Critical Thinking

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Critical Thinking

• Question-Answer Relationships
• Using James Fields
• The Owl Critic

By Yvonne Bradley at Martin City Middle
School CSD 4
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This activity covers the MAP Test, Communication
Arts Grade 11 objectives on details, literal
comprehension, deductive and inductive reasoning,
and logical conclusions from read text.
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Instructors Page

• Students need to keep a writing journal for their
  answers.
• Extention Exercise When students answer
  questions to other lessons, have them practice
  classifying the questions as right there
  (knowledge and comprehension levels of critical
  thinking), think and search (comprehension
  level of thinking), author and you (application
  and analysis levels of critical thinking) or on
  my own (synthesis and evaluation levels of
  critical thinking).
• Extension Exercise Divide the class into
  groups. Assign each group a few pages of a text
  for which they are to develop types of questions.
  Each group then teaches their part of the text
  by asking their questions to the class.

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Instructors Page

• As the class answers the various groups
  questions, they must classify the type of
  question before answering. This trains students
  to recognize types of questions which may not
  have an in text answer.
• Continue to have the class practice formulating
  types of questions. You may use some of their
  think and search or author and you questions
  for short answer or essay questions on your tests
  as well as theright there questions as
  objective test questions. The on my own
  questions might be used for performance based
  assessments.

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Instructors Page
Right There Author and You The answer is easy
to find. The answer is NOT in the text.
Words used in the questions and the You must
apply what you already answers are directly in
the text. know and what the text tells you to
formulate the answer. Think and
Search On My Own The answer is in the text,
but The answer is NOT in the text.
one must put together several parts You can
answer the questions without of the
text. reading the text. You must use your
own experience.
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Right There The answer is usually easy to find.
Words used in the questions and in the answers
are directly in the text. One can point to the
text and find the answer right there.
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Think and Search The answer is in the text, but
one must put together several part of the text to
discover the answer.
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Author and You The answer is NOT in the text. You
must apply what you already know and what the
text tells you to formulate the answer.
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On My Own The answer is NOT in the text. You can
answer the question without reading the text. You
must use your own experience.
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• Now lets practice answering the four types of
  questions teachers often ask.
• You need to record your answers in your writing
  journal.

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Read the following poem by James Thomas Fields.
Be ready to answer questions about the poem in
your journal. The Owl Critic Who stuffed
that white owl? No one spoke in the shop, The
barber was busy, and he couldnt stop The
customers, waiting their turns, were all
reading The Daily the Herald, the Post,
little heeding The young man who blurted out such
a question
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Dont you see, Mr. Brown, Cried the youth with
a frown, How wrong the whole thing is, How
preposterous each wing is, How flattened the head
is, how jammed down the neck is- In short, the
whole owl, what an ignorant wreck t is! I make
no apology Ive learned owl-cology, Ive passed
days and nights in a hundred collections, And
cannot be blinded to any deflections Arising from
unskillful fingers that fail To stuff a bird
right, from his beak to his tail.
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Mister Brown! Mister Brown! Do take that bird
down, Or youll soon be the laughing-stock all
over town! And the barber kept on
shaving. Ive studied owls, And other
night-fowls, And I tell you What I know to be
true An owl cannot roost With his limbs so
unloosed
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No owl in this world Ever had his claws
curled, Ever had his legs slanted, Ever had his
bill canted, Ever had his neck screwed, Into that
attitude. He cant do it, because Tis against
all bird-laws. Anatomy teaches, Ornithology
preaches, An owl has a toe That cant turn out
so!
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Ive made the white owl my study for years, And
to see such a job almost moves me to tears! Mr.
Brown, Im amazed You should be so gone crazed As
to put up a bird In that posture absurd! To look
at that owl really brings on a dizziness, The man
who stuffed him dont know half his
business! And the barber kept on shaving.
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Not one raised a head, or even made a
suggestion And the barber kept on
shaving. Examine those eyes, Im filled with
surprise Taxidermists should pass Off on you such
poor glass So unnatural they seem Theyd make
Audubon scream, And John Burroughs laugh To
encounter such chaff. Do take that bird
down Have him stuffed again, Brown! And the
barber kept on shaving.
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With some sawdust and bark I could stuff in the
dark An owl better than that. I could make an old
hat Look more like an owl Than that horrid
fowl, Stuck up there so stiff like a side of
coarse leather In fact, about him theres not one
natural feather.
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Just then, with wink and a sly normal lurch, The
owl, very gravely, got down from his
perch, Walked around, and regarded his
fault-finding critic (Who thought he was stuffed)
with a glance analytic, And then fairly hooted,
as if he should say Your learnings at fault
this time, anyway Dont waste it again on a live
bird, I pray. Im an owl youre another. Sir
Critic, good day! And the barber kept on
shaving.
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• Now, you need to get out your writing journals to
  record your responses to the following questions.
  
• Be sure to cite specific lines, words, or phrases
  from the poem to support you answers.
• Also cite any personal experiences or knowledge
  you have from other sources besides the poem to
  support your answers.
• Remember to write in complete sentences!

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Questions with Right ThereAnswers
1. What is the setting of this poem? 2. What
types of people are talked about in the poem?
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Questions that RequireYou toThink and Search
3. Analyze the title and the overall text of the
poem. What is the author saying?