Jane Keen
T O P I C :
Bloom vs. Accountability
Jane Poses the Question. . . .
September 14, 2007
At my school we have to give common ASL (assessments for student learning). Recently we gave one and nearly half the students failed. However, afterwards the principal came and said we really need to have common ASL's that shoot to even higher levels on Bloom's taxonomy. With so many ELL students, how can I keep it on grade level, or at a scaffolding level the student needs, and still meet the higher Bloom's requirement of my boss?
Ethan Reese-Whiting answers. . . .
October 22, 2007
I partially picked this one since no one else had offered up any ideas on it. I assume by common ASLs you mean ones that are given to both ELL students and native English speakers without modifications for the ELL students? If that's the case, are there changes you could make that would benefit all students? For example, when structuring the assessment — be it a question, series of questions, or some kind of project — are there ways you could break it into steps that help the students up the levels of Bloom's taxonomy?
For example, let's say you want to shoot for the synthesis/evaluation levels. Since you're history, I'll try and run with that. Forgive me if mine's a little rusty, though... too much study on atoms, elements, rocks and minerals has forced out some of my old high school history about Washington crossing the Nile to help Lincoln free the slaves from Imperial stormtroopers. Okay, so say you want students to compile a timeline of events surrounding America's diverse responses to the Vietnam war and compare and contrast events that were largely political, those that were social, and those that seemed to be social but were maybe driven by political agendas... or vice versa.
Instead of saying, "Here's what we want... go to it," could you maybe structure the question, test, project in stages that help students assemble the information that they need at the lower levels so they can then use it in the upper levels of Bloom's? For example, go with the Knowledge level and ask students to identify/list eight noteworthy events/bits of information/whatever related to various responses to the Vietnam war. This could be anything from public protests to the government's decision to send troops different places and so on... depending on what you've covered in class or what they've researched.
Then you have them go for the Analysis level and have them differentiate beween responses by the American government, the American public, and maybe the American media. Now they have their items and they have them segregated out. Once they have their categories, they can lay the events out in a timeline with some kind of code... like color coding... for their three categories. Once they have their timeline, they can look at the progression of events and see how maybe a noteworthy protest followed shortly after the government's decision to ship over more troops/occupy a territory/etc. Or maybe some political rally took place after the media had done a story on how some village was raided and more civilians were killed than soldiers. Then they can compare and contrast those events and draw inferences about what motivated what.
I probably made that as clear as chocolate soy milk. The basic idea I'm trying to get at is could you not structure your assessments so that your instructions walk the student through several stages of Bloom's taxonomy? You make one part of the assignment target the basic level. Then the students use that information to do something that aims for the mid-range. Finally, they put those products together into something that hits the upper tiers of Bloom's.
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