DIFFERENTIATION

- by task design

Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy to

unit task design

Bloom’s taxonomy = a spectrum of task difficulty,

going from easy, MASTERY tasks such as recalling knowledge, to harder, DEVELOPMENTAL tasks such as evaluating an argument.

Applying the full spectrum of Bloom’s Taxonomy to planning and teaching allows it to be used as a ladder, potentially allowing all students to climb to success.

Tasks

‘Tasks’ include everything you ask students to do: verbal question and answer, tasks set in a lesson, large assignments or projects, and relates to work done both inside and outside of class.

In order to differentiate there should be a mix of mastery tasks and developmental tasks...

Mastery tasks

= tasks which can be mastered by all

learners in a short period of time

regardless of their prior learning.

Allows weaker learners to succeed:

without such success they may well give

up.

Examples of mastery tasks

Name the main characters involved in a particular historical event / period

Copy and label a diagram of a battery cell

Express one figure as a percentage of another using (A/B) x 100

Recall the main events of the plot of a novel

Recognise and name the main parts of a simple cell

Characteristics of mastery tasks

Easy, typically involving only knowledge and comprehension

Are not dependent on prior learning

Can be attained in a short time, possibly minutes

100% of students should be able to get them 100% correct

They are time rather than ability dependent. This allows weaker students to enjoy success, reinforcement, self belief, and motivation.

Developmental tasks

= tasks which stretch more able students,

and develop skills required for academic

success and the world of work. Such tasks

develop the skills required for progressing

to the next educational level. They also

create ‘deep learning’, i.e. real

understanding.

Examples of developmental tasks

Write a clear, scientifically argued, laboratory report...

Evaluate the importance of high employment in society X

How did the early life of Gandhi influence his political thinking?

Survey leisure opportunities in your town, and report on your findings

In what ways and to what extent is ‘power’ an important theme of novel X?

Characteristics of developmental

tasks

More difficult

Highly dependent on prior learning

Students can’t get 100%. Development is slow and requires considerable effort

Involve higher order skills such as evaluation, synthesis, etc

Developmental tasks can maximise individual development and stretch more able students. Continuous development rather than complete mastery is expected.

Using only the bottom end of

Bloom’s Taxonomy

The flit stretted the blegdal. Stellbilly, the blegdal crated back. It drupped on the crenkle, and frellatted trenkfully.

1. What did the flit do?

2. How did the blegdal crate back?

3. What it do next, and how did it feel at the

end?

Does a student need to understand material in order to answer low

level questions directly related to text which is given to them?

Using only the bottom end of

Bloom’s Taxonomy

The flit stretted the blegdal. Stellbilly, the blegdal crated back. It drupped on the crenkle, and frellatted trenkfully.

4. Was the flit right to stret the blegdal?

5. How effective was the blegdal’s response?

Questions 1 – 3 – at the bottom of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Questions 4 – 5 – at the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Moral of story: tasks at the bottom of Bloom’s taxonomy can

create just ‘surface learning’ without understanding.

How to use Bloom’s Taxonomy

Knowledge tasks are fine to start with,

and may be very necessary, but if

students then stay only at the knowledge

level, little ‘deep learning’ and

understanding will result.

Deep learning and understanding require

higher order tasks than knowledge.

Understanding A survey once revealed that 80% of a sample of

12 year olds could correctly divide 225 by 15.

But only 40% could solve the problem:

If a gardener has 225 flower bulbs to place

equally in 15 flower beds, how many would be in

each bed?

Knowledge was needed for the first task. But

understanding was additionally needed for the

second – most of the students who failed on the

second task did not know which mathematical

operation to apply to the problem.

Using Mastery and

Developmental Tasks

Difficult Developmental tasks can be broken down into introductory mastery tasks, followed by a simpler developmental task. The mastery tasks should prepare the student for the developmental task.

In this way Bloom’s Taxonomy can be used as a ladder allowing all students to climb to success.

Using Mastery and

Developmental Tasks Take for example: “Survey leisure time opportunities in your nearest city, and report on

your findings”

This is a developmental task, but could be broken down into a ladder of tasks such as:

List ten or more leisure time activities which are available in your nearest city

Find sources of information on other leisure time activities such as local papers and Tourist Information Offices

Make a fuller list of leisure opportunities in your city.

Group these opportunities into general categories such as sport, music, theatre etc. You will need to make up some new general categories.

Group the opportunities by the age of those most likely to be interested in them

Group your activities by geographical area, and by cost.

Think of some other useful ways of grouping the activities.

Use the above to help you plan a report on leisure activities in Worcester. Your plan could either be a mind-map, or an ordered set of headings.

Write a report on your survey of leisure time opportunities in your nearest city.

Proof read your report before handing it in.

Using Mastery and

Developmental Tasks

An extended writing task can be turned

into a ladder of tasks, with mastery tasks

being chosen to lead the way to the writing

of the essay.

Such assignments can

allow students without

effective essay writing

skills to succeed.

Writing frames

Differentiation allows the difficult task of

writing extended pieces of work to be

broken down, to give students a ‘ladder’

up this high order skill.

One way of breaking down writing is

through the use of writing frames.

Graphic organisers

Also useful are

graphic

organisers,

helping students

to organise and

process

information.

Using Bloom’s taxonomy

Please have a look at a unit plan, and see if there is any developmental task which might be broken down into a series of ‘mastery’ tasks to provide a ‘ladder’ for weaker students to climb to better success in that task.

Or if students need to be stretched further by ‘developmental’ tasks.

The Bloom’s Taxonomy handout contains a useful list of activities relating to each level on the spectrum.

Writing frames / Graphic organisers

Please have a look at the examples of

writing frames / graphic organisers, and

note down which might be useful to use for

tasks in your subject, both generally and

for specific tasks you have in mind.

If time, choose a task and adapt /

construct a writing frame / graphic

organiser for students to use with this.

Thank you! Many thanks,

as ever, for

your attention

and patience!

Have a nice

holiday!