Bloom’s balls!

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You might think in a secondary classroom there is no room for such ‚primary school crafts’, which require the actual, not digital (!) cutting and pasting. Wrong! Students of all ages and levels should be encouraged to get creative and use all their senses and body to construct knowledge:) It is useful and fun:) 

My students recently applied and practised lower and higher order thinking skills described by Bloom in his taxonomy (LOTs and HOTs). 

The ‘Bloom’s Balls they created was a project to wrap up our reading of ‘The Giver’ by Luis Lowry (highly recommended for teenage groups, btw!).

The students were given a selection of tasks labelled with the six tiers of Bloom’s taxonomy, and a template with pentagons to cut and paste:) You can find the template below- it is a picture, you might want to manipulate with its size to fit the page:) 

Their job was to choose 2 tasks from each category, and complete them on their ‚ball’. The tasks were diverse, with different levels of difficulty and creativity, which was much appreciated by the students, as they could stick to the safe options (eg. creating a crossword)  or explore new activity ideas (eg. creating a playlist for a chapter). 

In class, they worked in pairs or groups of three and shared their experience with the project-what was most enjoyable, what was most challenging etc, as well as admired the job of others, asking them questions and following the QR codes that led them to a short story, a comic strip etc. 

Lots of fun, lots of talking, lots of learning-highly recommended!

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY:

THE TASKS:

1. Knowledge: (recalling information)

- Match character names with an illustration of the character

- Identify the main characters in a crossword puzzle

- List 10 good vocabulary words from the book and put them into a crossword puzzle

- Match characters with quotes from the novel

- Create a WANTED poster for one of the characters

- Explain what problems one of the characters has and how he or she solves it

 

2. Comprehension: (demonstrating basic understanding)  

- Explain selected parts or quotes from the story in his/her own words

- Draw a cartoon illustrating a major event from the novel

- Predict what could happen next in a sequel to the novel

- Construct an illustrated timeline of major events from the novel

- Explain how the main character felt at the beginning, middle and end of the novel.

 

Application :  (using information from the story in a new way) 

- Classify the main characters as static or dynamic and explain why

- Write a paragraph summary of how the story would change if the novel was transformed to a different setting

- Create a list of songs one of the main character would include on a “mix tape”

- Think of a situation that occurred in the story and write about how he/she should have handled the situation differently

- Give examples of people, real or fictional, the student knows who have similar problems as the characters in the story

- Write a letter to a friend recommending the book

- Make a map of the important places in the novel

 

Analysis: (parts of the story examined to deepen understanding of the whole) 

- Distinguish what could happen from what could not happen in the story in real life

- Select parts of the novel that were funniest, saddest and most unbelievable

- Compare and/or contrast two of the main characters or events in the novel

- Select an action of a main character that was exactly the same as something the student would have done

- Select one word that describes a character in the book well, and in a paragraph, provide at least five reasons for your choice.

 

Synthesis: (putting parts of the story together in a new way to form a new idea or ‘product’)

- Write three new titles for the novel that would give a good idea what it is about.

- Create a poster to advertise the novel so people would want to read it

- Create advertisements for products that people in the novel would use

- Restructure the roles of the main characters and explain how the restructuring would affect the outcome of the story

- Compose an original dialogue or monologue that communicates the thoughts of the main character in a given part of the story

- Write a diary account of daily thoughts and activities as if the student is one of the main characters in the story

- Write a poem about the novel

- Organize this book into three or more sections and provide subtitles and section explanations for each section

- Write the lyrics and/or music to a song that one of the main characters would sing if he/she became a rock star

 

Evaluation: (forming and presenting an opinion backed with some reasoning)

- Decide and defend which character in the novel he/she would most like to spend a day with and why

- Decide who the author intended to read this book and explain why

- Judge whether or not character should have acted in a particular way and why

- Decide if the events of the novel could have happened and justify the decision

- Consider and explain how the story can or did help the student in his/her own life

- Appraise the value of the story

- Compare the novel to another the student has read

- Write a recommendation as to why the book should be read by teenagers or all of society or not

- In the event of a disaster, decide and defend which character from the book would the student save