Critical thinking involves developing cognitive skills to think through complex topics for oneself. Help your students build critical thinking skills by giving them real life scenarios to puzzle out both alone and in groups, anything from managing a budget on a fixed income to picking a political candidate to making tough choices as a doctor. Whether the answers are arrived at individually or collectively, discuss as a class what processes each student used to come to a personal decision.
One of the major challenges facing sixth graders is discovering who they are as they transition between childhood and adolescence. Give your students an activity sheet or interest inventory with open-ended questions and statements with blanks at the end. For example, "when I grow up, I want to," "my greatest dream is to" and "being a good adult means" with long blank spaces following for the students to fill in. Students can take their answers and make collages to represent who they are now, the kind of adult they each want to be and representational images between the two to show how to get there.
As adults, your students will need to be able to accomplish both daily and larger tasks that require them to motivate themselves to complete their work. Assign your students a broad project in which each adolescent picks a topic, does research around it and provides the class with a presentation that includes audio, visual and creative elements. Give them a deadline to submit their project ideas for approval, a deadline for project completion and a list of guidelines to help them focus their studies. Encourage tactile portions of the representation, original works and seeking guidance where needed. Ask them to each turn in a bibliography and a brief written explanation of their project and why it was chosen.
The ability to gain perspective on a situation and reflect upon it can lead to deeper levels of thought and consideration in your students, and allows them to cope with changing information in their daily environments. Provide your students with copies of recent news pieces as reported by three different sources. Give them one source at a time to read and, between readings, hold a discussion in a ring. Make sure to give them articles written from differing views; for instance, you could have a current event involving a crime where the first article is written with a bias toward the prosecution's argument, the second article favors the defendant and the third is an unbiased, but rich factual explanation of the event. Ask your students in your final discussion to take time to think about what each would do in the given situation and then review any previous opinions about the readings.
Sixth graders are entering into a time in which peer networks will become increasingly important. Helping students become aware of the signs of healthy and unhealthy relationships, how to be more compassionate and respectful of each other and developing trust are all critical to this stage in their lives. Show your students a small selection of age-appropriate films dealing with bullying, betrayal, overcoming bigotry and a variety of relationships. After each one, hold a discussion asking for the opinions of your students about what particular characters did that they felt were helping their relationships with others and what were harming them. Ask them to make suggestions of different choices characters could have made to improve their relationships. Make certain each student has a chance to speak about each film you show, and record any suggestions made on your classroom's whiteboard or a large sheet of paper.
Challenges are a part of life, and students who learn early on how to face challenges and overcome mistakes will be better equipped to deal with bigger challenges in adulthood. Where the self-directed learning project allowed students to explore their interests, a risk taking exercise will help them overcome fears associated with areas where they feel weak or vulnerable. Ask each student to write out five to 10 things they wish they could do but do not believe they could be capable of accomplishing; these should be real world activities that a sixth grader could complete without risk of serious physical injury such as learning to play a simple song on a musical instrument or learning to do a handstand. Look over each student's list and assign them one month to practice or prepare a single challenge from their personal list that you think they could achieve. When it is time for students to present or demonstrate their accomplishments -- or discuss their failures -- make certain to impress upon students that the classroom is a safe space for exploration and mocking any student within or outside of the class will hold consequences.
Responsibility is a lifelong dedication to following a personal code of ethics that ranges from accomplishing daily chores to supporting the local community. Have your students brainstorm major issues in the world or your community which need to be addressed. Write down every possibility, and then have them vote on the top choices, narrowing them down to a number reasonable enough to have your students break into small to medium-sized groups. Students will get to pick their three favorite topics; assign them to groups according to their interests. From there, they will work in their groups to research the chosen issue, discover what organizations are already working to address it and the methods employed to do so. Then ask your students to come up with a plan of action to assist in addressing the issue at hand. When the completion deadline approaches, groups will be asked to present their issue, the research they did and what actions they took in order to support relief efforts.