Definition: Critical thinking is the habit of exploring a phenomenon (e.g., an event, artifact, story, or issue) and applying certain criteria to determine its value and legitimacy. It involves analyzing and synthesizing often contradictory pieces of information and logically connecting ideas to make sound, well-reasoned judgments. Critical thinkers tolerate ambiguity, recognize underlying assumptions, welcome counterarguments, and routinely revise their own beliefs in response to the world around them.
Critical reading occurs when readers actively engage with a written, visual, or auditory text, going beyond its surface-level characteristics to identify and evaluate its deeper structural elements, such as purpose, tone, organization, and meaning. Those who read critically assume an objective point of view, and interact with a text by making annotations, posing questions, and forming their own opinions about what they’ve read.
Examples of Critical Reading SLOs:
Students will:
• Identify and distinguish among the thesis, central idea, supporting evidence, key elements,
and relevant and irrelevant details
• Apply new vocabulary and distinguish between subtle differences in meanings of words.
• Distinguish between fact and opinion in various texts
• Clarify facts, evidence, concepts, and other types of support for a position
• recognize, analyze, and synthesize organization of various content information,
• Identify and analyze the structure of arguments
• Analyze, interpret, criticize, and advocate ideas encountered in academic readings
• Produce analytical, critical, and argumentative responses to academic reading
✓ Syllabus Requirements:
☐ Include at least one critical reading-specific CSLO
☐ Align CSLOs to ILO 5 – Critical Thinking and Reading
☐ Assign multiple texts including textbooks, works of fiction and non-fiction, news articles,
research articles, social media posts, films, songs, visuals, or any other type of text
☐ Dedicate adequate class-time for reading instruction/discussion
☐ Measure reading comprehension through assessments such as critical responses, quizzes,
tests, written summaries, group, class discussion etc.
☐ Incorporate reflection assignments showing personal growth through reading
☐ Assign at least 50% of the grade to critical reading
☐ In the approval process, submit at least one example of a reading assignment and how it will
