Remembering

Discuss what it means to remember information. Point out how the example questions test this thinking skill.

At the bottom of the page, review the strategies for remembering. Highlight the usefulness of note-taking, graphic organizers, and memory aids. These strategies will help your students remember new information in and out of school.

Assign this remembering practice activity to help your students test their memories:

Identify a person, a place, and a thing that you are studying and provide the information that you can remember. Afterward, perform research to fill in the information you did not remember.

Person

• Name:
• Life span:
• Nationality:
• Occupation:
• Accomplishments:

Place

• Name:
• Location:
• Importance:
• Description:

Thing

• Name:
• Color:
• Shape:
• Size:
• Material:
• Use:

Applying

Help students understand what it means to apply information. (Applying means "using information in a new setting.") After reviewing the page, ask students to write a journal entry about a time when they applied classroom learning to a situation at home or in their community. 

Evaluating

Discuss what it means to evaluate information—to judge the value or worth of something. Writers evaluate their work during the revision process. Ask students to think of examples of ways people evaluate things. For example, you might evaluate a restaurant on the taste of the food or the quality of service.

Make sure that students know that before they can properly evaluate a topic, they must understand and analyze its parts. As practice, present one or more of the minilessons.

Avoiding Fuzzy Thinking

The next two pages share ways students can avoid unclear thinking in their writing. Discuss the importance of thinking clearly, writing clearly, and sticking to the facts. Bending the truth or intentionally misleading readers is never a good idea.

Review the examples of unclear thinking on page 448. Ask students if they have ever encountered similar statements. Provide additional examples if necessary. (Political and product advertisements often contain such fuzzy thinking.) For further practice, assign the following activity:

Watch a commercial break during a favorite show. Each time you hear an exaggeration, write it down. How many did you find during one commercial break? How many during the breaks in a half-hour show? How many during an hour show?