Welcome to Critical Thinking!  Your experiences in this exploratory course can help you identify and develop your intellectual strengths and creative abilities.  We work both individually and in groups.  You will have many graded assignments (quizzes, projects, and daily activities).  Be sure to keep up with your work through School Notes and Power School.

 ATTENTION PARENTS: 

• Each student should bring a jump drive to class DAILY, along with a pencil or pen and lined paper.  I will provide folders with pockets—please encourage your child to use the folder to organize assignments.
• You can contact me at school by phone (731-3649, ext. 6619) or by email   lswope@rcps.org .    
• I will send weekly emails about class activities to the email listed on your child’s school records.  Please let me know if you want me to use another email address.
• Weekly updates about our class can be obtained at http://new.schoolnotes.com
• If you have forgotten your Power School password, please contact guidance at 731-3651.  Power School access lets you see your child’s grade records during the current six weeks grading period.

 Critical thinking skills help students apply lessons to real situations and to use what they know to figure out what they don’t know.  Students will be exposed to thinking skills in this class.  It is up to each student to work to develop these skills and to practice being a critical thinker.

Some of our learning activities during this semester course include the following:

• Responses to writing prompts
• Participation in activities that include puzzles, riddles, and basic mathematical concepts
• The study of the human brain—its organization, development, and how it works
• The opportunity to make an original invention and enter it in our class invention fair
• Learning to read critically through our unit on a novel or other reading selections
• An examination of the key events, personalities, and trends of the twentieth century
• Exposure to open-ended questions and creative thinking through our unit on the Twilight Zone

There are four very important characteristics of Critical Thinking students:

1.     We are good listeners.

2.     We are hard workers.

3.     We respect one another.

4.     We obey school rules.

5.     We accept responsibility. 

GRADING:

1. Students are assigned points for each assignment (for example, a daily assignment worth five points might receive the score “4/5,” which means four out of five possible points were earned by the student on that assignment).  Some work is worth five points; other work may be worth ten, twenty, or even more points.

2.  Parents may access Power School to keep up with their child’s progress and/or  missing assignments.

3. At any point in the grading period, a student who has kept track of all of his work can calculate his/her average by adding how many points he/she has received and dividing that sum by the total amount of points possible. 

Example:

A student has earned 180 out of 200 possible points.  180/200=90% (B) 

    NOTE:   Students receive midterm averages and end-of-six-weeks averages.  Email Mrs. Swope  lswope@rcps.org for questions.  Also visit School Notes at http://new.schoolnotes.com and access PowerSchool regularly.