Before You Read:

As I said in an earlier lesson, one of the most important things I can show you is how to break down questions so you can be successful answering them.  Most of the time that means "knowing the tricks" to help you when you get confused.

Knowing Bloom's Taxonomy is just that:  a great "trick" to help you!  By using Bloom's Taxonomy you can figure out what kind of answer is needed for any question or any assignment.  Find the verb in the assignment or questions, match it to any one of a dozen or more Bloom's Taxonomy Verb Tables on the Internet, and you will know what to do, how much effort it will take, and how long it will take.

In the last assignment, you completed questions at the Apply level of Bloom's.  In this set of lessons we are going to look at the  the higher levels of Bloom's.  These last three levels, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create require a student to 

• increase effort when thinking critically (meaning, no "giving up!"), 

• ask CQs until they understand everything that is new or unfamiliar,

• read and re-read the text many times, 

• discuss what they've read with other students, parents, and instructors, and

• prepare to work on assignments that will take from 3 days to a week or more.

So, what kind of assignments, effort, and time are we talking about here, Mrs. G?

Assignment Types:   

Any assignment that asks you to answer an EQ will be in these last three levels.  You can count on these assignments requiring written paragraphs and essays, or speeches, or presentations.  The common feature of these assignments are that they take deeper thinking, more practice, and time.   Notice "being smart" or "being a good student" is not listed here.   There's a reason for that which we will see shortly.

You are working within the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy if the assignment asks you to 

• compare, contrast, categorize, give reasons and examples (Analyze);

• defend, argue, plan, teach, or give feedback/grade (Evaluate);

• invent, develop, design, research, role-play, or uncover a new way to... (Create) 

Effort, Time:   

Imagine having to sit for an 25-item exam on a topic you only heard about yesterday. Or what if you were asked to give a 20-minute speech on an opinion you hold?  Both would be unrealistic and create a huge amount of stress, right?  Would "being a good student" or "being smart" save you in these scenarios?  Nope. 

Believe it or not, many students (even those "smart, good students") think they can approach the higher levels of Bloom's in just that way!  No matter how "smart" you are, it is extremely difficult to complete any task in the higher levels of Bloom's without putting forth effort and taking time to do it.   But year after year I see students look at material once or twice and think they've "done enough" to complete tasks in the higher level of Bloom's.  They set themselves up for stress, unrealistic expectations, and low grades.  It has nothing to do with how smart they are, or if they have learning challenges or not.   It has to do with effort.

So, what does effort look like?  Here it is. 

Effort = hard work + a plan to complete tasks on time

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• Increasing critical-thinking time (meaning, no giving up or saying "I can't"), 

• Asking CQs until everything that is new or unfamiliar is understood, 

• Reading and re-reading (or listening to) the text many times (4 or more times!), 

• Discussing harder ideas with other students, parents, and instructors,

• Having opinions, and being ready to explain your yourself with evidence from the text, and...

• Having a plan for accomplishing all of this over multiple days, and on-time.

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Effort is personal, and it doesn't look the same for everyone.  As you read your chapters, consider how many times you will need to re-read, how long you will have to think, how much dicsussion you will need, and what kind of schedule you will need to operate "with effort" at the Analyze, Evaluate, and Create levels of Bloom's.  The assignments over the next few lessons will give you a chance to put those thoughts into practice.

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