Assessment and Higher-Order Thinking ASSESSMENT SESSION 2 Assessment and Higher-Order Thinking

In life, almost everything we do requires using knowledge in some way, not just knowing it.” SUSAN M. BROOKHART 1

Objectives: Self-assess questions, assessments, and tasks to determine the level of thinking and reasoning students are being asked to engage in Ensure that students are engaging in thinking and reasoning across a range of levels in response to prompts that are thoughtfully sequenced

Read and Reflect: Read the excerpt from How to Assess Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Your Classroom by Susan Brookhart. Highlight elements of the text that: resonate with you, reinforce your existing thinking, and/or challenge your current teaching practice

Share and Discuss: To what extent are students at our school asked to recall information versus use that information? What about in the questions we ask and the assessments we give?

The Hess Matrix: Synthesizes Bloom’s Taxonomy and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Provides a structure for thinking about thinking Captures a continuum of increasingly deep thinking Maps cognitive rigor based on both required skill complexity and necessary depth of knowledge Hess Matrix Webb’s DOK Levels 1 and 2 Recall/Reproduction & Skills/Concepts Webb’s DOK Levels 3 and 4 Strategic Thinking/Reasoning & Ext. Thinking Lower Level Bloom’s Remember Understand Recognize or locate basic facts or explicit ideas Define or describe details Identify main ideas of texts Provide examples and explain connections Connect ideas to supporting evidence and/or themes from other areas of study Describe how text features may influence inferences Write multi-paragraph compositions for a specific purpose and audience Mid-Level Bloom’s Apply Analyze Produce structured paragraphs Categorize and compare different terms, facts/details, literary elements, or data Analyze structures and identify and categorize key features Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, facts vs. opinions Apply an earlier concept in a new context Gather and analyze complex texts/sets of information to address original questions Use reasoning and evidence to support inferences Higher Level Bloom’s Evaluate Create Brainstorm ideas or questions based on observations Critique arguments and conclusions of others Synthesize information across multiple sources Develop models of complex situations/ideas Develop and justify alternative approaches Introducing the Hess Matrix Most educators have heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy when thinking about HOT skills. Bloom’s taxonomy was developed in the 1950s to classify and rank intellectual behaviors in terms of the complexity of the thought processes being used. It is an enormously important tool for thinking about thinking. However in practice, Bloom’s has numerous shortcomings in that some of the “higher” thinking skills can be used in superficial manners -- for instance, when asked to brainstorm a list of creative writing topics, students would be creating new knowledge, but they would not be doing so at a particular deep level. In response Norman Webb created an alternate Depth-of-Knowledge Matrix that looks at how students interact with knowledge, placing their thinking in a more practical context. The Hess Matrix represents a synthesis of these two methods of thinking about cognitive rigor. Karin Hess combined the two scales, mapping cognitive rigor both along complexity of the skills required and depth of knowledge needed to complete them, creating a tool for describing rigor and deep learning. The most superficial quadrant is in the upper left corner, while the deeper more complex quadrant is in the lower right.

Single-Step Thinking Process Multistep Thinking Process The Hess Matrix Webb’s DOK Levels 1 and 2 Recall/Reproduction & Skills/Concepts Single-Step Thinking Process Webb’s DOK Levels 3 and 4 Strategic Thinking/Reasoning & Ext. Thinking Multistep Thinking Process Lower Level Bloom’s Remember Understand Recognize Define Identify Connect Describe Compose Mid-Level Bloom’s Apply Analyze Categorize Compare & contrast Support Higher Level Bloom’s Evaluate Create Brainstorm based on observations Critique Synthesize Develop & justify Introducing the Hess Matrix Most educators have heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy when thinking about HOT skills. Bloom’s taxonomy was developed in the 1950s to classify and rank intellectual behaviors in terms of the complexity of the thought processes being used. It is an enormously important tool for thinking about thinking. However in practice, Bloom’s has numerous shortcomings in that some of the “higher” thinking skills can be used in superficial manners -- for instance, when asked to brainstorm a list of creative writing topics, students would be creating new knowledge, but they would not be doing so at a particular deep level. In response Norman Webb created an alternate Depth-of-Knowledge Matrix that looks at how students interact with knowledge, placing their thinking in a more practical context. The Hess Matrix represents a synthesis of these two methods of thinking about cognitive rigor. Karin Hess combined the two scales, mapping cognitive rigor both along complexity of the skills required and depth of knowledge needed to complete them, creating a tool for describing rigor and deep learning. The most superficial quadrant is in the upper left corner, while the deeper more complex quadrant is in the lower right. 6

Apply: Analyze a sample assessment task for both required skill complexity and necessary depth of knowledge. Add the question to the blank Hess Matrix to indicate where it resides. Craft versions of your sample assessment task that align with each square of the matrix.

Discuss: What would you expect to learn about your students’ understanding or skills from each of the iterations of the task? How is it useful to consider the same question at varied levels of skill complexity and depth of knowledge? How can assessments sequence and scaffold students toward increasingly higher-order thinking?

Learning Wrap-Up Reflect on what you learned today. How do your takeaways compare to the session’s Learning Objectives? How were these objectives addressed today? LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Self-assess questions, assessments, and tasks to determine the level of thinking and reasoning students are being asked to engage in Ensure that students are engaging in thinking and reasoning across a range of levels in response to prompts that are thoughtfully sequenced

What’s next? Learn more about frameworks for higher-order thinking Repeat today’s activity with additional assessments Revise with Analyzing Alignment of Questions to Higher-Order Thinking Apply framework to unit planning Analyze student work