Last month, in my article about using the DOK and Bloom's Taxonomy within Balanced Literacy, I tried to provide the technical terms and explanations of each framework. Today I'm sharing a cheat sheet I like to share with colleagues to help them break down DOK and Bloom's learning objectives. I encourage all the literacy specialists and ELA teachers I work with to use this resource when planning out lessons and Shared Reading.

DOK and Bloom's Cheat Sheet:

• Bloom's Taxonomy: focuses on the tasks that students complete to deepen student understanding; the verb

• Webb's DOK: focuses on the thinking process, not just the product; it is about the cognitive demands of instruction, activities or assessments; it extends beyond the verb, beyond the 'what' to the 'how' in order to expand student learning; it is the thinking required not if the task is difficult

The complexity does not necessarily get more challenging as you move through Bloom’s, but the thinking required should ‘extend’ as you move to the higher levels of the DOK.

Here's an example of ‘extending thinking’ using the DOK:

Nonfiction Reading Utilizing the DOK

• DOK 1: Students list a set of questions around a topic they would like to research the answers to.

• DOK 2: Students research the topic and collect information from multiple media sources.  Students explain the information learned to their peers.

• DOK 3: Students draw conclusions about the topic researched. Students expand their thinking through discussion.

• DOK 4: Students decide the best way to present the information learned to show an in-depth understanding. 

I hope my cheat sheet has made the DOK and Bloom's learning objectives a little easier to understand, and that I have inspired you to incorporate them into your lessons. Here is an example of how I use them within Shared Reading and in my Reading Units.

Shared Reading

Shared reading is when students are reading a common text with teacher support. The text is re-read over the course of several days with various teaching points in mind. Fluency is a key focus, as well as, developing higher levels of comprehension. Using the DOK with shared reading helps to support the deepening of comprehension with each repeated reading.

Mrs. Lynch's (My) Chart for Using the DOK with Shared Reading

Reading Units

Questioning strategies can easily be incorporated into almost any reading unit. Many of my unit read alouds’ mentor texts are accompanied with questions based on the DOK and Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. A unit can be specifically developed around questioning and accountable talk (some of my literacy units focus on just the DOK, or only the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy, as well as, a combination of both). Small group work within a unit can focus on questioning and accountable talk. 

Download my DOK and Bloom’s Taxonomy Cheat Sheet and Shared Reading Chart now. These reference charts are a great resource to add to your teaching toolbox!