Over the past year, our teachers periodically collect data with their teams on the types of questions/tasks they ask students. One teacher records teacher questions and the other records student responses on a shared Google Doc; then teams sort through their own data, plotting teacher questions by Bloom's Revised Taxonomy, and student responses to those questions/tasks with Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK). The 2012-2013 data showed we were not very different from other districts; therefore, our teams set their own goals for higher-order thinking and depth of knowledge.
The data so far for the 2013-2014 school year shows questions asked of students are up and down the Bloom's ladder, equally distributed (with a little less in the create category, but that's probably because the 20 minutes of collecting data in those classrooms did not occur during PBL). However, on average, the student responses and tasks were still primarily in the DOK Levels 1 and 2. Thus, teacher teams are focusing on creating DOK Level 3 discussions and tasks.
Why should we strive for DOK Levels 3 and 4?
Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is about the cognitive complexity of thinking. In DOK Level 3, students must justify and defend their reasoning (thus more rigorous and requires more critical thinking). While DOK 4, is continued analysis over longer periods of time.
The critical thinking and rigor that occurs in DOK Levels 3 and 4 are our goal as 21st century thinkers, and our goal for preparing them for college and careers (thereby also the goal of the Common Core).
What does DOK Level 3 look like?
DOK Level 3 questions and tasks require more than one "correct" answer. Below are some examples, based on the work of Karin Hess:
- ELA: Explain, generalize or connect ideas, using supporting evidence from the text or source.
- Math: Solve a multiple-step problem and provide support with a mathematical explanation that justifies the answer.
- Music: Analyze or evaluate the effectiveness of the concept of ‘groove’ in a musical composition.
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DOK Level 3 requires the question or task to have more than one acceptable answer. This is a shift for teachers to ask these questions and design these tasks, and it's a shift for students because they are used to answering and waiting to see if they were "right".
Raise Awareness of DOK Level 3
Why not explore DOK with the students? Discuss what DOK Level 3 questions and tasks are; have students design a few; and share the benefits of this type of thinking.
Asking open-ended questions that do not have right/wrong answers would give students more DOK Level 3 opportunities.
Here are some question stems to help create more strategic thinking:
- In your opinion, what are the strongest _______ (arguments; the strongest evidence that supports the author's claims, ...) ... Why do you think that?
- How would you explain this in a drawing (or infographic)?
- How would you explain this to (fill in the blank)? (your mom, a kindergartener, a scientist, a ...)
- Make "Why?", "How do you know?", or "Can you explain?" your classroom mantras.
- Similar to the above, ask "What makes you say that?" to push for students to elaborate with evidence to support their thinking.
- What matters? Why does it matter?
- In each of the mathematical practices, there are question stems that promote strategic thinking. For example, "What do you think about what _______ said? Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not."
- Imagine that (fill in the blank) never happened, how would you expect the (fill in the blank with an outcome)? Example 1) Imagine that Japan never bombed the United States during World War II, how would you expect world history to be different than it is today? Example 2) Imagine that the (main character) didn't fix the problem that way, how would you expect the (main character) could have solved the problem a different way?
- Similar to the above question, ask, "What would happen if ...?"
Tracy's Twist on a DOK Level 3 Question Stem
The teacher makes a claim such as, "This is the best book I've read" or "Online activities are better than face-to-face activities." Then students can decide how much they agree or disagree with the statement, and place a sticky note on the spectrum from agree to disagree to represent their opinion, and support their claim with reasons.
While this can be done face-to-face with sticky notes or by physically lining up, it can also be online with free tools such as Padlet. For example, if I claimed this activity is better to do with online sticky notes, then we could discuss how much we agree with the statement by placing our own sticky note on the line spectrum to quantify our perspective, while supporting our thinking by adding reasoning.
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Final thoughts: Task predicts performance
Is it worth it? Is it worth the teacher's efforts to seek DOK 3 and 4 responses and learning tasks? Heck ya! Task predicts performance.
When students work at DOK Levels 3 and 4, students are prepared to transfer their learning to other situations and non-routine applications. Isn't this what we want for our students? Isn't this what the Common Core is trying to accomplish?
- What question stems do you like to use to promote deeper thinking?
- How would you create DOK Level 3 questions and tasks?
- Why do you think higher-order thinking and DOK learning activities should be goals of educators?