This research aims to find the effective way of developing the students' abilities of thinking and expression to a higher level through reading critical essays in Japanese classes. In order to improve students' abilities, students read two essays. After reading two essays written by either different authors or the same author, students think about the topic by themselves and expressed their thoughts and points of view. These two essays relate the identical matter from two different points of view, and by reading them comparatively, students can broaden their own perspectives and probe their ideas deeper. The result shows that using several reading materials is effective to broaden students' ways of thinking and means of expression.