Developing a Scope and Sequence for Thinking Skills Instruction.

Selecting the Content of a Thinking Skills Curriculum A well-structured thinking skills scope and sequence identifies the skills and strategies to be learned throughout a curriculum; arranges them in the or der in which they are to be intro duced, practiced, generalized, and elaborated; and keys them to the vari ous subjects in which they are to be taught Such a scope and sequence provides a framework that is not over whelmed by academic subject matter. To build such a framework, first iden tify the thinking operations that will constitute your curriculum. Figure 1 presents some operations that could make up such a curriculum. I selected these skills because they are repeat edly used in most academic subjects, are commonly used outside school, and are often identified by experts as significant thinking operations. These three criteria should prove useful in selecting the cognitive operations for including in any districtwide thinking skills curriculum.