Activity Suggestions to Develop Critical Reading and Writing Skills

In today's world, where reading is rare and media is trying to influence people in many ways, individuals encounter hundreds of propagandas or persuasive speeches, texts and presentations every day. Many topics such as questioning informative texts, interpreting ideas, and evaluating dialogues in daily life, require critical thinking skills. Developing our children's critical reading and writing skills is necessary in order to prevent them from being negatively affected by the persuasion and propaganda works that we encounter every day. In this study, activities, which can be used by educators to improve reading and writing skills of secondary school students, have been prepared. Expert opinions on critical reading and writing activities were retrieved and the activities were finalized in accordance with these opinions. The activities prepared have been presented to the review of three field experts. All three of these field experts had more than fifteen years of experience in teaching and work under the Ministry of National Education, the three teachers work in an educational institution and besides, they have a doctorate in Turkish education and have received critical thinking education, all three of them are specialized academicians in Turkish education. Experts examined the characteristics of critical readers and critical writers in the literature. In literature, it has been observed that studies in on activities the field of critical thinking are limited. Therefore, it is considered that the activities prepared to improve critical reading and writing skills of secondary school students will contribute to critical thinking education.