1. DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE (DOK)
What are students being asked to do?
How complex is the student thinking?
OVERVIEW:
In this presentation, participants will explore Norman Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels and Karin Hess’s Cognitive Rigor to gain a better understanding of rigorous questions. They will practice using these tools to evaluate the rigor of questions, adjust the level of rigor where appropriate, and consider implications for their daily practice.
OUTCOME:
Participants will understand rigor as defined in the Depth of Knowledge framework and will be able to use the Cognitive Rigor Matrix to evaluate and adjust the rigor of questions.
GUIDING QUESTIONS:
What makes a question rigorous?
How do rigorous questions support the transition to the Common Core?
Thank you to Hilary Dito, STEAM Coordinator, with CCCOE for sharing her work *

2. Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is
A scale of cognitive demand (thinking) to align standards with assessments
Descriptive of the task students are being asked to do
Based on the research of Norman Webb, University of Wisconsin Center for Education Research and the National Institute for Science Education
Not the same as difficulty
Introduction
Introduce the presentation by stating that:
A key component of the transition to the Common Core is strengthening student work by examining and refining curriculum, assessment, and classroom instruction.
Rigorous questions, tasks, and assessment are essential to driving the higher-order thinking and skills students need to be college and career-ready.
The Depth of Knowledge is a framework that will guide educators in developing rigorous lessons and assessments to prepare students for accessing the Common Core.
Participants will become familiar with the DOK framework, practice using it to evaluate questions, and consider how to incorporate rigorous questioning in classroom practice. *

3. Why Depth of Knowledge?
To align instructional activities with the cognitive rigor needed to master the standards
Is used by Smarter Balanced to indicate the complexity of the assessment task/item
Applicable to all subject areas and at all grade levels
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is using Webb’s DOK to develop the Common Core Assessment
The new CCSS assessments will have questions at all DOK levels
DOK is how deeply the content must be known in order to complete the task. It is not about difficulty, it is about complexity. *

4. Varying Level of Cognitive Demand
ELA
Retell or summarize Little Red Riding Hood in your own words.
What is your opinion about the intelligence of the wolf (in Little Red Riding Hood)? Justify using details/ evidence from the story.
Ask participants why these two questions have different Cognitive Demand
What makes one question more “difficult” than the other?
What information does this provide the teacher about student understanding? *

5. Varying Level of Cognitive Demand
Mathematics
Is 4/5 closer to 1 than 5/4?
4/5 is closer to 1 than 5/4.
Show why this is true on a number line.
Ask participants why these two questions have different Cognitive Demand
What makes one question more “difficult” than the other?
What information does this provide the teacher about student understanding? *

6. How are the Assessments Changing?
Smarter Balanced Depth of Knowledge Goals for Items
MATHEMATICS
ELA / LITERACY
DOK 3
DOK 4
Current Assessments
<2% 0%
20% 2%
New SBAC Assessments
49%
21%
43%
25%
This shows how the new assessments will compare in Cognitive Rigor to the “old” CSTs. The percentage indicates the amount of time spend on questions, not the number of questions.
Yuan & Le (2012); Herman & Linn (2013),
from Linda Darling-Hammond Assembly Testimony, *

7. Sample Item Specification
SBAC has item specifications that indicate the DOK level
This example is a DOK 2 Math *

8. RIGOR Rigor and Depth of Knowledge
four myths about rigor in the classroom.
1. Lots of homework is a sign of rigor.
2. Rigor means doing more.
3. Rigor is not for everyone.
4. Providing support means lessening rigor.
Instead, “rigor is creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels,
each student is supported so he or she can learn at high levels, and each student demonstrates learning at high levels.”
*Karen Hess defines cognitive rigor in this way: “Cognitive rigor encompasses the complexity of content, the cognitive engagement with that content, and the scope of the planned learning activities”

9. Write a definition of Cognitive Rigor on your note guide.
Read “The Ant and the Grasshopper”– develop one basic question and one “rigorous” question.
Share your questions with a partner
Ask participants to record their definitions of cognitive rigor (what does it look like in their class, what does it mean to them…) in their note-taking guides and then share their definitions with the group. Participants should keep these definitions in mind throughout the activity and note any shifts in their understanding. (5 minutes)
Participants will revisit their questions later…
*Karen Hess defines cognitive rigor this way: “Cognitive rigor encompasses the complexity of content, the cognitive engagement with that content, and the scope of the planned learning activities”
Instruct participants to read “The Ant and the Grasshopper” and to develop two questions based on the story: one basic comprehension question and one question they consider rigorous. Participants should record their questions in their note-taking guides. (5 minutes)
Ask participants to share their questions. Let them know they will examine these questions later in the activity using the Depth of Knowledge framework. (5 minutes) *

10. What is the Level of Cognitive Demand Needed To Complete the Task?
Rating Depth of Knowledge (DOK)
What is the Level of Cognitive Demand
Needed To Complete the Task?
Handout: DOK Circle Chart
Have participants examine the DOK Chart – What DOK Level is the majority of the instructional time in your classroom spent? *

11. In your classroom:
What part of your classroom instruction is spent in each DOK Level?
Which DOK levels are assessments focused on?
What lessons / activities engage students in the different DOK Levels?
Have participants examine the DOK Chart –
Which DOK Level(s) are assessments focused on?
What type of classroom activities do your students engage in for the DOK levels? *

12. Webb’s 4 Levels of Cognitive Complexity
DOK 1: Recall & Reproduction
DOK 2: Basic Application of Skills/Concepts
DOK 3: Strategic Thinking and Reasoning
DOK 4: Extended Thinking
The Depth of Knowledge framework consists of four levels that define what students must know about a concept or topic to complete an assignment or answer a question. The Depth of Knowledge levels do not necessarily reflect degrees of “difficulty,” but the rigor of thinking students must use to solve problems. For example, memorizing the definitions of 100 vocabulary words might be difficult, but not complex. Completing 100 long division problems might be difficult, but not complex. *

13. LEVEL 1: RECALL
Requires recall of information, such as a fact, definition, term, or simple procedure and/or performing simple procedures.
Involves only basic initial comprehension, not an analysis or interpretation.
Students are to work with specific facts or definitions. The activity requires a shallow understanding of the topic or text. *

14. LEVEL 2: Skills and Concepts
Includes the engagement of some mental processing beyond recalling or reproducing a response
Items require students to make some decisions as to how to approach the question or problem
Actions imply more than one mental or cognitive process/step *

15. Recall vs. Skills & Concepts
ELA
Describe the physical features of a place.
Identify and summarize the major events, problem, solution, and conflicts in a text.
DOK 1
DOK 2 *

16. Recall vs. Skills & Concepts
Selena’s
MATH
How many minutes did it take Selena to do 3 problems?
Selena continues to work at the same rate. How many problems will she do in 40 minutes?
DOK 1
DOK 2
For DOK 1 & 2, there is usually a right answer.
Have participants examine their own classroom activity and list DOK Level 1 & 2.
Share with their elbow partner. *

17. LEVEL 3: Strategic Thinking
Requires deep understanding exhibited through planning, using evidence, and more demanding cognitive reasoning
The cognitive demands are complex and abstract
An assessment item that has more than one possible answer and requires students to justify the response would most likely be a Level 3 *

18. Level 3 Strategic Thinking
ELA
Analyze or evaluate the effectiveness of literary elements (plot, setting, conflict, point-of view …). *

19. Level 3 Strategic Thinking Mathematics
Solve a multi-step problem, and provide support with a mathematical explanation that justifies the answer.
Beto and Jose were playing a game. At the end of each game, the loser gave the winner a penny. After a while, Jose won 3 games and Beto had 3 more pennies than he did when he began. How many games did they play. *

20. Extended Thinking: Level 4
Requires high cognitive demand and is very complex
Students are expected to make connections, relate ideas within the content or among content areas, and select or devise one approach among many alternatives on how the situation can be solved
Due to the complexity of cognitive demand, DOK 4 often requires an extended period of time *

21. Level 4 Extended Thinking ELA/Social Science
Write an analysis of an issue. Present multiple points of view and argue for a position in a way that could stimulate the read to consider new perspectives.
Given a problem situation, research and present multiple solutions. Be sure to provide alternative responses and reasons for adopting each.
Have participants examine their own classroom activity and list DOK Level 3 & 4.
Share with their elbow partner. *

22. Extending the length of an activity alone does not necessarily create rigor
This slide demonstrates how an activity over time can be rated at each of the DOK Levels

23. DOK an Introduction How does your original definition of
Take a few minutes to read through the descriptions or bullets for the levels of DOK 1-4 in Reading and Writing (handouts).
Have participants read the handouts in DOK and revise their definition.
Have participants share their insights.
How does your original definition of
Cognitive Rigor Change? *

24. Rate the Examples Level of DOK
Try it!
Rate the Examples Level of DOK
Compare and contrast desert and tropical climates.
Gather, analyze, organize and interpret data from multiple sources and draft a reasoned response.
Use a dictionary to define the meaning of words
Explain the cause- effect of historical events. 2 1 4 2 *

25. Rate the Examples Level of DOK
Try it!
Rate the Examples Level of DOK
Identify the elements in a specific compound
Solve multi-step problems and provide support with mathematical explanation that justifies the answer.
Determine the area of a triangle given a drawing or labels.
Evaluate the effectiveness of different exercises and diets on the health of a population. 1 2 3 3 *

26. Rate the Level of DOK Classify plane and 3-D figures.
Try it!
Rate the Level of DOK 2
Classify plane and 3-D figures.
Specify a problem, identify solution paths, solve the problem and report the results.
What fruit did the witch give to Snow White?
What is your opinion about the intelligence of the Wolf in Little Red Ridding Hood? Justify your answer using evidence from the story.
Analyze and explain the multiple perspectives or issues within or across time periods, events, or cultures. 3 4 4 1 *

27. Sort the problems by DOK Levels
Choose a set of cards (ELA or Math)
With your partner, sort the 8 cards based on the DOK level
Compare your results with your table partners
Pass out the DOK Cards.
Have teams sort the cards (can be done individually) and justify why they choose specific DOK Levels *

28. Check your answers – what surprised you?
Elementary ELA
Question
DOK Level
Grade Level 1.
DOK 2
Grade 4 2.
DOK 3 3.
Grade 3 4.
DOK 4
Grade 5 5. 6. 7. 8.
Elementary Math
Question
DOK Level
Grade Level 1.
DOK 2
Grade 5 2.
Grade 4 3.
DOK 1 4.
Grade 3 5. 6.
DOK 3 7.
DOK 4 8. *

29. Have participants think about their own curriculum – how can they develop learning opportunities at each level? *

30. Do it….
Look at the basic question and rigorous one that you developed.
Which levels of Webb’s DOK are they?
Create one DOK 3 problem and one DOK 4 problem.
Ask participants to take another look at the questions they developed for the Ant and the Grasshopper.
Have them determine which levels of Webb’s DOK they are and if there is time WHY?
Have them create one DOK 3 and one DOK 4 problem – share with their table group. *

31. Depth of Knowledge
The depth of knowledge level is NOT determined by the verb, but by the context in which the verb is used and the complexity of thinking required.
What comes after the verb is the best indicator of the rigor/DOK level
California’s CCSS: Toolkit adapted by the Stanislaus County Office of Education *

32. Same Verb – 3 Different Levels of DOK
Caution 1
Same Verb – 3 Different Levels of DOK
DOK 1- Describe three characteristics of metamorphic rocks. (Requires simple recall)
DOK 2- Describe the difference between metamorphic and igneous rocks. (Requires cognitive processing to determine the differences in the two rock types)
DOK 3- Describe a model that you might use to represent the relationships that exist within the rock cycle. (Requires deep understanding of rock cycle and a determination of how best to represent it)
What comes after the verb is the best indicator of the rigor/DOK level *

33. One Statement Across DOK Levels
Recall & Reproduction
(DOK 1)
Skills & Concepts/Basic Reasoning (DOK 2)
Strategic Thinking/ Complex Reasoning (DOK 3)
Extended Thinking/ Reasoning
(DOK 4)
All four use the verb identify.
Students will identify essential information needed to accomplish a task.
Students will identify information in a passage that is supported by fact.
Students will identify the appropriateness of an argument using supporting evidence.
Students will identify interrelationships (themes, ideas, concepts) developed in more than one literary work.
Another example of one statement – different DOK *

34. One Statement Across DOK Levels
Recall & Reproduction
(DOK 1)
Skills & Concepts/Basic Reasoning (DOK 2)
Strategic Thinking/ Complex Reasoning (DOK 3)
Extended Thinking/ Reasoning
(DOK 4)
Students will extend patterns, find the missing term(s) in a pattern or describe rules for patterns (numbers, pictures, tables, words from real-world and mathematical problems (Grade 5 – DOK 3).
Find the next three terms in the following pattern: 2/7, 4/7, 6/7, 8/7, ….
Draw the next figure in the following pattern:
Find the next three terms in the pattern and determine the rule for the following pattern of numbers: 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25, 29, …
Find the next three terms in the pattern, determine the rule for finding the next number in the pattern and make or find a model for the pattern: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, …
Another example of one statement – different DOK *

35. DOK is about intended outcome not about Difficulty
DOK is a reference to the complexity of mental processing that must occur to answer a question, perform a task, or generate a product.
Adding is a mental process
Knowing the rule for adding is the intended outcome that influences the DOK
Once someone learns the “rule” of how to add, is DOK 1 and is also easy
Adding 4,678, ,578,885 is still a DOK 1 but may be more “difficult”
Think Jeopardy – questions are difficult, but not mentally complex *

36. Remember DOK is... … descriptive
… about how deeply a student has to know the
content in order to respond
… NOT the same as difficulty
… NOT the same as Bloom’s Taxonomy
… NOT the same as Costa’s Levels
“Although related through their natural ties to the complexity of thought, Bloom’s Taxonomy and Webb’s depth-of-knowledge differ in scope and application.
Bloom’s Taxonomy categorizes the cognitive skills required of the brain to perform a task, describing the ‘type of thinking processes’ necessary to answer a question.
Depth of knowledge, on the other hand, related more closely to the depth of content understanding and scope of a learning activity, which manifests in the skills required to complete the task from inception to finale (e.g., planning, researching, drawing conclusions). Both the thinking processes and the depth of content knowledge have direct implications in curricular designs, lesson delivery and assessment development and use.” Karen Hess
Difficulty is how many students answer the question correctly
Review Video *

37. How Many of Each Type of Problem?
Colorado Department of Education
What percentage of your instructional time should be spent on different DOK levels?
Colorado Department of Education *

38. DOK 1, 2, 3, 4 Level 1—Identify the tree Level 2—Explain the function
of the leaves
Level 3—Explain how a
drought might affect the growth
of the tree
Level 4—Design an
investigation of seedling growth
to determine the best fertilizer
for this type of tree.
Share this slide with participants – have them create their own questions with the following prompts...
Oak Tree *

39. *

40. DOK 1, 2, 3 and 4 Level 1—Identify this utensil Level 2— Level 3—
fork
Have participants write their own questions and share them out *

41. *

42. Practice Assessment Performance Task
Go to the wiki:
Click on Orinda
Click on the Smarter Balance Practice Test
Sign in as a guest
Select your Grade Level
Click the “Yes” button
Select a Performance Task for either Math or ELA

43. Applying DOK to Instruction
The intended student learning outcome determines the DOK level
Assessments, oral questions and classroom activities can all be assigned DOK levels
Instruction and classroom assessments must reflect the DOK level of the objective or intended learning outcome

44. DOK: Questions at lower levels are usually more appropriate for:
Evaluating students’ preparation and comprehension
Diagnosing students’ strengths and weaknesses
Reviewing and/or summarizing
Usually questions at upper DOK levels are appropriate for:
Encouraging students to think deeply and critically
Problem solving
Encouraging Discussions
Stimulating students to seek information on their own
From Karen Hess

45. You can ask higher DOK questions
Require students to manipulate prior information
Why do you suppose…?
What can you conclude from the evidence?
Ask students to state an idea or definition in their own words
Ask questions that require a solution to a problem
Involve students in observing and describing an event or object
What do you notice? Tell me about this. What do you see?
Ask students to Compare or contrast
From Karen Hess

46. Reflect on your learning…
Revisit your definition of rigor – has it changed or been refined? How? What DOK Levels would you assign your Ant and Grasshopper Questions? Can you think of questions for the other DOK levels?
What is one way you might apply these ideas to your work?
How might you shift your classroom instructional and assessment practices?
What existing materials could you examine for a range of cognitive rigor?
From Karen Hess *

47. Questions and Thoughts
What questions and thoughts do you still have regarding DOK?
Thank you