Bloom's Taxonomy and Poll Everywhere

I had an exciting lesson with the iPads this morning. As a class we read a couple chapters from Keeper in a Socratic Seminar. Then students were given a copy of Bloom’s Taxonomy Question Stems and were asked to create two questions for each of the six categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.

Sampling primarily through the higher order questions (Analysis, Synthesis & Evaluation), I created a short-answer poll on “PollEverywhere” for each exemplar question. The students did a fantastic job with their questions by use of the stems.

Today, every three students were handed an iPad 2 and I gave instructions on the lesson. I projected the polls one question at a time. The groups of three were required to discuss the question for two minutes amongst themselves and to come to some kind of agreement. Once they had an answer to the question students accessed the poll on the iPad by use of Safari. Students typed their free-response answers which were then posted on the poll which was projected by the LCD for all to see.

Because I selected the “colorize” theme on PollEverywhere to display the answers, the collection of responses create a sort of animated “collage” of replies. We then discussed their responses as a class before moving on to the next question/poll.

Some of their questions were, “List three words to describe The Keeper”, “Rewrite the contract so that everyone is happy”, “Create a rhyming verse that describes Gato’s soccer skills,” and “What questions would you have for the recruiters if you were Gato?”

To me, this activity combined Socratic Seminar, Fishbowling, and Chalktalk. The students were highly engaged. I heard classroom talk that consisted of phrases like, “That’s not entirely true…do you remember when Gato said…”, and “Ok, I’ve compiled our ideas…”, and “Remember? The mother had never seen him play before…”, and “Why didn’t Gato speak up when they were making this decision?” Excellent classroom talk.

--Post by Geoff Crosson