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Interpretations, evaluations, judgments, synthesis...what?! If you know what these are intuitively but lack concrete definitions, then this post is for you! I also wanted to align these critical thinking skills with the way I teach students to comprehend and analyse texts. That is:
Identifying language and structural techniques and explaining their effects.
Reading on the lines (a good warm up).
Reading between the lines (inferencing).
Reading beyond the lines (connecting what we read with the wider world).
Reading behind the lines (looking at WHO is behind the text – the creator).
Note: I say “reading” but the information her also applies to listening (eg, podcasts) and viewing (eg: films, documentaries).
The 4 stages of thinking about texts:
Summarising
Drawing conclusions or synthesising (depending on how many texts you have – more on that below).
Evaluating
Judging
ONE: Summarising
Summarising is a vital part of scaffolding students into thinking critically. This is sometimes forgotten at high school level because we associate ‘retelling’ with a primary school level of reading and often rush to dive into annotating the text (which is great, also!) to identify language and structural techniques. Summaries involve:
Looking for the key ideas.
Easy information transfer (copying/quoting excerpts) and/or
Restating the information in your own words (paraphrasing).
Low-level thinking.
The equivalent of what we call reading ‘on’ the lines.
Summarising helps students understand the text before we move into the tricky stuff!
Summarising helps students understand the text first!
TWO: Drawing conclusions and synthesizing
Drawing conclusions is about telling a story - looking at the evidence to see what it tells us. Conclusions are easy to understand when we think about science experiments. For example: The sugar dissolved in the water. The conclusion I draw from this is that sugar is soluble. This example is a good way to introduce students to the concept in English before looking at texts. You could also use a crime scene example. Eg: Sally’s fingerprints are on the knife and the cake tin. The conclusion I draw from this is that Sally is the one who ate all the cake.
From here, scaffold students with short texts such as a photograph (Eg: There are thousands of seagulls surrounding this gathering of people. The conclusion I draw is that they have sandwiches) or a sentence (“Tim showered Cynthia with flowers and chocolates daily.” The conclusion we can draw from this is that Tim is madly in love with Cynthia... or Tim is a stalker - LOL.)
Drawing conclusions (yes, ‘concluding’!) involves:
Looking for the ‘story’ the evidence tells us – ie, talking about what the evidence shows.
Medium-level thinking.
The equivalent of what we call reading ‘between’ the lines.
When we look at a single text, we draw conclusions from it. But when we draw conclusions from multiple texts, that’s...
...synthesizing:
When we draw conclusions about multiple texts this is called synthesizing. For example:
All three reviews about this film are positive. This suggests the film is a cracker!
Interviews of people from a range of socio-economic backgrounds offer a mixed view of their city mayor. Those from a poorer socio-economic background seem to be more pleased, while those in high-level businesses sound frustrated. This suggests the mayor is neither good, nor bad, but he clearly has skills in helping those who struggle and he seems more focused on their issues at present. He is less popular in the business community.
Other words we associate with this level of thinking include:
Inferring/inferencing
Interpreting
Analysing
Explaining
THREE: Evaluating
The difference between evaluating and making judgments is difficult to understand. The trick that was the aha moment for me was in thinking of one as a positive process and the other as negative.
Evaluating is a positive process. You’re looking for the good bits, the bad bits, the different opinions, the connections to future, to past... and everything in between; you're prepared to be objective. For example: The excerpt is set in our own times, suggesting chivalry and achievement in young people is not a think of the past as many of the older generation often suggest.
You may like to break evaluation (and judgement, too) into three aspects:
Evaluating meaning (ideas): Reading beyond the lines to evaluate meaning (ideas). This involves making connections between the text and ourselves, human behaviours, our past, present, and future, and other texts.
Evaluating techniques: Discussing the effect of language and/or structural features on the audience.
Evaluating the creator(s): This is especially relevant when considering the credibility of non-fiction texts. For higher level senior English work involving fiction, this would include investigations of how aspects are portrayed by a particular creator, or by creators of a particular era.
Evaluating involves:
A ‘positive’ process (fair, open-minded)
Being objective (your informed, thoughtful ideas - #criticalthinking).
Formulating a discussion.
High-level thinking.
The equivalent of what we call reading ‘beyond’ and ‘behind’ the lines.
Other words we associate with this level of thinking include:
Inferring/inferencing
Interpreting
Discussing
FOUR: Making judgments
Like evaluations, judgments can also be made about meaning (ideas), techniques and the creators. Unlike evaluating, which is a positive process, judgments are a negative process. Think star-ratings or judges holding up cards from 0-10 at a gymnastics competition! For example:
This scenario is one that might make young men of this writer’s audience feel intimidated because the god-like status the writer gives this character might seem difficult to live up to. It might seem unrealistic to some.
On the other hand, this text is possibly worthwhile for young men to study because it shows them in a positive light and might in turn help them feel good about themselves.
If it helps, let students use personal pronouns to help differentiate evaluations and judgements. So, there’s x, y and z to consider/connect here (evaluation). I think...(judgment).
Making judgements (yes, ‘judging’!) involves:
A ‘negative’ process.
Being subjective (making decisions - being ‘judgey’).
Formulating an argument.
High-level thinking.
The equivalent of what we call reading ‘beyond’ and ‘behind’ the lines.
Other words we associate with this level of thinking include:
Inferring/inferencing
Interpreting
Arguing
WHEW!
Remember to grab the printable freebie shown above, so you and your students have a handy reference sheet. I use mine all the time ... and I wrote the blimmin' thing! Hehe!
Remember your freebie - click the image below!
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