With persistence and an enthusiastic approach, teachers can lead their students to discover writing as a creative outlet and a communication tool, a way of transmitting the scenes inside their heads to the world at large. Written language, with all its conventions and complexities, of course takes years to master. But it must have a beginning.…

Eleven specific thinking skills are discussed, along with activities to help teachers develop each skill in their students. The skills are: (1) observing; (2) comparing; (3) classifying; (4) imagining; (5) hypothesizing; (6) looking for assumptions; (7) collecting and organizing data; (8) summarizing; (9) interpreting; (10) problem solving; and…