ABSTRACT
In contrast to classrooms that are primarily oriented toward giving students “the facts,” thinking classrooms are exciting places for both students and teachers. This is especially true when these classrooms revolve around thinking activities that infuse teaching for critical and creative thinking into regular classroom instruction. When we weave into the fabric of a 12th grade English classroom a study of the events in the play Romeo and Juliet in order to make a reasoned judgment about the causes of the tragedy and whether anyone should be held responsible for it, we are tapping Shakespeare at his best. But we are also challenging our students to put their best effort into thinking through these issues. A skillful teacher who helps students to avoid making hasty judgments about these issues and to organize their thinking so that it is careful, thorough, and sensitive to both the realities of the situation as portrayed by Shakespeare and standards of good critical judgment can create a rich atmosphere for such thinking in the classroom. When we look at such classrooms we often see students involved in constructive collaborative work and guided open discussion conducted without penalty for going up blind alleys. This typically leads to an investigative effort and ferment of ideas in which every member of the class participates. This contrasts sharply with classrooms in which teachers practice more didactic teaching styles that focus on the facts of plot, structure, and character only, and do not pose questions that challenge students' thinking.
