Critical Reading, Writing and, Speaking Prompts

Critical reading, writing, and speaking prompts can be designed to cultivate specific critical thinking skills. They can be used to develop supporting material that can be used in and out of class, alone or in combination, to help students expand, clarify, or modify ideas.

The following six types of prompts can be used by educators to create reading guides (as reading questions or to focus class discussions) for students in their pre-class reading assignments:

1. Identifying the problem or issue helps students create a “need to know” viewpoint.
2. Making connections helps students think about course topics within the realm of their own experience.
3. Interpreting the evidence can help students in reading case studies, viewing video clips, or reviewing information.
4. Challenging assumptions helps students identify and critique seldom-tested assumptions, determine their source, and evaluate their validity based on information.
5. Making applications helps students use what they have learned in practical ways.
6. Taking a different point-of-view helps students consider diverse ideas.

Tomasek, T. (2009). Critical reading: Using reading prompts to promote active engagement with text. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 21(1), 127-132.