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Building Thinking Skills Book 2 with Answers
| Item #: | 000114 |
|---|---|
| ISBN: | 9781601441508 |
| Grades: | 4-7 |
Publisher Description:
This engaging 416-page book develops critical thinking skills necessary for success in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and standardized tests in Grades 4-6. The Building Thinking Skills® series is the bestselling thinking skills program in the world! The engaging, highly-effective activities are developmentally sequenced. Each skill (for example, classifying) is presented first in the semi-concrete figural-spatial form. Students also learn important academic vocabulary, concepts, and skills as they analyze relationships between objects, between words, and between objects and words by:
- Observing, recognizing, and describing characteristics
- Distinguishing similarities and differences
- Identifying and completing sequences, classifications, and analogies
These processes help students develop superior thinking and communication skills that lead to deeper content learning in all subjects.
LEVEL 2
Figural-Spatial Skills
- Describing shapes
- Figures: compare / describe / copy / enlarge / divide
- Diagrams: overlapping classes / Venn / branching / cycle
- Mental pattern folding / symmetry
- Directionality / Position in space
- Mental rotation / reflection / tumbling / stacking / folding of 2-D objects
- Congruence / area / volume
- Analogies: size / color / orientation / detail
- Visual motor integration and memory
- Use of graphic organizers
Verbal Skills
- Spelling / Vocabulary / Writing: describing things and words
- Following and writing 1-, 2-, and 3-step directions
- Antonyms / synonyms
- Analogies: kind of / part of / used to / association / action
- Deductive / Inductive reasoning
- Parts of a whole
- Map reading
- Writing directions
- Logic: if-then / yes-no / true-false
- Orientation: person / place / time
- Auditory memory
- Language acquisition
Teaching Support
Activities are modeled to reinforce skills and concepts. An answer guide is now included, however, a separate Instruction/Answer Guide is also available but is not required. The optional teaching guide includes objectives and focus questions that reinforce analytical skills. See components sold separately above for ordering information about the separate, optional Instruction/Answer Guide.
May be used earlier if student has completed Book 1. All skills learned in Book 1 are reviewed and exercises become increasingly complex with more specific skills. Examples of skills practiced are classification, following directions, deductive reasoning, parts of a whole, Word Benders, Venn and branching diagrams, pattern folding, rotation, reflection, overlapping classes and mental manipulation of two-dimensional objects. Answers included, 408 pgs. Revised in 2006.
An optional Teacher CD is also available. It contains the full text of the Teacher's Edition in PDF format. Although answers are already included in the worktext, the Teacher CD also features objectives, focus questions and additional background information for the teacher.
The software version of the program features the same activities as the worktexts, but in an interactive format. There are 10 levels of activities which can be played in either "mission" or "practice" mode. Approximately 40 activities are included in the software, with over 800 questions in all. Instructions are both spoken and written. System requirements: Windows 98/NT/Me/2000/XP/Vista or Mac OS X (10.3+), PowerPC. 128 MB RAM for either.
This is a very complete thinking skills program, covering all of the figural and verbal skills your children are likely to see on a standardized test. The publisher, Critical Thinking Press, states that Building Thinking Skills is "designed to significantly improve verbal and figural skills in four important areas: similarities and differences, sequences, classifications, and analogies. Proficiency in these skills is the cornerstone of success in all academic areas, on standardized tests, and on college entrance exams." They have scads of testimonials documenting the correlation between use of this series and increased test scores. We have no doubt that all the practice you get in using this series would, indeed, improve test scores. More importantly, many of the specific skills practiced here also have application in different professions. Other skills would seem to generally improve your ability to "see things" in different ways or train your mind to stretch in different directions.
The broader goals of this series are translated into specific skills and exercises within these areas. Learning is spiral within skills, within books, and between levels. That is, exercises progress in sophistication and scope within each book, and from level to level. This translates into several hefty worktexts full of practice exercises that children actually enjoy doing! Except for the Primary level, students can work pretty much on their own, proceeding as quickly through the series as they're able. If you're starting an older child in the series, however, use the suggested grade levels for proper placement. Teacher's manuals contain lesson plans and solutions. If you want to be able to correct exercises quickly, or feel some exercises need explanation, you'll want these.
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- Inaccurate
- Jennifer M on Apr 16, 2021
- Purchased on May 21, 2019
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- Inaccurate
- Susan B on Dec 4, 2017
- Purchased on Jul 7, 2016
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