Unit Three Blooms Taxonomy in Social Studies
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Evaluating and Creating High Engagement Activities
Learning Objectives
Participants will create assessment tools, focused on the highest rungs of Blooms Taxonomy.
Ticket In the Door
Watch the following YouTube video
- Explain inquiry-based learning, and how it relates to Blooms Taxonomy.
- How do you believe this approach could benefit your students?
Mini-Lecture
As we near the end of both Blooms Taxonomy and this mini-course we must now shift our focus to the creation of both assessment tools and unit and lesson planning. The final two rungs of Blooms Taxonomy are synthesis and evaluation, these are key for students to master in order for them to demonstrate full and complete comprehension.
- "Synthesis involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole.” (Armstrong, 2020)
- "Evaluation engenders “judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes.” (Armstrong, 2020)
Student demonstrate a mastery of these skills by producing new or original end work, through research based activities, portfolios or topic pretensions. Students are also able to produce an end product that fulfills a given purpose rather than being right/wrong, meaning, they now have the ability to self-reflect and determine their own path of educational understanding moving forward.
In order to effectively guarantee student reaching these highest levels of Blooms Taxonomy it is critical that as the teacher you are planning strong interactive lessons, using proven practices and techniques. "Like the backward design process used to plan a course, planning a lesson involves first identifying what outcomes students should achieve, the assessment used to determine if students have met those outcomes, and the methods or activities involved. The additional principle at work for lesson planning is time management, as any given class day will always be under the constraint of time. Thinking critically about what activities will take place in a given class period, therefore, is extremely important.
Transparency is key in regards to lesson planning. Helping students see how their time is being scheduled and what purposes lie behind that scheduling can encourage their engagement and learning. Additionally, it is important to remember that a common challenge in lesson planning is trying to do too much. Planning to cover less content can result in deeper learning and higher levels of motivation."(Deshani, 2020)
In order to reflect on this mini-lecture and the effectiveness of synthesis please read and reflect on the following article.
- Seeing is Believing: The Benefits of Peer Observation → https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1262&context=jutlp
Learning Activities
1) As a way to demonstrate a culmination of your understanding of Blooms Taxonomy you are to create two assessments, one formal and one informal for use in a social studies classroom. Please make sure that the following components are contained in each assessment.
- Student created work-each assessment should allow for students to build and crate to demonstrate their understanding of the topic(ex. Create a propaganda poster to demonstrate American feelings during World War II)
- Peer-reflection- each assessment should end with peer reflection in which students discuss and share their ideas as well opinions on improving their work moving forward.
2) Watch the following YouTube Video and answer the questions below in the discussion tab.
- Sate three facts you learned from the video
- Two questions that arose after watching the video
- 3-4 sentence reflection on the video
Discussion
Please click on the the Discussion tab at the top of the page for our unit 3 discussion. At this point we have completed the first part of our mini-course discussion in unit 1, this discussion will serve as a culminating piece of learning and give you a chance to share your knowledge and understanding from this mini-course.
Conclusion & Ticket out the Door
- What do you think the difference is between effective and ineffective assessment practices?
- How do you see Blooms Taxonomy as a tool to improve your teaching practice moving froward?
Moving Forward-Unit Four Blooms Taxonomy in Social Studies
References
- Armstrong, P. (2020, March 25). Bloom's Taxonomy. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/
- Deshani. (2020). Retrieved from https://fctl.ucf.edu/teaching-resources/course-design/lesson-planning/