Critical Thinking: What is Y-Chart?

The Y Chart is a three-part graphic organizer that organizes the brainstorming of a topic around three dimensions:

• What Does It Look Like?
• What Does It Feel Like?
• What Does It Sound Like?

Traditionally, teachers have been using the Y Chart as an effective tool in the classroom for many years. It serves as an analytical tool since students and teachers strive to discover more and more about a topic using the sensate approach of what does this topic Look, Sound and Feel like.

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T-Chart is usually completed as a pre-product stage or a brainstorming exercise from which one can start creating a product such as a written report, bubble maps, Powerpoints, and interviews. This process encourages participants to be critical thinkers and identify appropriate behaviors for achieving this.

Steps for Creating a Y-Chart?

1. Decide on the topic/social skill you wish to explore with your students
2. Organize students into small groups, allocating tasks to each group member such as recorder, reporter, time-keeper, organizer
3. Team members create a Y Chart with the heading Looks like, sounds like and feels like in each third of the chart
4. Have the team brainstorm as many possibilities as they can within a specific time limit
5. Each group reports back

Example — what does a team forming meeting look like, feel like, and sound like.

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