Bloom's Taxonomy

As we watch our children grow and learn, how can we, as parents and teachers, help direct our children to the next step in learning?

One helpful tool to help us think about the steps in learning is Bloom's Taxonomy. Benjamin Bloom in 1956 described six levels of questioning that reflect a person's mastery of learning new material. In the 1990's a student of Bloom, Lorin Anderson, revised the original six category names, changing nouns into verbs to reflect a sense of action versus a state of being. I'll use both terms.

Knowledge/Remembering is the first level of mastery. To get feedback on whether a student has attained certain knowledge, we can ask questions that request the student to list, define, tell, describe, show, collect or name.

Comprehension/Understanding questions focus on whether new information is incorporated into previous learning. Requests in this category might include asking the student to summarize, describe, contrast, predict, estimate or discuss to help us evaluate a student's understanding.

Application/Applying refers to being able to make use of newly acquired information. Requests take the form of asking the student to demonstrate, calculate, illustrate and solve, among others.

Analysis/Analyzing questions explore a person's knowledge in terms of being able to see patterns, to find hidden meanings or to organize parts. Questions ask the person to explain, arrange, compose or infer in order to determine understanding.

Evaluation/Evaluating requests require the student to make choices based on reason, theories or evidence. The student is asked to decide, rank, convince, compare or explain an idea.

Synthesis/Creating questioning requires the student to draw on knowledge from several areas, make predictions, draw conclusions or create fresh ideas from old ideas. The student is asked to combine, plan, design, invent or prepare in order to demonstrate a facility with new learning.

What does this mean for our work with our children?

Too many times learning expectations get stuck in the lower levels of remembering and understanding. For many subjects this is enough. Applying, analyzing, evaluation and creating, especially when we can use the hands to create, are steps that make learning fun and exciting and, in the long run, have more "stickiness" in the mind. For optimum learning, our children need time and experiences that allow them to test and develop their knowledge and understanding.

Let's look at requests for evaluating student learning using the categories in Bloom's taxonomy. The lesson is about learning to make a pizza.

Remembering request. Examine this recipe for pizza and list the ingredients needed, preparation time and oven temperatures.

Understanding. Predict what would happen if you left out one ingredient of the recipe. Make a prediction for each of the six ingredients in the following recipe.

Applying. If you forgot to put yeast in your pizza dough, what might you do to save the dough?

Analyzing. Explain the role that yeast plays in the creation of pizza crust.

Evaluating. What do you consider the most important ingredient in making a pizza? Why? (Note: This is a subjective question to see how a student might use reason.)

Creating. What would you predict would happen if a pizza were baked at 350 degrees? 250 degrees? 450 degrees? Explain how knowing math might be important in making a pizza. Design your own pizza recipe.

In all this questioning, I hope you might feel that having our students make a pizza or two might be a vital learning task. Hands-on experiences aid learning and create opportunities to integrate and incorporate all of Bloom's categories of discovering a student's level of experience and knowledge.

We need to remember that the reason to ask our children a bunch of questions (a test!) is to understand how to help in the next step of learning. We need to help involve their hands and minds in meaningful experiences to create deep and personal learning at all levels.

Next week: The Marshmallow Test



About Kids Talk™

Kids Talk™ is an award-winning newspaper column dealing with early childhood development issues written by Maren Stark Schmidt. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. She is also Creative Director for a video-based reading series for children ages three to six, The Shining Light Reading Series. Contact her via e-mail.

Ask your local newspaper to carry Kids Talk. Call, write or e-mail your local newspaper editor and recommend Kids Talk.

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Complete Collection of the Shining Light Reading Series Now Available on DVD
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About Maren Schmidt
Maren Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland. She is author of Understanding Montessori: A Guide for Parents.

©2010 KIDS TALK™
25877 East Bright Avenue
Welches, OR 97067
503.550.3143
E-mail Maren

Kids Talk is published in conjunction with Scribe Marketing

Five Hindrances to Enlightenment

Last week's column discussed how seven factors in Zen Buddhist teachings might be seen as road signs to happy and healthy human development. These seven factors are universal virtues that are found in most cultures of the world, in different words and contexts, but there all the same. Mindfulness. Investigation. Energy. Joy. Tranquility. Concentration. Equanimity.

You don't have to be a practicing Buddhist to see the common sense in these seven qualities. We might compare these seven factors to the five Jesuit characteristics of being loving, religious, open to growth, intellectually competent, and committed to doing justice.

The Zen Buddhists also have a list of the five obstacles to enlightenment: sensual desire, anger or ill will, sloth-torpor, restlessness-worry, and doubt. Perhaps we ignore these qualities at our peril. These impediments have their equivalents in other cultures so they might not seem unfamiliar, and might be compared with the seven deadly sins-lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.

Sensual desire. How our cravings for pleasure can disrupt the best laid plans. It's easier to sit in front of the TV eating a bowl of ice cream than to take a half hour walk.

Anger or ill will. When we direct our energy towards others in anger or revenge, normal development takes a detour, and we can arrive at places that aren't wholesome at all. Anger takes away our ability to concentrate, be peaceful and feel joy. Anger and revenge are big obstacles to a life lived well.

Sloth-torpor. These are words that we rarely hear or see in today's world, but their effects are all around us. Sloth refers to not working or exerting yourself, a laziness of the mind and body. Torpor is a state of senseless physical and mental activity. Sloth and torpor stand in the way of the development of any true growth, universal virtues included.

Restlessness-worry. If we are restless we can't focus our energies on the tasks at hand. Our mind and our body cannot work together effectively, and our energies are dissipated, our peace and resiliency are diluted, and joy is lost. Worrying about things we have no control over keeps us from exercising control over the things on which we can use the seven factors. When we cannot calm our minds, we find it difficult to move forward in life.

Doubt. If we don't trust our own abilities or the skills of others we create an obstacle to development. To progress through life, we need to have a conviction of our own worth and the value of others. Doubt creates a lack of respect for others. For the work with our children, doubt can destroy the vital link of trust between adult and child.

Virtues and vices. We have time-tested indicators to help us live a happy life, along with warnings of behaviors that can create disruptions in our journey.
Use universal virtues and character strengths to guide yourself and your children toward a life of meaningful activity and relationships.

Next week: Bloom's taxonomy

About Kids Talk™

Kids Talk™ is an award-winning newspaper column dealing with early childhood development issues written by Maren Stark Schmidt. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. She is also Creative Director for a video-based reading series for children ages three to six, The Shining Light Reading Series. Contact her via e-mail.

Ask your local newspaper to carry Kids Talk. Call, write or e-mail your local newspaper editor and recommend Kids Talk.

Would you like to send Kids Talk to friends and family or receive Kids Talk e-mail updates in your own inbox?

Sign up for FREE here:
Click here for a FREE subscription.

Complete Collection of the Shining Light Reading Series Now Available on DVD
Visit www.shininglightreading.com for more information.

About Maren Schmidt
Maren Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland. She is author of Understanding Montessori: A Guide for Parents.

©2010 KIDS TALK™
25877 East Bright Avenue
Welches, OR 97067
503.550.3143
E-mail Maren

Kids Talk is published in conjunction with Scribe Marketing

Seven Factors of Enlightenment

Zen Buddhist monks might be the last people you'd think would clown around. Laughing, though, is an expression of joy, and joy is one of the seven factors of enlightenment. Reading an article about a Zen Buddhist monk who teaches students to smile, laugh, and tell jokes made me curious about the other six factors to enlightenment, since joyful activity is one sign of on-track human development.

There are four main observable signs of happy and healthy human development.

• Love of meaningful activities,
• Ability to concentrate on an activity,
• Self-discipline to carry out a chosen activity, and
• Joyful work seen as sociability and cooperation with others.

Could there be a link between the seven factors of enlightenment described in Zen Buddhism and natural human development?

Mindfulness. When I think of mindfulness, I think about being fully engaged in the moment in an activity that you have chosen. The three-year-old on a tricycle to a fly fisherman casting in a stream captures the beauty of a human being totally in the moment and mindful of the task at hand.

Investigation. Curiosity starts us on a path of investigating and learning about the world around us. As we investigate, we discover new things. This discovery starts us on a path of learning as we gain knowledge and pleasure from our new pursuits. Pleasure feeds the desire to repeat the experience. Repetition deepens learning and creates skills. The ability to do an activity successfully develops self-confidence, which builds self-esteem. This, in turn, creates a sense of security. Self-confidence, self-esteem, and security allow us to begin to investigate again, and begin a new cycle of discovery and learning.

Energy or courageous effort. We can't really expect to grow unless we put some energy into the effort and put our heart into it. We have to exert effort to become mindful. We have to try to be curious. We have to work to be happy. A Zen proverb says it well: ''There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.''

Joy. When we investigate the world around us, and learn skills that put us in the moment, joy is a by-product. We share this joy with others with smiles and laughter, cooperation, and a desire to share what we have learned with others.

Tranquility. As we are energetically involved in mindful, investigative activities with joy, a sense of peace comes over us. It is like being on an island of calm as the hurricane roars round you. Time seems to dissolve, and there is nothing you have to do except do what you are doing and be who you are being.

Concentration. As we develop a mindful cycle of learning, our mind and our will strengthen with every activity. Concentration allows us to develop self-discipline, a sign of healthy development.

Equanimity. Equanimity is a steady, calm state of mind no matter what the stresses. Equanimity connotes a sense of calmness no matter the circumstances, along with a resiliency to whatever happens in life. The development of equanimity requires the everyday practice of deep concentration and self-discipline.

The seven factors of enlightenment? Perhaps they are road signs to help us stay on the path of happy and healthy human development.

Next week: Five Hindrances to Enlightenment

Kids Talk™ is a column dealing with early childhood development issues written by Maren Stark Schmidt. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. She is also Creative Director for a video-based reading series for children ages three to six, The Shining Light Reading Series. Contact her via e-mail at maren@shininglightreading.com.

Complete Collection of the Shining Light Reading Series Now Available on DVD
Visit www.shininglightreading.com for more information.

Ask your local newspaper to carry Kids Talk. Call, write or e-mail your local newspaper editor and recommend Kids Talk.

Would you like to send Kids Talk to friends and family or receive Kids Talk e-mail updates in your own inbox? Sign up for FREE here:
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©2010 KIDS TALK™
25877 East Bright Avenue
Welches, OR 97067
503.622.6750
503.550.3143
maren@kidstalknews.com

Kids Talk is published in conjunction with Scribe Marketing

Holding the Paradox

Have you ever taken two magnets and tried to put like poles together?

If you put the north and the south pole of a magnet together, there is attraction and attachment.

Try to put two north or two south poles together, and you feel a repulsion. Push as you might, you can't get the two similar poles to connect. The two like poles repel each other because of an electromagnetic force between the two poles.

Holding a paradox in our mind creates a force that is akin to magnetism--unseen, yet powerful.

A paradox is a type of contradiction involving two opposite ideas that, when considered separately, are true. When you can believe both ideas simultaneously, a certain form of a propelling force presents itself. It's much like squeezing a watermelon seed between two fingers. A philosopher said that being able to hold a paradox in your mind was like giving a bird a second wing. With one wing there is no flying, but with two the bird takes flight. With one idea our minds are like a one-winged bird. Believing two opposing ideas lifts our thinking to new heights.

What are some of these opposite ideas that create energy to propel us on our way and let our ideas take flight?

One of my favorites is this paradox:

Live today as if it were your last day. Live as though you will live forever.

I hear a friend of mine laughing. ''That,'' he says, ''is a fine pair-of-ducks.''

Other paradoxes to ponder:

• The more you grab hold of something, the more it slips away.
• I'm saving this for good. This is as good as it gets.
• To be a success, you must seek failure.
• Everything is important. Ultimately nothing matters.
• It takes courage to admit you are afraid.
• The more personal you are, the more universal your appeal.
• To be unique, imitate others.
• To do something well, you may have to do it poorly.

What does holding a paradox in your mind have to do with our relationships with our children? Try this pair of ducks on for size:

My child is the most special person in the world, just like the other 6 billion people on this planet.

There is this delicate balance of opposing, yet true, ideas that helps create a clarity to our thinking and meaningful purpose to our actions. The balance of the opposing thoughts becomes our compass pointing true north.

I'll leave you with a Zen koan: Blow, and you can extinguish a fire. Blow, and you can make a fire.

Next week: Seven Factors of Enlightenment

Kids Talk™ is a column dealing with early childhood development issues written by Maren Stark Schmidt. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. She is also Creative Director for a video-based reading series for children ages three to six, The Shining Light Reading Series. Contact her via e-mail at maren@shininglightreading.com.

Complete Collection of the Shining Light Reading Series Now Available on DVD
Visit www.shininglightreading.com for more information.

Ask your local newspaper to carry Kids Talk. Call, write or e-mail your local newspaper editor and recommend Kids Talk.

Would you like to send Kids Talk to friends and family or receive Kids Talk e-mail updates in your own inbox? Sign up for FREE here:
Click here for a FREE subscription.

©2010 KIDS TALK™
25877 East Bright Avenue
Welches, OR 97067
503.622.6750
503.550.3143
maren@kidstalknews.com

Kids Talk is published in conjunction with Scribe Marketing

Curiosity: The Roots of Intelligence

Reading an article in the July 2009 issue of Smithsonian called ''Birth of a Robot,'' got me thinking about human intelligence versus artificial intelligence. Nicholas Butko, one of the researchers quoted in the article, said that they wanted to program their robots with curiosity, not knowledge.

Giulio Sandini, an Italian bioengineer says, ''If you want to build an intelligent system, you have to build a system that becomes intelligent. Intelligence is not only what you know but how you learn from what you know. Intelligence is acquiring information, a dynamic process.''

These scientists are saying that the cycle of learning begins with curiosity. Curiosity allows children to explore, examine, investigate and wonder, and in doing, so learn and discover new things. Learning gives pleasure and feeds the desire to repeat the experience. Repetition creates mastery of new skills. Having skills develops self-confidence. Self-confidence builds self-esteem, which in turn creates a sense of security in the child. With self-confidence, self-esteem and security intact, a child chooses to explore and begin a cycle of learning again.

Curiosity involves the mind, as well as all the senses. As parents and teachers know, this curiosity can sometimes create more mess and chaos than we might care to deal with. With our disapproval or by not enriching a child's environment, we can short-circuit curiosity, the natural and vital fount of learning.

If our child is afraid to explore, learning is cut short. When a child's world is in chaos, he or she will seek the familiar and comfortable, unwilling to leave the safety of the known. Curiosity is impacted by family stress, natural disasters, war and violence. Once crushed, curiosity is a difficult trait to redevelop.

Our disapproval of activities can prevent curiosity from creating the learning cycle. Hearing too much of, ''Don't touch,'' ''Don't climb,'' or ''Don't get dirty,'' diminishes the investigative urge.

Not feeling safe also curbs curiosity. Ever notice how a toddler will wander off, discover that a parent is not nearby and run back to touch ''home'' base before going off again? A caring adult who provides a safe haven and a relationship to share the child's thrill of discovery reinforces the learning cycle that begins with a child's desire to know.

Children's curious enthusiasm for life can help adults rediscover the joy of learning. When we allow ourselves childlike curiosity, we create an active mind instead of a passive one. The mind is like a muscle that becomes stronger through continual exercise. Asking questions and digging for answers makes your mind stronger day by day.

Curiosity helps us pick out new ideas that spur creativity. When we are curious and open to new ideas, it's as if our brains look for the new and unexpected. For example, most of us have had the experience of learning a new word and then seeing it pop up everywhere.

Being curious opens up new possibilities. Trying new foods, traveling, even driving to work a different way, can open up our minds to new ways of thinking and doing things.

Being and staying curious is at the root of intelligence, learning and fun. Without it, we'd just be robots.

Next week: Holding the Paradox

Kids Talk™ is a column dealing with early childhood development issues written by Maren Stark Schmidt. Mrs. Schmidt founded a Montessori school and holds a Masters of Education from Loyola College in Maryland.

She has over 25 years experience working with young children and holds teaching credentials from the Association Montessori Internationale. She is also Creative Director for a video-based reading series for children ages three to six, The Shining Light Reading Series. Contact her via e-mail at maren@shininglightreading.com.

Complete Collection of the Shining Light Reading Series Now Available on DVD
Visit www.shininglightreading.com for more information.

Ask your local newspaper to carry Kids Talk. Call, write or e-mail your local newspaper editor and recommend Kids Talk.

Would you like to send Kids Talk to friends and family or receive Kids Talk e-mail updates in your own inbox? Sign up for FREE here:
Click here for a FREE subscription.

©2010 KIDS TALK™
25877 East Bright Avenue
Welches, OR 97067
503.622.6750
503.550.3143
maren@kidstalknews.com

Kids Talk is published in conjunction with Scribe Marketing