Whole Brain Critical Thinking

Once you have mastered the basics of Teach-Okay in which your students explain to each other the lessons you have taught them, it is quite easy to go on to develop their critical thinking skills.  Simply pose a question like "What are all the different ways you could solve this math problem?" Or, "What are all the similarities and differences between the two main characters in the story we just read?"  Then say, "Tell your neighbors your answers, teach!"  Your students are then coming up with their own answers instead of repeating your point of view.  To make their interchanges more graphic, create gestures for the most common critical thinking activities.  For example, your students can interlace their fingers when talking about similarities and bump their fists together when discussing differences.  Or, they can make a gesture that indicates they are "pulling an example" out of their heads, when they are creating examples to back up their position.