Gavin McCormack posted the following about how to inspire critical thinking in your class. I used to use these questions as a Language Arts teacher as well.
1. WHO – benefits from this? Is it harmful to? Makes decisions about this? Is most directly affected?
2. WHAT – are the good and bad points? Is another opinion? Is another alternative? Is the best/worse case scenario?
3. WHERE – is this happening in the real world? Are there similar concepts? Is there the most need for this? In the world do we see this problem?
4. WHEN – is this behavior acceptable? Would this benefit our society? Would this cause a problem? Is the best time to take action?
5. WHY – is this actually a problem? Is this an issue for me? Are people talking about this? Should people know about this?
6. HOW – do we know the truth about this? Will we approach society? Can we change this?