I’m not sure what first brought Carlin’s “Baseball and Football” to my attention, but it made the perfect assessment for my Bloom’s Taxonomy unit.
I taught Bloom’s Taxonomy as an introduction to my class. My students understood that they would end up with better grades if they understood how I think, and since I use it, they should know it. After a couple days of instruction and practice, it was time to see what they knew.
I showed the clip once just for familiarity (and enjoyment). Then I gave students their assessment question:
In preparing and presenting his monologue, Carlin used all six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Give an example of each one.
Then I showed the clip another 3 or 4 times until students were confident they’d seen it enough.
The unit was a challenge, because students were learning a different way to analyze, and because they were learning it quickly. My assessment was admittedly not easy. So students were always relieved the next day when I started class by saying, “If you have 4 correct answers, be proud” and even more so when I continued, “And by the way, they are all extra credit points, so even if you only have 1 point, it’s an extra credit point.”
We followed up throughout the semester: “What level of the taxonomy does this question address?” and “character description vs. character analysis – according to Bloom, how are they different?” By the end of the semester, they understood where their thinking needed to go.
Would I use Carlin again? You bet!
I’m participating in Kelly Hines’ Blogging Challenge. This is Day Nine.