1. Writing Lesson Objectives
Using Bloom’s Taxonomy
EDSU533

2. Benjamin Bloom
• Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives
(1956)
• Various types of learning
outcomes within the
cognitive domain
– Objectives could be
classified according to
type of learner behavior
described
– A hierarchical relationship
exists among the various
types of outcomes
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge

3. Bloom’s Learning Domains
• Affective - feelings, emotions and behavior, ie.,
attitude, or 'feel'
– How emotions affect learning
– Emotions, feelings, values, likes, desires
• Behavioral - Psychomotor and Multisensory - manual
and physical skills, ie., skills, or 'do'
– How the movement of the body is involved in
learning
– Actions, physical, doing
• Cognitive - intellectual capability, ie., knowledge, or
'think'
– Learning factual information
– Developing higher-level thinking and analytical
skills
– Thoughts, understanding, conceptual knowledge

4. Bloom’s Taxonomy:
Cognitive Domain in Action
• KNOWLEDGE: define, list, name, memorize
• COMPREHENSION: identify, describe, explain
• APPLICATION: demonstrate, use, show, teach
• ANALYSIS: categorize, compare, calculate
• SYNTHESIS: design, create, prepare, predict
• EVALUATION: judge, assess, rate, revise

5. Thinking Levels
Ask students to demonstrate:
• Knowledge - recall information in original
form
• Comprehension - show understanding
• Application - use learning in a new
situation
• Analysis - show s/he can see
relationships
• Synthesis - combine and integrate parts
of prior knowledge into a product, plan,
or proposal that is new
• Evaluation - assess and criticize on basis
of standards and criteria

6. Remembering
Understanding
Applying
Analyzing
Evaluating
Creating
• Creating – designing, constructing, planning,
producing, inventing, devising, making
• Evaluating – checking, hypothesizing,
critiquing, experimenting, judging, testing,
detecting, monitoring
• Analyzing – comparing, organizing,
deconstructing, attributing, outlining, finding,
structuring, integrating
• Applying – implementing, carrying out, using,
executing
• Understanding – interpreting, summarizing,
inferring, paraphrasing, classifying,
comparing, explaining, exemplifying
• Remembering – recognizing, listing,
describing, identifying, retrieving, naming,
locating, finding
http://uwf.edu/cutla/assessstudent.cfm
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

7. Blooming Questions
• Knowledge or Remembering –
Recalling Information
– Where – What – Who – How many –
• Comprehension or Understanding –
– Tell me in your own words – What does
it mean?
– Give me an example, describe,
illustrate
• Application – Using learning in a
new situation
– What would happen if…? Would you
have done the same…? How would
you solve this problem?
– In the library, locate and report
information about….

8. Framing Essential Questions
Essential Questions at the top of
Bloom’s Taxonomy
– Create - innovate
– Evaluate – make a thoughtful
choice between options, with the
choice based on a clearly stated
criteria
– Synthesize – invent a new or
different version
– Analyze – develop a thorough
and complex understanding
through skillful questioning.

9. Highest Levels of Questioning
• Evaluation and Synthesis
• Judgment based on Criteria
• Literature
– Would you recommend this book –
WHY or WHY not?
– Select the best – WHY?
– Which person in history would you
most like to meet – and WHY?
– Is the quality good or bad? WHY?
– Could this story have happened?
WHY?
• Creating at top of revised Bloom’s
Taxonomy - Innovation

10. More Blooming Questions
• Analysis – Ability to see
parts/relationships
– What other ways…? Similar/Different
(Venn)
– Interpretation – What kind of person…?
What caused the person to react in this
way…? What part was most exciting,
sad…?
• Synthesis – Parts of information to
create original whole
– What would it be like if…? Design,
pretend, use your imagination, write a
new ending…

11. Writing Lesson Objectives Using
Bloom’s Taxonomy
The ideal learning objective has 3
parts:
1.A measurable action verb
2.The important condition (if any)
under which the performance is
to occur
3.The criterion of acceptable
performance

12. Components of a Lesson Objective
• Avoid terms that cannot be
clearly understood by the reader.
• Communicate an objective as
clearly as possible.
• Describe intended instructional
result by describing the purpose
of the instruction.
• Exclude the greatest number of
possible meanings other than the
one intended.

13. ABCD's of Learning Objectives
• Audience
– The learners:
– Identify who it is that will be doing the performance (not the
instructor)
• Behavior (Performance):
– What the learner will be able to do
– Make sure it is something that can be seen or heard
• Condition
– The conditions under which the learners must demonstrate
their mastery of the objective:
– What will the learners be allowed to use? What won't the
learners be allowed to use?
• Degree (or criterion)
– HOW WELL the behavior must be done

14. What do you want your students to learn
as a result of this lesson?
Three-step process below for creating defining learning objectives.
1. Create a stem
– After completing the lesson, the student will be able to . . .
– After this unit, the student will have . . .
– By completing the activities, the student will . . .
– At the conclusion of the course/unit/study the student will . . .
1. After you create the stem, add an action verb: analyze,
recognize, compare, provide, list, etc.
2. One you have a stem and a verb, determine the actual product,
process, or outcome: After completing these lesson, the student
will be able to…….
– create Venn Diagrams which compare and contrast . . .
– demonstrate learning by producing a ……
– solve a numerical expression using…..(the standard order of
operations, etc.)
http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/LP/LP_resources/lesson_objectives.htm

15. • Refer to explicit rather than vague behaviors
– Asking students to "grasp the significance," or
"appreciate" something will only lead to
confusion. Using more explicit behaviors such as
"identify," or "sort," will clarify the performance
expected of students.
• Table on next slide lists:
– explicit behaviors representative of different levels
of cognition or thinking
– common products or outcomes of those
behaviors
How to Write Goals for Specific Behaviors
Virginia Tech - http://www.edtech.vt.edu/edtech/id/assess/behavior.html

16. Know
Remember
Comprehend
Understand
Use
Apply
Analyze
Take Apart
Synthesize
Create New
Evaluate
Judge
Behaviors:
Action Verbs
name
memorize
record
list
match
write
state
repeat
describe
discuss
give examples
locate
tell
find
report
predict
review
recognize
estimate
translate
practice
illustrate
sketch
solve
show
employ
sort
classify
distinguish
experiment
compare
contrast
diagram
debate
solve
examine
inventory
design
plan
propose
arrange
assemble
develop
produce
organize
manage
revise
rate
value
appraise
decide
choose
score
select
assess
debate
recommend
Products:
Outcomes
Assignments
Assessments
Presentations
Experiments
Performances
facts
events
models
filmstrips
books
puzzles
stories
games
journals
illustrations
drawings
maps
sculptures
diorama
scrapbook
mobile
collections
diagrams
graphs
surveys
questionnaires
reports
objects
news
articles
poems
machines
songs
plays
hypotheses
polls
panels
recommendations
discussions
simulations
evaluations
surveys
Bloom’s Original Taxonomy with
Action Verbs and Products
Virginia Tech - http://www.edtech.vt.edu/edtech/id/assess/behavior.html

17. How will you measure learning outcomes?
• What will students say or do to
show you objectives were met?
• What will you collect to show
student’s learning (portfolios,
observations, work samples,
photographs, etc.)
• How will you evaluate student
work?
• How will you grade the
student?

18. Understanding by Design:
Theory of Backwards Design
• Desired Results: What will
the student learn?
• Acceptable Evidence:
How will you design an
assessment that
accurately determines if
the student learned what
he/she was supposed to
learn?
• Lesson Planning: How do
you design a lesson that
results in student learning?
Identify
desired results
Determine
acceptable
evidence
Plan learning
experiences
and
instruction

19. Theory of Backwards Design
• Understanding by Design:
Wiggins & McTighe
• What are the big ideas?
• Core concepts
• Focusing themes
• On-going debates/issues
• Insightful perspectives
• Illuminating
paradox/problem
• Organizing theory
• Overarching principle
• Underlying assumption
• What’s the evidence?
• How do we get there?
Enduring
Understandin
g

20. Will this lesson lead to enduring
understanding?
Worth being familiar with
Important to know and do
Enduring
Understanding

21. Assessment: How do you measure
what students have learned?
• Traditional quizzes
and tests
– Paper/pencil
• Selected response
• Constructed response
• Performance tasks
and projects
– Open-ended
– Complex
– Authentic
Worth being familiar with
Important to know and do
Enduring
Understanding
Understanding by Design

22. Rubrics and Checklists for
Alternative Performance Assessment
• Rubric - a scoring guide for
evaluating student performance
• Allows for a variety of criteria or
categories to be evaluated on a
sliding rating scale (not subject to
one final percentage score as in
testing)
• A way to measure real-life,
authentic learning experiences in
the classroom
• Provides a guide for students in
determining expectations of
assignments
• Shows students and parents how
the teacher is judging student
performance

23. How will you use the results of your
assessment to plan your next lesson?
• How will your assessment guide your teaching
practice?
• What needs to be "re-taught" and how can you
teach it differently when assessment
demonstrates that some students did not learn
the material? Is there a better way to teach this
material?
• What will you do differently next time?
• How could you extend this activity for another
lesson?
• Was your instruction effective in promoting
student learning?
Reflective Practitioner