a photo. Class members determine the sizes of paper needed for two configurations of pictures in the short assessment task.
EngageNY
Mid-Module Assessment Task: Grade 7 Mathematics Module 4
Assess the ability of the class to solve percent problems with an assessment that covers a variety of percent problems from basic to multi-step. Pupils make connections between percent problems and proportional thinking to complete...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Modeling Motion: Rolling Cups
Connect the size of a rolling cup to the size of circle it makes. Pupils view videos of cups of different sizes rolling in a circle. Using the videos and additional data, they attempt to determine a relationship between cup...
Association of American Geographers
Project GeoSTART
Investigate the fascinating, yet terrifying phenomenon of hurricanes from the safety of your classroom using this earth science unit. Focusing on developing young scientists' spacial thinking skills, these lessons engage...
Missouri Department of Elementary
I’m Thumbody!
Positive and negative thinking is the focus of a lesson that boost self-awareness. Beginning with a whole-class discussion, scholars brainstorm what positive thinking looks and sounds like then compares and contrast the two types of...
Curated OER
Section 1: Analogies
Introduce your freshmen to analogies with this packet of prompts that also includes strategies for solving these critical thinking puzzles.
EngageNY
Tax, Commissions, Fees, and Other Real-World Percent Problems
Pupils work several real-world problems that use percents in the 11th portion of a 20-part series. The problems contain percents involved with taxes, commissions, discounts, tips, fees, and interest. Scholars use the equations formed for...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Keep Finding the Positive
Group members take on roles to create a positive classroom community. Learners perform their role—leader, recorder, presenter, timekeeper, encourager, and collector—in preparation for a formal presentation of their positive thinking...
Mathematics Vision Project
Geometric Figures
Logical thinking is at the forefront of this jam-packed lesson, with young mathematicians not only investigating geometric concepts but also how they "know what they know". Through each activity and worksheet, learners wrestle with...
Noyce Foundation
Boxes
Teach your class to think outside the box. Scholars use the concept of equality to solve a problem in the assessment task. They determine how to use a scale to identify the one box out of a set of nine boxes that is heavier than the others.
Curated OER
Dragonfly
The speed of a dragonfly brings math into the real world as your learners collaboratively see the value in calculating unit rates in direct proportion problems. This six-phase lesson encourages you, as the teacher, to only ask questions...
Curated OER
Rounding and Subtracting
Common Core is all about getting your learners to open their minds and think about the why and how. This problem has them thinking about unknown numbers and their relationship with one another when we round and...