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This document contains 48 sample lesson plans that practicing teachers of vocational and academic education have developed to train vocational students to think critically and to solve problems. Discussed in the introduction are the following topics: critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making as the building blocks of teaching; sources of problems and decisions; problem-solving techniques; wrong decisions; preplanning with instructional schedules; supervised study; problem-solving lessons from life; and motivation processes. Next, the lesson plans are grouped by the following problem-solving techniques: key-steps situation; forked-road situation; possibilities-factors situation; situation-to-be-improved technique; effect-cause situation; and four-question interest approach. The lesson plans are drawn from a wide range of vocational program areas, including consumer homemaking, animal care, precision machining technologies, agribusiness, horticulture, occupational work adjustment, cosmetology, work and family life, business education, landscape design/management, natural resources, math intervention, and small engines. Each lesson plan includes some/all of the following: program/unit/subunit; name of instructor who developed the plan; competency/terminal performance objective; strategies for related class and/or laboratory instruction; competency builders/pupil performance objectives; integrating academic competencies; required equipment/supplies/resources; schedule; and detailed guidelines for preparing to teach the lesson, presenting the lesson, helping students apply concepts/principles/skills, and evaluating student learning. (MN)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert