Critical Reading, Critical Thinking: Focusing on Contemporary Issues, 4th edition
Published by Pearson (December 24, 2010) © 2012
- Richard Pirozzi Passaic County Community College
- Gretchen Starks-Martin St. Cloud State University
- Julie Dziewisz Passaic County Community College
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Focusing on current issues, Critical Reading, Critical Thinking equips students with the critical reading, writing, thinking, and problem-solving skills essential to understanding and responding to today's complex issues and ideas.
Critical Reading, Critical Thinking uses compelling contemporary issues to engage students in reading and thinking about a range of relevant topics and encourages them to apply the skills presented in the text to everyday issues. Each passage or reading is followed by thought-provoking questions that motivate students to use higher-level thinking strategies to address or respond to the issue. Ideal for diverse classrooms, it includes comprehensive reviews of basic skills (vocabulary, reading, textbook reading), an array of critical reading strategies (and opportunities to apply them), and guidance in advanced critical reading including inference, distinguishing between facts and opinions, recognizing purpose and tone, and understanding visual arguments.
- Part 1, Back to Basics, includes comprehensive review and practice of vocabulary skills, basic reading, and reading textbooks.
- Part 2, Dealing with Complexity, inroduces stdents to critical thinking and problem-solving.
- Part 3, Critical Reading, offers guidance in complex reading skills including inference, fact and opinion, purpose and tone, and analyzing visual arguments.
- A focus on contemporary issues throughout piques and keeps student interest through high-interest reading selections that reinforce reading, thinking, writing, and oral communications.
- A diverse selection of reading selections from a wide array of sources including textbooks, magazines and journals, advertisements, and Web sites, offers flexibility in assignments.
- Mastery Tests at the end of every chapter allow students to check their progress on each concept.
- Three reading strategies--SQ4R, KWL, and concept mapping--encourage diverse learners to find appropriate approaches to reading.
- Chapter opener and end-of-chapter pedagogy, including "Think About It!" and "Think Again" features, encourage students to think critically by providing stimulating, enjoyable, and thought-provoking photographs, puzzles, mysteries, problems, and quotations.
- Web Site Investigation (WSI), Crime Scene Investigations (CSI), and Sherlock Holmes puzzles offer fun, stimulating activities and exercises that direct students to explore both online resources and their own ability to read critically and solve challenging puzzles.
- A new section on critical listening reflects the need for today's students to understand spoken as well as written texts in today's multimedia world and offers valuable guidelines to help students evaluate spoken arguments and speeches--another form of text.
- Listening Springboard Inquiries at the end of many chapters encourage students to use online sources to test their mastery of critical listening.
- A wealth of new readings and Activities throughout offer fresh, current, and engaging readings–opportunities for students to apply the critical reading skills that they are learning.
- Chapter Outcomes linked to Pearson’s MyReadingLab, in Looking Back…Looking Forward features at the end of each chapter, send students to appropriate content in Pearson’s robust online resource for additional support and to test their mastery of the chapter’s content.
- An enhanced emphasis on visual texts, in a wide range of new photographs, ads, posters, and online screen shots, guides students in evaluating visual rhetoric–a critical component of our contemporary world.
Every chapter begins with To Think About! and ends with Think Again! And Looking Back…Looking Forward features. Every chapter includes two to four Mastery Tests.
PART ONE B A C K T O B A S I C S
CHAPTER 1 Understanding Vocabulary: A Review
The Power of Words
Using Context Clues
Using Word Parts: Roots, Prefixes, Suffixes
Recognizing Word Denotation and Connotation
Using a Glossary
Using the Dictionary
Learning and Reviewing Vocabulary Words
WSI: Web Site Investigation: Critical Reading
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CHAPTER 2 Understanding What You Read: A Review
Distinguishing Topics, Main Ideas, Major Details, and Minor Details
Recognizing Patterns of Organization
Uncovering the Central Message of a Longer Selection
Summarizing and Paraphrasing
WSI: Web Site Investigation: Critical Reading
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: The Fair Evangeline
CHAPTER 3 Getting the Most Out of Your Textbooks: A Review
Overviewing Your Textbooks
Previewing Textbook Chapters
Reading a Textbook Chapter Critically: Questions and Answers
Textbook Reading Strategies: SQ4R, Concept Mapping, and KWL
WSI: Web Site Investigation: Critical Reading
LSI: Listening Springboard Inquiry
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Witness the Cat
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
PART TWO D E A L I N G W I T H C O M P L E X I T Y
CHAPTER 4 Critical Thinking and Contemporary Issues
Critical Thinking Versus Random Thinking
Benefits and Uses of Critical Thinking
Characteristics of Critical Thinking
Critical Listening
What Is a Contemporary Issue?
Eye on Vocabulary
WSI: Web Site Investigation: Critical Reading
LSI: Listening Springboard Inquiry: Listening Comprehension
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
CHAPTER 5 Basic Problem Solving
Problem-Solving Exercise
What Is a Problem? 2
What Is a Solution?
How Do You Solve Problems?
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
A Basic Method for Personal Problem Solving
Applying the Method to a Typical Problem Situation
Eye on Vocabulary
WSI: Web Site Investigation: Problem Solving
LSI: Listening Springboard Inquiry
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
PART THREE C R I T I C A L R E A D I N G : E V A L U A T I N G W H AT Y O U R E A D
CHAPTER 6 Using Inference
Problem-Solving Exercise 2
What Is Critical Reading?
Drawing Inferences
Looking at the World with a Questioning Mind
Using Inferences with Contemporary Issues and Problem Solving
Eye on Vocabulary
WSI: Web Site Investigation: Critical Reading
LSI: Listening Springboard Inquiry: Listening Comprehension
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CHAPTER 7 Distinguishing Between Facts and Opinions
Problem-Solving Exercise
What Is a Fact?
What Is an Opinion?
Distinguishing Between Facts and Opinions
Facts and Opinions in Combination
Relating Facts and Opinions to Problem Solving and Contemporary Issues
Eye on Vocabulary
WSI: Web Site Investigation: Fact and Opinion
LSI: Listening Springboard Inquiry: Listening Comprehension
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CHAPTER 8 Recognizing Purpose and Tone
Problem-Solving Exercise
The Importance of Recognizing Purpose
Eye on Vocabulary
The Importance of Recognizing Tone
Eye on Vocabulary
WSI: Web Site Investigation: Critical Reading
LSI: Listening Springboard Inquiry: Listening Comprehension
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CHAPTER 9 Looking at Advertisements and the Internet with a Critical Eye
Problem-Solving Exercise
Advertisements and Critical Thinking
Evaluating an Advertisement
WSI: Web Site Investigation: Advertisements
Evaluating E-Mails
Evaluating Web Sites
Eye on Vocabulary 427
WSI: Web Site Investigation: Critical Reading
LSI: Listening Springboard Inquiry: Listening Comprehension
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
Solving One More Mystery
WSI: Web Site Investigation
Glossary
Credits
Index
Dr. Gretchen Starks-Martin is a professor emerita at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and a part-time professor of reading/writing at the College of St. Benedict in Collegeville, MN and online at Bethel University in Nashville, TN. She has taught reading in middle school in Michigan before teaching reading at the technical college, community college, and university levels in Minnesota and New York. She was involved in a NY State Learning Disabilities Teacher Training Grant and in National Institute for Literacy Learning Disabilities training. She is a certified online evaluator for Quality Matters, which certifies online courses at the college level. She has co-authored a textbook, “Critical Reading, Critical Thinking: Focusing on Contemporary Issues,” which is in its 4th edition for Pearson Education. In 2009 she received a Fulbright Specialist Scholarship to South Africa, focusing on literacy. She has served on the Minnesota State College and University Committee on Assessment of College Readiness and on a team evaluating “First Generation Student Programs” for the Institute of Higher Education Policy in Washington, D.C. Currently she is a QEP Evaluator for the Southern Commission on Colleges and conducts internal and external reviews and training workshops in reading and writing.
Julie Dziewisz
Teacher, Reading Consultant, Adjunct instructor in Masters Reading program, Director of Language Arts/Compensatory Education, Assistant Superintendent, Independent Educational Consultant, Assistant Professor
Julie has presented at several conferences and seminars in the field of reading, educational administration, library media, technology and TESOL.
She has been an active member in several local, state, and national organizations in the field of reading, educational administration, library, ESOL, technology and curriculum instruction.
Julie was the recipient of the NYS TESOL James Lydon Distinguished Service Award at the 2011 NYS TESOL annual conference, for her 10 year service as a NYS TESOL Executive Board Member and Idiom Editor.
Her work in northern New York State earned her special awards and recognition for programs-she supervised in the late ‘90s:
· She was presented the Beatrice E. Griggs Elementary Administrator Award –presented at New York State School Library Media Section Annual Conference
· District recognition in national publication for exemplary practices and policies in technology- “Making Technology Happen”
· State and National recognition of ESOL program as exemplary program through National Research Center on English Language Learning and Achievement, University at Albany
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