Teaching High Order Thinking Skills Through Literature

Higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) are necessary for learners in order to acquire and use knowledge effectively and efficiently, and have value in themselves as a life-skill. Learner performance has been shown to improve as a result of both direct teaching and incidental learning of thinking skills. Application of HOTS will enable learners to be better prepared to cope with the challenges of the 21st century.
The following principles underlie the learning of HOTS.
 Learners at all levels are activated in ways that encourage them to use HOTS in all four domains.
 Learners are provided with the appropriate vocabulary to enable them to use and apply HOTS.
 Learners at the Intermediate and Proficiency Levels are provided with explicit instruction about HOTS and have opportunities to apply their understanding in all four domains.

Thinking Skills for Teaching Literature in EFL
The English Inspectorate highly recommends the teaching of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). The
teaching of HOTS not only enhances students’ ability to analyze literature, but also gives them the ability to
better answer reading comprehension questions in expository texts, and improves their writing skills as well as
their thinking skills.
The following are the higher-order thinking skills that are required to be taught to students taking the Bagrut
exam (changes will be made to this list periodically).
a. Comparing and contrasting
b. Distinguishing different perspectives
c. Explaining cause and effect
d. Explaining patterns
e. Inferring
f. Problem solving

Higher-Order Thinking Skills
Thinking Skill Students will be able to: Sample Tasks/Questions
Predicting
predict the content or the outcome of the
text, either before or during reading
based on available information.
 How do you think ___ will react?
 How do you think the story will end?
Applying
apply previously learned concepts, terms,
techniques and skills to new situations.
 How can you apply ___ to your own
life?
 How can you apply ___ to something
else you have learned?
Inferring infer implicit meaning from the text by
being able to read-between-the-lines.
 What do you think the character
meant when s/he said, “___”?
What does ___’s behavior suggest?
What is the purpose or function of
this information?
 What different meanings can be
inferred from this line in the poem?

Higher-Order Thinking Skills (continued)
Thinking Skill Students will be able to: Sample Tasks/Questions
Sequencing explain how the sequence of events in a
text, when not in a chronological order,
affects understanding of the text.
 Sequence the events in chronological
order.
 How do flashbacks affect your
understanding of the text/plot?
 Why do you think the events are not
in chronological order?
Identifying
parts and
whole
explain how the parts function together
within the whole text.
 How does one part of the story
contribute your understanding to the
whole text?
 How does the title/ending relate to
different parts of the
story/poem/play?
 What does the rhyme scheme of the
poem contribute to the whole poem?
Classifying categorize the elements of the text
according to criteria.
 Categorize the characters according
to their relationships/values.
Comparing
and
contrasting
find similarities (comparing) and
differences (contrasting) and draw
conclusions.
 Compare and contrast the conflicts/
problems/dilemmas in two stories or
poems.
 Compare and contrast the text and the
film.
 Compare and contrast characters in a
text.
Explaining
patterns
identify and explain different patterns in
the text and explain their significance.
 Explain why certain
lines/phrases/words are repeated.
 What behavior does the character
repeat?
 Where is the rhyme scheme of the
poem broken and why?
Explaining
cause and
effect
describe and explain the causal
relationships between actions or events
in a text.
 What were the results of ___’s
action?
 What caused ___ to think that ___?
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Higher-Order Thinking Skills (continued)
Thinking Skill Students will be able to: Sample Tasks/Questions
Distinguishing
different
perspectives
identify the different perspectives
within the text and/or among the
readers of the text.
 Identify how different characters
respond to a central event in the story.
 How does your understanding of the
characters’ actions/events in the story
change as you read?
 Do you share the same perspective as
the narrator? Explain.
 How does your understanding of the
story/the character/the scene differ
from other students in your class?
Problem
solving
identify a problem/dilemma and either
identify its solution in the text or suggest
a possible solution, taking into account
the constraints and the options present in
the text.
 Define the problem facing the
protagonist.
 How should ___ decide what to do?
 What should ____ take / have taken
into account?
 What is the central conflict in this
text and how is it resolved? Explain.
 What dilemma does ___ face at this
point in the story?
Uncovering
motives
identify motives that explain the
character’s behavior and support this
with evidence from the text.
 Why do you think that __ did __?
Support your answer.
 What made ___ change his/her mind?
Give supporting details.
Generating
possibilities
create something new on the basis of
what is understood from the text.
 Create a new character for the
story.
 Explain how s/he will affect the
development (or outcome) of the
story.
 Generate possible options for
characters/plot outcomes/sequels or
prequels.
 Add an element/an event to the
existing text that influences the
development and/or the outcome of
the plot.
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Higher-Order Thinking Skills (continued)
Thinking Skill Students will be able to: Sample Tasks/Questions
Synthesizing integrate different aspects of/insights to
the text.
 Write a summary of the story.
 How does information we learn
later in the text change the way we
understand a
character/issue/conflict?
Making
connections
make connections between specific
aspects of the text.
make connections between the text and
other contexts in relation to theme,
historical and cultural contexts or
pertinent information from the author’s
biography.
 How does the description of the
setting connect to the
characterization of __?
 To what extent do events in the text
reflect events in the life of the
author?
 How does your understanding of
the story/the character/the scene
differ when you learn about a topic
related to the literary text?
Evaluating
make judgments about different aspects
of the text and justify opinions and/or
evaluate someone else’s opinion.
 What makes this a good story?
Explain.
 Is ___ a believable character?
Explain.
 Is the resolution of the conflict
sat