Critical thinking made easy with Costa’s House of Questions

We all know that critical thinking is invaluable in the classroom today. But just how do we get kids to think critically?

Have you heard of Costa’s House of Questions? It is a different way to organize the Bloom’s 6 levels of questions. Instead of 6 levels, there are only 3 levels which make it much easier for students to understand and implement.

Level one is the lowest

Level two is the middle

Level three is the highest.

We should aim for most of our questions to come from the levels two and three.

These thinking stems are the perfect way to get your students to think more critically. This works great with AVID strategies and works in all content and subject areas. Bloom’s Taxonomy with the 6 levels can get a little confusing for students. What I love about Costa’s House of Question is that there is a house, with two rooms and a roof, which is a great and simple visual for students.

I have recently updated this resource to make it editable!

There are several different ways to use these critical thinking stems:

• Create a big bulletin board so students can reference it whenever they need
• Print the posters for your classroom or groups
• Print the cards and laminate them and have students choose one from a “hat”
• Print out the student page with the house and have them glue it in their notebooks or laminate them

I have included editable slides of each poster and card so you can add more critical thinking stems according to your students’ needs.

How do you make critical thinking easy for your students?