| What is Bloom's taxonomy and how can a | | | | achieve the ultimate goal of becoming |
| teacher apply Bloom's taxonomy to classroom | | | | lifelong learners. |
| lesson plans? | | | | |
| | | | There are many ways in which teachers can use |
| Bloom's taxonomy was originally created | | | | blooms taxonomy to help create more focused |
| Benjamin Bloom for categorizing and | | | | lesson plans and help students use higher |
| classifying levels of intellectual learning | | | | order thinking skills. By following the |
| that commonly occur in the classroom setting. | | | | Bloom's taxonomy chart teachers can pinpoint |
| Bloom's taxonomy contains three overlapping | | | | what they will teach and how they will go |
| domains: the cognitive, psychomotor, and | | | | about teaching it. For example, take a |
| affective. Within the cognitive domain | | | | social studies lesson plan on the use of the |
| Benjamin Bloom identified six levels that | | | | atomic bomb to end WWII. A teacher could |
| have become commonly known as Blooms | | | | teach this lesson by having students read and |
| Taxonomy. | | | | memorize important key terms and facts. |
| | | | However, even if the teacher uses a variety |
| The six levels of Bloom's taxonomy, from | | | | of teaching strategies to help increase |
| lowest to highest, are: knowledge, | | | | reading comprehension, the problem is the |
| comprehension, application, analysis, | | | | teacher is only focusing on the lower order |
| synthesis, and evaluation. These different | | | | thinking skills. The students may be able to |
| levels of Bloom's taxonomy have become an | | | | regurgitate the information back on the test, |
| extremely useful guide for teachers in | | | | but the student is not using the higher order |
| planning classroom lesson plans and classroom | | | | thinking skills that will help that student |
| objectives. You can even find a list of | | | | retain the information for the long-term and, |
| verbs to help teachers design lesson plans in | | | | more importantly, help the student learn to |
| the Bloom's Taxonomy Verb Chart located on | | | | think for himself. |
| this web site: | | | | |
| | | | A simply way to teach the same lesson, but |
| It is vitally important that teachers do not | | | | also address the higher order thinking skills |
| just teach lower order thinking skills at the | | | | is to simply have the students write a |
| bottom of Bloom's taxonomy such as knowledge | | | | paragraph "evaluating/judging" Truman's |
| and comprehension, but also teach higher | | | | decision to drop the atomic bomb. The |
| order thinking skills at the top of Bloom's | | | | teacher can still have the students include |
| taxonomy such as evaluation. When students | | | | the key terms from the lesson in the |
| are evaluating and judging and using the | | | | paragraph, but by having the students also |
| higher order thinking skills they are more | | | | make an argument and support that argument |
| likely to retain information, perform better | | | | the students are also addressing the higher |
| on standardized tests, and most importantly, | | | | order thinking skills of Bloom's taxonomy. |