1. “Stretching ALL Learners to Feel Challenged”
A*-A Master Class Programme: Higher Order Skills and Questions with Associated Writing Techniques
“Stretching ALL Learners to Feel Challenged”

2. LEARNING ACTIVITY #1 Can we build on existing initiatives?
Recall “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”:
Be quizzed on some fairly closed questions on it
Draw the images in the nursery rhyme
Discuss some more open questions on it: is there any scope to see the nursery rhyme as about exploitation?
Compare it to “Mary had a Little Lamb”: what is similar and what is different?
Judge which you prefer and explain why

3. ESTABLISHED BLOOM’S MODEL

4. LEARNING ACTIVITY #2
“Who?”, “What?”, “Where?”, “When?” and other “closed” questions tend to elicit “lower-order”
responses
“Why?” , “How?” and other “open” questions like “Might?”, “Should?”, “Could?”
tend to elicit “higher-order”

5. LEARNING ACTIVITY #3 Action Verb Description Skill(s)
Identify
Point out the required features or reasons.
Knowledge, Comprehension
Justify
Give good reasons for.
Evaluation
Discuss
Explain the advantages and disadvantages of something, and give your opinion
Analysis, Synthesis (interpret), evaluation
Define
Give a brief explanation of what something means.
Comprehension
Evaluate
Decide the degree to which a statement is true or the importance or value of something by reviewing the information.
Analysis, Evaluation
Assess
Give careful consideration to all the factors or events that apply and
identify which are the most important or relevant
Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation
Explain
Give reason WHY something is as it is.
Comprehension, Analysis
If you are unable to decode the ‘command verb’ in the exam, how will you know what to write as your answer.....? What skills are being demanded?

6. LEARNING ACTIVITY #3 Application comes in the writing…
Recall Miss Howard’s point about “marginal gains”
Know what is demanded in the “big mark” questions and how you might approach them…

7. LEARNING ACTIVITY #3 POINT
Lennie is described using a range of similes and references to animals.
EVIDENCE
For example, Steinbeck writes how he “drank with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse” and says he has “paws”.
ANALYSIS
The “paws” reference makes him sound like a powerful bear and the simile of the “horse” shows he is like another strong creature.
INTERPRETATION
A different interpretation is that Lennie is unpredictable like these animals and we never know what to expect of him.
COMPARISON
Later on, Lennie shows this unpredictable side when he suddenly and brutally attacks Curley.
EVALUATION
These descriptions are good for giving hints at the character of Lennie and what he might do in the novel.

8. LEARNING ACTIVITY #3
“Contraception within marriage is wrong”. Discuss this statement. You should include different, supported points of view and a personal viewpoint.
Many Christians would say that sex outside of marriage is wrong but there is more debate regarding contraception within marriage (POINT). For example, Allender has pointed to 1 Corinthians: “Flee from sexual immorality” and how this includes sex outside of marriage as a “sin against your own body” (EVIDENCE/EXAMPLE). This shows that sex in marriage is a key issue but the Bible has little to say on actual contraception. Liberal protestant churches advocate sex within marriage but do accept a range of methods of birth control as individuals exercise their Free Will (ANALYSIS). Another view, of more conservative Christians, for example, is that only “natural” birth control processes such as the rhythm method are acceptable within marriage and there should be no artificial barrier to the conception process (INTERPRETATION). The attitudes of some have perhaps become more relaxed in some quarters as secular society becomes more liberal (COMPARISON). Weighing up the evidence, my personal view is that … (EVALUATION).

9. REVIEW POINTS
Know the (Bloom’s) skills demanded across subjects – those that are “higher order” and those which are “lower order”
When learning in or out of class, consider the type of question you can ask yourself or your partner – do some lend themselves to “deeper” or “big mark” thinking?
Know the associated “command” or “trigger” words in questions
Write an appropriate response!