A Weekly Reflection: 2. Bloom's Taxonomy

As week two of preparing for student teaching comes to a close, we will begin discussion on the development of student learning objectives.  We've started looking at all kinds of resources for lessons and objectives to start gathering ideas and strategies to begin lesson planning and one of the most interesting items I've been reading about is this thing called Bloom's Taxonomy.

Bloom's Taxonomy is a way to separate the different areas, or domains, of learning.  In the image above, the inner circle represents the different levels of taxonomy and there are verbs used in each level as you work your way to the outside.

What a valuable resource, right?!  Let's say I am at the end of my unit and I really want to see if my students picked up the material.  Well, lets have them CREATE something.  But create what? Poster?  Been there, done that.  PowerPoint? Lame...  But now I can look at my handy-dandy wheel and... BOOM! Mind blown!  My students can now create podcasts, videos, songs, webpages, QR codes, blogs, movies.  And what will my objectives say?  I now have in my teaching tool belt words like "create, publish, design, construct, originate," to develop some high-level objects to get my students thinking.

Now I don't know about you, but I still think that's an awful lot words to sift through to try to get a handle on what this whole taxonomy thing is really about.  There are charts and articles and wheels and pictures and whatever out there, but sometimes it can still seem a little unclear.  I found and watched this video that helped clear up some things about what each level of taxonomy is all about!

Also, because I am a nerd at heart, I found this video of Nemo's Taxonomy.  It may be a little silly, I will always have something to remember the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy by!  Thanks, Disney!