THINKING SKILLS TO BETTER YOUR ENGLISH INTRODUCTION In a world of rapid change and high competitive era, the ability to think with clarity and efficiency has become increasingly important. This programme enhances the skills that constitute clear and critical thinking. The students acquire a greater degree of proficiency in the various skills of thinking if they are provided with opportunities to practice. Students with well-rounded, well-developed thinking skills will benefit in all areas of the school curriculum, perform better in standardized tests and cope better with real-life situations. The thinking skills include: Fact and Opinion Real and Imaginary Comparing and Contrasting Identifying steps in a process Identifying main ideas Identifying relationships Ordering objects Inferring Judging completeness Anticipating probabilities Mastery of the above said skills through practice will aid in the development of four stages ofThinking. Stage 1: Knowledge Stage 2: Comprehension Stage 3: Application Stage 4: Analysis NOTE: This p rogr amme i s inc lude d in t he i nt er na l ex aminat io ns f or ----- -- --- mar ks . TABLE OF CONTENTS Stage 1: KNOWLEDGE Skill 1: Fact and Opinion Skill 2: Real and Imaginary Stage 2: COMPREHENSION Skill 3: Comparing and Contrasting Skill 4: Identifying steps in a process Skill 5: Identifying main ideas Skill 6: Identifying r elationships
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Some things need to be done in a step-by-step way. This skill makes the child identify those steps
based on his previous knowledge or by the hints given in the question and arrange them in a order.
Identifying the main idea
Pictures and stories have a main idea / theme. Usually, the complete story or a paragraph in a story isdeveloped around a main idea / theme. This skill develops the knowledge to identify this main idea and
also to construct a story around this idea.
Identifying relationships
Some things go together. This skill develops the child’s knowledge about relationships between
different things.
Exercise:
To compare things means to say what is alike about them. To contrast things means to tell
what is different about them.
I. Look at the pictures of the two trees and read the paragraph that follows.
Identify Tree X and Tree Y. Then, based on the information in the pictures and the
paragraph, answer these questions.
Tree X and Tree Y both grow near a river bank. They both have thick trunks. However,
Tree X is tall, while Tree Y is quite short. Tree X has branches which do not have
many leaves, while Tree Y has branches that are leafy and provide a lot of
shade. Wha t is the same abou t Tree X and Tree Y?
2. c a t e r p i l l a r , c r o c od i l e , a n t , b e e t l e , s n ak e
3 . t r e e s , f l ow e r s , b u s h e s , f o r e s t s , s e ed s
I I . . Read each story and circle the correct answers.
1. It was night time in the village. They lay in bed, awake.
There was a faint l ight outside and a rumbling sound could be heard. The
rumbling got louder and louder, and the l ight grew brighter and brighter. Then,
the rumbling became softer and softer, and the light became d immer and
dimmer. Someone sa id , "What was that?" It was
a. an earthquake b. a passing train c . so me m en on
horses
2. This homework was not easy. I had been working on it for more than anhour. It was no use using a dict ionary, atlas or encyclopaedia. If only I had a
calculator. It was _________________________________
a. English homework b. researching a c . Maths home work
famous person
3. I enjoyed my holiday very much. I had never seen snow before. It was fun
Simone's mother buys a hat for $15, a scarf for $12 and a ha ndb ag.
How much does she spend a l together?
6. Lennie’s dog is four years older than Tommy’s dog. Tommy’s dog is the same age asBrenda’s cat. How old is Lennie’s dog?
7. Pasty has 20 lollipops which she would like to share with her friends. How many lollipopswill each child receive?
II. Read the story and answer the questions that follow.
Mr Bowland's Dog
Mr Bowland is very r ich. He is a kind man who never married, preferr ing to l ive
in his big house with his beloved dog, Rover. Mr Bowland is known to l ike al lchi ldren and al l animals. One day, when you are playing with your fr iends at the
park, you see Mr Bowland searching for Rover. You see that Mr Bowland is very
upset, and you hear h im mutter ing, "Miss ing three days, miss ing three days."
You go to Mr Bowland and say, "Mr Bowland, I know how much you love your
dog. May I help you f ind h im?"
1. Say what happens next .
2. If Rover was never found, what could you do for Mr Bowland to make him feel better?
B. Study these pictures. They show two men who want to cross the mountains by
horse. The mountains are very rugged with lots of rocks, some dense forest andfallen trees.
The rider in Picture A is partly blind but he rides a race horse. The rider in Picture Bcan see well but his horse is quite slow. Which rider will cross the mountains first?