What do Charles Darwin, Francis Collins, YoYo Mah and Derek Jeter have in common? 

If your response has anything to do with all of them being famous, you’re on the right track.  Darwin, Collins, Mah, and Jeter are famous for their expertise in their fields of biology, genetics, music, and sports.  They are Superstars!

Did you know that some researchers suggest that it could require 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in a field….to become a superstar scholar, researcher, doctor, musician and athlete such as the superstars mentioned?   While different skills are needed to achieve expertise in different fields, one skill that is necessary for all fields is knowledge of how to think as an expert.  Experts need to engage in superstar thinking every day.  They need to acquire knowledge about their content, and they need to be able to apply that knowledge in their daily performances.

Our culture recognizes and respects the importance of practice for achieving expertise in athletics or the arts, but does not seem to transfer that recognition and respect to academic achievement.  It is generally believed that schools should take care of academic achievement, and that belief would be justified if time spent in school equated to producing expert scholars.  However, the problem lies with the amount of time our children spend in schools: It’s just not enough to produce expert thinkers, the kind of expertise we want our children to possess.

So, if we, as parents and caregivers, want our children to become expert thinkers – and we cannot rely solely on the school to make that happen – what should we do?  We don’t have to be tiger moms or dads to help our children attain that status, but we must assume some responsibility for achieving the goal by presenting them with opportunities to develop and practice the skills they need in order to become expert thinkers.  The Superstar Thinking lessons provides you with these opportunities.  

We want to welcome you to Superstar Thinking.  Superstar Thinking consists of online learning resources for helping students develop and practice thinking and literacy skills. These lessons offer you research-based strategies that you can use to help your child develop thinking skills in all academic areas and at all grade levels.  You can use these strategies to either enhance your child’s learning or provide intervention as needed. The strategies are self-sustaining, accessible and easy to use and are contained within a three-part lesson plan to help your child learn, practice, and use skills that are necessary in order to achieve competence and become an expert in that area.  

Our goal is to show you how to use these strategies to help your child develop the expertise and academic skills to become excellent thinkers, learners, and performers in the classroom and beyond.

Follow the links below to access the guides and strategies.