Advanced by Design: RtI Tiered Programming and the Gifted Student Developed by Karen Kendig Northeast Gifted Education Regional Consultant

1 Hour Inservice Series: HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) Blooms Taxonomy

Did you know? WecI

Shift happens Teachers can and should be part of that shift.

Why cant students answer higher level questions? To the dismay of many educators and potential employers, it is daunting how few students are able to draw inferences from texts, distinguish the relevant information in mathematics problems, or provide and defend a thesis in an essay. Wolf, D. (1987, Winter). The art of questioning. Academic Connections, 1-7.

Why dont teachers ask more higher level questions? While researchers indicate that questioning strategies are essential to the growth of critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, and higher level thinking skills and can positively affect achievement, most classrooms are devoid of these types of questions as a regular part of learning. From Questioning Strategies for Teaching the Gifted by Elizabeth Shaunessy, 2005 Prufrock Press.

What is CSAP measuring? A student scoring at the Advanced Level has success with the most challenging content of the Colorado Model Content Standards. These students answer most of the test questions correctly, including the most challenging questions.

Where do Higher Order Thinking Skills fit into RtIs tiered programming model? Thinking skills should be taught to ALL students at the Universal LevelTier 1

Where to begin? Metacognition Talk about thinking with your students Post charts about thinking with key words Classroom climate Safe Nonthreatening Encouraging Mutually respectful

What is the teachers role? Responsive facilitator of learning Not sage on the stage but guide from the side Probe beyond simple, convenient yes/no questions Consider the specificity or vagueness of the questions and their purpose. Divvy up summarizing and concluding responsibilities among students. Strasser 1967

What is the students role? Think about higher level thinking Think about possible answers to questions posed Ask higher level questions of self and others

Why Blooms Taxonomy? By using Bloom's hierarchy of thinking categories teachers can identify the level of chosen classroom objectives and create assessments to match those levels. One can write items for any given level. With objectively scored item formats, it is fairly simple to tap lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy and more difficult, but not impossible, to measure at higher levels. By designing items to tap into teacher- chosen levels of cognitive complexity, classroom assessments increase validity.

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. Bloom found that over 95% of the test questions students encounter require them to think only at the lowest possible level...the recall of information.

Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the simple recall or recognition of facts, as the lowest level, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, to the highest order which is classified as evaluation.

Knowledge collectdescribeidentifylistshowtelltabulatedefi neexaminelabelnameretellstatequoteenumer atematchreadrecordreproducecopyselect Examples: dates, events, places, vocabulary, key ideas, parts of diagram, 5Ws

Comprehension associatecomparedistinguishextendinterpretpredictdifferentiatecontrastdescribediscuss estimategroupsummarizeorderciteconvert explainparaphraserestatetrace Examples: find meaning, transfer, interpret facts, infer cause & consequence, examples

Application applyclassifychangeillustratesolve demonstratecalculatecompletesolvemodifyshowexperimentrelatediscoveractadministerarticulatechartcollectcomputeconstructdeterminedevelopestablishprepareproducereportteachtransferuse Examples: use information in new situations, solve problems

While critical thinking can be thought of as more left-brain and creative thinking more right brain, they both involve "thinking." When we talk about HOTS "higher-order thinking skills" we're concentrating on the top three levels of Bloom's Taxonomy: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Analysis analyzearrangeconnectdivideinferseparateclassifycomparecontrastexplainselectorderbreakdowncorrelatediagramdiscriminatefocusillustrateinferoutlineprioritizesubdividepoints outprioritize Examples: recognize and explain patterns and meaning, see parts and wholes

Synthesis combinecomposegeneralizemodifyinventplansubstitutecreateformulateintegraterearrangedesignspeculaterewriteadaptanticipatecollaboratecompiledeviseexpressfacilitatereinforcestructuresubstituteintervenenegotiatereorganizevalidate Examples: discuss "what if" situations, create new ideas, predict and draw conclusions

Evaluation assesscomparedecidediscriminatemeasureranktestconvinceconcludeexplaingradejudgesummarizesupportappraisecriticizedefend persuadejustifyreframe Examples: make recommendations, assess value and make choices, critique ideas

Why should your lessons Bloom? Researchers believe that teachers should test over what they teach in the same way that they teach it.

Theres no time like the present. Choose a content area you teach. Write at least five generic questions at each of the HOTS levels of Blooms Taxonomy Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

Make a deck of resource cards Paste your questions on cards and laminate Use in learning centers Let students choose questions as discussion or test items Use cards and key word charts as guides for student-written questions