to use that skill in a real-life situation. It will take multiple steps to arrive at a solution. You will need to determine how you will find your final answer and carry out a plan to do so. It will take perseverance.
Applying a Process
Using a process or cycle, explained in chapter 5 (page 63), to identify questions supports a purposeful approach to developing questions for the classroom (Fusco, 2012). These processes focus all questions on the goals of the lesson by planning the core questions in advance. How will you present the questions and acknowledge them? That is another point of planning. An atmosphere of respect and openness that builds levels of trust in the classroom supports the process. Chapter 7 (page 83) explains how to create that culture. Process options and crucial components appear in chapter 4 (page 51).
Without applying careful thought to planning and posing questions, the result can be ineffective. An approach that includes preplanning questions to ensure addressed standards and content will bring a positive result. Preplanning questions help provide a balance that ensures higher-order thinking questions. Follow questions designed to solicit responses that prove students have the factual understanding needed with questions that inspire thought. For example, during a science unit on weather, younger students will learn a bit about temperature and seasons, but they also need to understand how weather impacts them, what they wear, and the activities they might be able to engage in outside. Preplanning questions cause a systematic approach to accomplishing the lesson’s goals. They reveal confidence that students will reach the level of understanding required to succeed with lesson content. One way to make certain that questions promote in-depth critical thinking is to use a structure to level questions, using a taxonomy. Structures associated with classroom practice also support positive, productive, and engaging classroom conversations (Fisher & Frey, 2007).
In Summary
Student success is our end goal, not only for the short time students are with us but in their postschool lives. We want students to think, learn, and grow. That learning may appear in classroom performance, standardized assessments, or postsecondary success. Asking rich questions in the classroom will encourage thought and promote understanding. We support perseverance, engagement, and communication skills through the use of high-quality questioning strategies. Forethought and preplanning questions provide a foundation that supports effective teaching.
CHAPTER 2
Deconstructing Higher-Order Thinking Skills
Higher-order thinking skills can set the stage for more detailed conversations about questioning strategies. Higher-order thinking skills enable students to apply knowledge and skills in a variety of unique situations. Students are engaged in processes often requiring real-world applications. Tasks teachers develop to support these skills often have multiple solutions and multiple paths to correct solutions. To fully engage in situations that require this level of interaction with content, students need foundational background information (King, Goodson, & Rohani, n.d.). As teachers introduce content, they should consider the response to three questions: (1) What background knowledge and vocabulary are necessary for students to better understand the next unit? (2) Can connections be made with what is about to be learned to what students already know? and (3) What real-world connections can be made to relate the content and concepts to their purpose and importance outside of school? As content is introduced, regularly incorporate responses to these three questions. Chapter 4 discusses background knowledge in more detail.
Building a foundation for students can require the use of lower-order skills like recall, as is explained in Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) framework (Webb, 1997, 1999). The key is to not stop there. When students demonstrate comprehension, they need to move beyond and be given ample opportunity to demonstrate understanding using methods unfamiliar to them. Application of higher-order thinking skills requires instruction, practice, and repetition. Multiple opportunities to employ these skills support and extend the ability of students to experience success (Brookhart, 2014).
You can design tasks that build these skills. This chapter offers Bloom’s taxonomy and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, which help you promote higher-order thinking through task design, followed by a template to help you formulate those tasks. How will you know students are engaged in higher-order thinking when they tackle those tasks? This chapter tells you the indicators to look for. Bloom’s taxonomy provides a structure with which to evaluate the sophistication of the work students are being asked to perform. Webb’s Depth of Knowledge assists in understanding the cognitive complexity of the standards and the task intended to measure the standards.
Building Higher-Order Thinking Skills With Tasks
Meaningful tasks promote higher levels of thinking. Authentic, performance-based assessments provide a structure for students to intellectually engage with the content. These tasks characteristically:
• Involve the learner’s skills, imagination, and originality
• Require students to use skills that will prepare them for life
• Remain rooted in realism
• Have a clear purpose that extends beyond the classroom
• Increase cognitive engagement
Good tasks are most often associated with real-world problems, which help students associate classroom skills with their purpose in life. Students recognize that they can transfer skills to uses beyond the classroom, and that gives them a purpose beyond a request of the teacher (Burke, 2009). For example, at some point in mathematics, students learn to use formulas to find the areas of a square, rectangle, and triangle. A task provides real-world experience if students have to find the area of a nontraditional shape—the area of an oddly shaped room, or a spot on the playground or parking lot, for example. This requires students to use their knowledge of area and apply it to the real world, applying formulas they know to solve an unknown.
When developing a higher-order thinking skills task, consider the following steps.
1. Identify the standards and content to address.
2. Determine ways in which the standards and content are applicable to a real-world situation.
3. Create a scenario that will engage the students in a task that requires them to apply their knowledge and skills to a new and unique situation. One effective way to create the task is to determine a situation in which students can apply the skills, state the situation, and create the need for student involvement. Flexibility in the methods that students use to complete the task will provide more opportunity for the use of higher-order thinking skills.
4. Determine the task requirements. Specifically, decide what students need to accomplish in order to successfully complete the task.
5. Identify the task evaluation criteria and the tool. Establish the characteristics that should be evident within a successful performance.
The following section provides a template that facilitates task design.
Using a Template to Design Tasks
The template in figure 2.1 can assist when you are designing tasks. Template completion requires the following information.
