Developing Critical Reading in Students K-12
Trainer: Engy Hammam
Duration: 15 Hours
Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. Understand the key components and developmental stages of critical reading.
2. Identify and model critical reading strategies for different grade levels.
3. Design lessons and activities that foster inference, analysis, and interpretation skills.
4. Use questioning techniques to promote deeper thinking and comprehension.
5. Integrate texts that challenge students’ perspectives and encourage multiple viewpoints.
6. Assess students’ critical reading abilities using formative and summative tools.
7. Foster classroom environments that support open discussion and evidencebased thinking.
8. Align critical reading instruction with standards
Outline
Session 1: Foundations of Critical Reading
Objectives:
• Define critical reading and distinguish it from basic comprehension.
• Explore the importance of critical reading in academic and real-world contexts.
Content:
• What is critical reading?
• Skills involved: Analyzing, evaluating, interpreting, and questioning.
• How critical reading differs from passive reading.
• The role of schema, background knowledge, and metacognition.
• Stages of reading development and cognitive demands across grades.
Activities:
• Diagnostic quiz: “How critically do we read?”
• Text dissection (short passage)
• Discussion: What challenges do our students face in critical reading?
Session 2: Strategies for Teaching Critical Reading (Grades K–5)
Objectives:
• Learn and apply age-appropriate strategies for teaching critical reading in
elementary grades.
Content:
• Scaffolding higher-order thinking in young readers
• Teaching questioning strategies (e.g., “What’s the author trying to say?” “What’s
the evidence?”)
• Visual thinking strategies (VTS)
• Using picture books and simple texts to introduce bias, perspective, and causeeffect
Activities:
• Strategy modeling: Think-aloud, annotation, “Say Something” protocol
• Practice: Creating critical reading mini-lessons with storybooks
• Peer feedback and adjustment
Session 3: Strategies for Teaching Critical Reading (Grades 6–12)
Objectives:
• Develop strategies to help secondary students engage in textual analysis and
critical discourse.
Content:
• Socratic Seminar and Literature Circles
• Text annotation and dialectical journals
• Teaching bias, tone, reliability, and rhetoric
• Close reading techniques
• Multi-genre and comparative reading for deeper understanding
Activities:
• Practice analyzing a persuasive or argumentative text
• Develop a secondary-level critical reading lesson plan
• Gallery walk: Peer review of plans and feedback
Session 4: Designing Lessons and Assessments for Critical Reading
Objectives:
• Create lesson plans and assessments that integrate critical reading strategies.
Content:
• Backward design for critical reading outcomes
• Designing questions for depth: Bloom’s Taxonomy & Webb’s DOK
• Rubrics and checklists for assessing critical reading
• Incorporating student self-assessment and reflection
Activities:
• Design: Create a critical reading unit (or module)
• Assessment workshop: Develop rubrics and formative assessment tools
• Peer critique: Lesson and assessment alignment
Session 5: Creating a Culture of Critical Thinking Through Reading
Objectives:
• Build classroom practices and environments that promote ongoing critical
thinking through reading.
Content:
• Classroom norms and routines for deeper discussion
• Promoting student voice, choice, and dialogue
• Integrating culturally relevant and controversial texts responsibly
• Encouraging respectful debate and evidence-based reasoning
Activities:
• Role-play: Facilitating difficult conversations
• Design a reading routine: Book clubs, Socratic dialogue, journal responses
• Action planning: Next steps for implementation in your school or classroom