Cindy McGrath Los Medanos College Critical Thinking in a Mass Communications Course Cindy McGrath's webpage traces her changes to a critical thinking assignment for Journalism 35 over a period of three semesters. In this assignment students grapple with a constitutional dilemma: the public's right to know vs. an individual's right to privacy. Cindy provides a rubric, samples of student work, and a provocative reflection on what she has learned from her participation in the Creative Arts and Humanitites Teaching Community and related assessment activities. Sep 17, 2006

Rick Flynn Los Medanos College Critical Thinking in a Freshman Composition Course This is a link to an example of teaching and assessing Critical Thinking in a Freshman English Composition course. The instructor, Rick Flynn, gives a detailed account of how he helped students carefully anaylze and evaluate an legal and ethical problem - the suspension of usual legal protections in the "war against terrorism". Sep 17, 2006

Daniel Moriel Los Medanos College Critical Thinking in an Introductory Philosophy Course This is a link to an example of teaching and assessing critical thinking in Philosophy 40. The instructor, Daniel Moriel, describes an assignment in which students analyze popular movies from a philosophical point of view. He includes a grading rubric, samples of student work, and a reflection on what he has learned about his students from this assignment. Sep 17, 2006

Dave Hobbs Los Medanos College Critical Thinking in a Course on Contemporary Ethical Issues Dave Hobbs summarizes his approach to teaching critical thinking in Philosophy 2 (formerly Humanistic Studies 2LS). This link includes a series of class activities that build students' ability to synthesize course material into a solution to a problem arising from environmental issues, a culminating assignment, an associated rubric, and samples of student work. Jan 29, 2006

Ursula Velonis Los Medanos College Critical Thinking in a Course on Contemporary Ethical Issues Ursula Velonis describes a critical thinking assignment for Philosophy 2 in which the principles of the Platonic model of an ideal state are applied to American society. She provides a a grading rubric and samples of student work, as well as a pdf of the requisite reading assignment. Sep 17, 2006

Mary Snell Los Medanos College Critical Thinking in PHIL 2 Contemporary Ethical Issues Mary Snell documents her use of critical thinking questions on a midterm for Philosophy 2 in which students apply Rogerio's method of ethical decision making to the well known case of Terri Schiavo. Mary's webpage provides descriptions of interactive classroom activities based on outside sources, such as PBS's "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly", that emphasize critical thinking skills. You will also find a grading rubric and samples of student work. Mar 29, 2008

Curtis Corlew Los Medanos College Critical Thinking in the Visual Arts Curtis Corlew describes a critical and creative thinking assignment from Art 5 in which students analyze what monuments say about contemporary identity, sensibilities, and values. Sep 17, 2006

Ana Maria Carbonell Los Medanos College Critical Thinking in a Literature and Composition Course This link includes a wealth of information provided by Ana Maria "Ia" Carbonell on teaching critical thinking in the context of analyzing poetry for English 230. The proposed class activities are designed to build students' ability to infer meaning from poetry and draw conclusions about a poet's response to social issues based on a close reading of their poetry. Also included are a poetry essay assignment, an associated rubric, and samples of student work, all of which illuminate critical thinking skills as they apply to English 230. Mar 29, 2008