Intended for teachers of students in grades 4 through 8 and beyond, this book offers a simple process for teaching students to think critically and write logically. Each lesson in the book provides three different writing templates: the beginning template is intended for third- and fourth-grade students; the intermediate, for grades 4 through 6; and the advanced, for experienced writers in grade 6 and up. The book consists of three integrated strands: (1) Teaching the Thinking Taxonomy, using six levels (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation); (2) Prewriting Activities, planned cooperative-learning activities to gather and process information about perplexing questions; and (3) Writing the Essay with a simple-to-follow writing template for developing thesis statements and position support. Combining cooperative learning, critical thinking, and the writing process, the book gives students the tools necessary to master any assessment program that requires them to write a persuasive or expressive writing sample, such as the California Learning Assessment System (CLAS). The book emphasizes that learning the basic template will provide students a tool that can be used to write a persuasive, expressive, or evaluative paper for almost any situation. (CR)