Supporting DoK (and Bloom’s)

If you have read any of my earlier posts on Bloom’s and DoK you know by now that I have long since filed Bloom’s taxonomy under the section in my brain as antiquated. Long since replaced along side some other education strong holds such as;

• Differentiation (replaced with Entry Point into Learning)
• Rigor (replaced with Stamina)
• Aim (replaced with Learning Objective)
• Questioning (replaced with Scaffolding)

The irony of these changes is that regardless of the word or phrase the goal is the same – in some way, shape, or form – supporting students in learning. Which is why it could be very easy for someone to argue that DoK is just a new way of presenting Bloom’s Taxonomy. Its just a new circle, with less words, the goal the same to take kids from the lowest level and bring them to the highest. In the case of Bloom’s its to move from the bottom of the famous triangle to the little section on the top. While in DoK it’s moving from one side of the circle all the way around to the other side, again moving students from the basic to the advanced. And while I could spend hours and write paragraph upon paragraph on why I push my teachers to support instruction through the lens of DoK rather then Bloom’s, I rather post documents and resources that support teachers in the transition and or implementation of Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, especially when they hear their supervisor ramble on and on or quickly mention that the school is not going to use ” this wheel” instead of “that wheel.”

So to that end and without further ado – some DoK resources (which I find are not as abundant on the web as material to support Bloom’s)

Hess’s Cognitive Rigor Matrixes - The matrixes (which are subject specific are a great tool to support lesson planning and development when implementing DoK)

• Hess’s Cognitive Rigor Matrix for Reading and Writing
• Hess’s Cognitive Rigor Matrix for Math and Science

DoK Descriptors - Descriptors for subject areas outside of the ones on the Matrix (though I am including a descriptor for writing that is too good to ignore.)

• DoK Descriptors for Social Studies (discovered on http://www.stancoe.org/)
• DoK Descriptors for the Arts (discovered on http://www.stancoe.org/)
• DoK Descriptors for Writing (discovered on http://pcs5thgrade.pbworks.http://commoncore.lacoe.edu/com/)
• DoK Descriptors for Technology (discovered on http://commoncore.lacoe.edu/)
• Depth of Knowledge Descriptors All Subjects (this was also a nice overview of DoK for all subjects and was discovered on http://www.risd.k12.nm.us/)

Blooms and DoK (side-by-side) and more - this is a great visual to support transition from Blooms to DoK (from the website Stancoe.org)

• Blooms vs. DoK
• DoK Question Stems
• DoK Chart
• DoK Overview Chart
• DoK Question Stems

Visual Supports - while I am sure there are many video’s this one is easy to follow and to the point

NYC DOE’s website has a lot of great resources beyond this video on implementing DoK

One of the best quotes that I keep seeing over and over about DoK is that DoK is not a “target” its the “ceiling.” As educators, we want to push all our kids to reach the ceiling, not just aim for a target. By doing so every moment becomes a teachable one and every moment becomes great.