Academically Gifted--Higher Order Thinking Skills
One of the best ways we can help our students is by developing higher level thinking skills. Using critical and creative thinking is essential to in-depth analysis and problem solving. It is emphasized in the students’ regular classroom, as well as in the AG classroom. These higher level thinking skills would be beneficial to use with your child when doing homework, reading together, problem solving, and in general discussions.
Blooms Taxonomy
Benjamin Bloom developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior in learning. In the revised version, there are six identified levels.
HELP YOUR CHILD TO REACH HIGH!!!
Want to help your kids reach higher and grow more, academically? Try some higher level questioning… Bloom’s Taxonomy are levels of thinking with six major categories. The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulty, starting from the first two being the simplest behaviors to the last four as the most complex. We try to base a great deal of our questioning on the last four… Try it after your child reads a book, studies a concept, watches a television show or movie, or goes to a museum or play.
Remember = Retrieve relevant knowledge. Who is the character? How would you explain…?
Understand = Make meaning from messages and information. What’s the main idea of…? Summarize… Find an example of…
Apply = Carry out or use a procedure in a given situation. How would you use…? What would the result be if..?
Analyze = Separate a whole into parts and determine their relationship. What is the theme of…? How would you categorize…? Compare/Contrast..
Evaluate = Make judgments based on criteria and standards. Which is more important…? Judge the best way to…?
Create = Combine elements or ideas to form a new whole. Create a new… How could you improve… ? What would happen if ?
North Carolina Thinking Skills
The North Carolina Thinking Skills represent different ways of processing information, ideas, and text. By engaging students in thinking about and interacting with text(s) at the different levels, teachers help students build a foundation for continued growth in comprehension and critical analysis of text. The link below gives examples of question stems and verbs that can be used for each level of thinking. “Knowing” is the lowest level of thinking and “Evaluating” is the highest.
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/thinkingskills0403
