ASSESSING THE EFFICACY OF RUBRICS IN ENHANCING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN YOUNG LEARNERS OF ENGLISH THROUGH ANALYSIS OF PICTURE BOOKS

Abstract

Teaching young learners to analyze and evaluate literary texts appropriate to their age and interests can help them develop critical thinking skills. As children take part in critical thinking, their language skills improve because they are encouraged to develop and use more complex language with words like “because”, phrases with “if ” and “then” and different verb tenses. On the other hand, as young learners’ language development progresses, their ability to think critically grows as well. Engaging students in critical thinking could involve seeing relationships between events, drawing inferences, analyzing events, synthesizing evidence and evaluating both the content of a text and the language used to the express ideas contained within it. Critical thinking is a fundamental skill for both language and literacy success but it is very difficult to evaluate it. Therefore, the paper will analyze rubrics as a very effective tool in teaching English to young learners when reading picture books. In Pedagogical implications part, the paper will provide ideas for creating rubrics to assess critical thinking skills. For the purpose of this paper, young learners will be reflecting on picture books using reasoning to support their interpretation and evaluation of selected books. On the one hand, the assessment will be based on the given rubrics, on the other hand, the rubrics themselves will be assessed as well.