Keeping Bloom’s Taxonomy in mind while putting your lesson plans together is a brilliant idea because even though some of your students can’t express themselves as fluently as they can in their native language, they are still capable of tackling higher ordered thinking skills.
When introducing Bloom Taxonomy (BT) to your students, remember to chunk it down so they are not overwhelmed. I personally would focus on one skill at a time. Choose a topic or article that would lend itself to a specific skill. Prior to discussion time, talk about one particular aspect of a BT skill. Focus on just one verb at a time, maybe two, if you want to do a comparison/contrast or similar but different type of focus. Just keep it simple to start out with. This is all foreign stuff to them, but necessary if they planning on continuing their studies overseas. Even if they don’t plan of going abroad, these skills will go a long way in helping to improve their English communications skills. Be sure to tell them, that if they can master this concept of communication, then they should be able to converse with any Westerner easily. Its all about building up your student’s confidence.
Here are some resources I thought were useful:
- I found this free resource on Teachers-Pay-Teachers http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Blooms-Taxonomy-Reference-Sheet It seems pretty generic, so you will be able to use it for different lessons.
- Here’s a BT lesson plan template http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Revised-Blooms-Taxonomy-Lesson-Plan-Template
Here are some other resources worth taking a look at:
- http://www.linkingforlearning.com/L&L/index.html
- http://www.tki.org.nz/r/ict/pedagogy/thinking.pdf
- http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic69.htm]
- http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/Bloom/blooms.htm
- http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cogsys/bloom.html
- http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learning/exams/blooms-taxonomy.html
- http://ed.fnal.gov/trc_new/tutorial/taxonomy.html
Six more good sites:
- Double thumbs up on this one – Bloom’s Taxonomy Bakery – Scroll down for the animation. It’s cute. You can break it down into digestible chunks of information. Focus on and practice the specific skills in each layer of the cake. http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Bloom’s_Taxonomy
- Blooms Taxonomy roles – outlines teacher’s roles, student roles, process verbs and products. Kind of makes it more concrete and doable. Also, it may be good to share with students, so that they understand what is expected from them. http://nerds.unl.edu/pages/preser/sec/articles/blooms.html You may want to bookmark or print it out for future use.
- Major Categories of BT with objectives and “outcome-illustrating verbs.” This will be useful to refer to when you are putting your lesson plans together. Scroll down for other useful links. http://www.krummefamily.org/guides/bloom.html
- Breaks down each BT category and provides a neat, concise table that includes useful verbs, sample question stems, potential activities and products. http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/researchskills/dalton.htm
- BT ebook http://eit.tamu.edu/JJ/DE/BloomsTaxonomy.pdf
- Links to Dillon School District Powerpoints. I took a look at Powerpoint one and decided that there are a few slides that would be useful to use with your students, but you would probably have to just present one slide (or skill) with each lesson. To present the whole thing would be too overwhelming, plus it is geared more towards mandatory teacher training. You know, those long boring inservice programs that US public schools require you to sit through when you would rather be doing something else more productive. http://www.dillon2.k12.sc.us/teachers/RevisedBloomsTaxonomy.asp
