One of the significant revisions of Blooms Taxonomy that Lori Andersons team made, in updating the

Taxonomy for the 21st Century students and teachers, was changing the 6 major categories from nouns to
verbs. The other revisions to the Taxonomy by Andersons team, which were changing Knowledge to
Remembering and Comprehension & Synthesis to Understanding & Creating. For me, these
revisions indicate it was recognized that students learn best by doing.
There are a number of ways in which I would use the theory of the Blooms revised Taxonomy in daily
teaching:
ask open ended questions & wait for answers rather than answer questions for students or move
on to the next student for an answer
have students partner with their peers or in a small heterogeneous group to collaborate to find
answers
provide an abundance of resources (via Learning Centres and online access) to enable students to
find answers / information
lesson plan to appeal to the multiple intelligences and interests in the classroom
self - and peer - evaluation
large group discussions, opportunities to edit, revise and refine their work or product
provide opportunities to reflect on their thinking
goal setting and conferences with individual students to review their work with them and set new
goals or revise current goals
Overall, students need to be aware of the standards, criteria and/or the big idea in the lesson, class,
unit, course / subject. When they know better, they do better. The way students learn is by doing and
if we are to effectively lesson plan and strategically teach, Blooms Revised Taxonomy is an effective
tool to aid us to be focused on the goal of collaborating with students to help them become
independent learners:
Remembering
Understanding
Applying
Analyzing
Evaluating
Creating
In practical terms, I would use the Revised Blooms Taxonomy, for the Grade 5 Social Studies
Curriculum created in Module V to help them move from Lower Order Thinking Skills to Higher Order
Thinking Skills (LOTS > remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, creating >
HOTS) and also address the Thinking expectations of the Achievement Chart by planning, implementing
the following strategies and methods to teach the lessons / unit:

Blooms Revised Taxonomy Remembering:

retrieving, recognizing, recalling relevant
knowledge from long term memory
Achievement Chart- Use of planning skills:
formulate questions, generating ideas, gathering
information

Discussion using open ended questions to

help students recall last unit, term / years
applicable Social Studies concepts,
curriculum, i.e. political and social
organization
Word matches, games which involve the
vocabulary of the unit to determine prior

knowledge / introduce new vocabulary, i.e.

Senate, House of Commons, Prime
Minister, Member of Parliament, elections,
voting, legislation
Blooms Revised Taxonomy Understanding:
constructing meaning from oral, written and
graphic messages through interpreting,
exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring,
comparing and explaining

Newspaper / online articles

Read aloud articles related to the
announcement that the Government will
begin putting notable women on Canadian
money

Achievement Chart Use of processing skills:

Evaluating, inferring, forming conclusions,
detecting bias, synthesizing

Have partners review and analyze the

articles to answer who, what, where when
questions.
Small group
Research and present information to the class
about:
what people or historical figures are
currently represented on Canadian money
and what were their roles in Canadian
society / culture?
As a group brainstorm, the reasons why
you think these people are represented on
Canadian money
Large Group: Listen to presentations from small
groups; Discuss the announcement and ask open
ended questions Why do they think the
announcement is important? Should Canadian
women been represented on Canadian money
earlier than this? Why?
Small Group
Research various notable women in
Canadian history who could be candidates
to be represented on Canadian money.
The group must agree upon one candidate
that you like / relate to and present that
notable woman / women to the class
including the reasons you feel she / they
should be the one(s) on Canadian money
(Groups will vote for a note taker and a
presenter, will provide Graphic Organizers
to help organize their research, Chart Paper
to present their choice and related
information to the class)

Blooms Revised Taxonomy Applying: carrying

out or using a procedure through executing or
implementing
Achievement Chart - Use of processing skills /
critical / creative thinking processes:
analyzing, inferring, evaluating, revising, forming
conclusions, detecting bias
problem solving, oral discourse, evaluation, critical
literacy

Blooms Revised Taxonomy Analyzing:

breaking material into constituent parts,
determining how the parts relate to one another and
to an overall structure or purpose through
differentiating, organizing and attributing
Achievement Chart Use of planning skills /
Use of critical / creative thinking processes:
gathering information, focusing research,
organizing an arts presentation / project,
brainstorming
creative / analytical processes, problem solving,
oral discourse, invention, design process
exploration

Blooms Revised Taxonomy Evaluating:

making judgements based on criteria and standards
through checking and critiquing
Achievement Chart Use of Planning Skills /
Use of Processing Skills / Use of Critical /

Vote the class votes for the woman /

women they like best using information
their own research and the presentations
given by the other groups

Class forms 2 groups

The top 2 women w ho received the most
votes to will be assigned to each group
Each group will use the information
provided in the presentations, complete
further research into the woman / women
they were assigned and give reasons based
on the research why their particular
candidate should be chosen to be on
Canadian money (vote on a note taker and
presenter and chose who uses what
resources to find information, i.e. Learning
Centres, resource materials, technology)
Present their information to the class by
creating a banner, posters, brochure (1 of
these choices or all) that provides
information as to the candidate to be on
Canadian money and the reasons why
Large Group Discussion
Lead by questions:
What is a political party?
What political party governs Canada now?
How does the Government make decisions
about Canada?
How are we involved in those decisions?
What are lections?
Do you know who your parents voted for?
What does that person do for your parents,
neighbors, community, town, city if they
are voted in?
Journal
Answer the following questions:
Name 2 historical figures that are now on
Canadian currency?
In your opinion and based on the research
you have presented and heard, why are

Creative Thinking Processes:

organizing an arts presentation / project,
brainstorming, blocking, sketching,
analyzing, evaluating, inferring, conclusions,
synthesizing
reflection, elaboration, critical literacy, metacognition
Blooms Revised Taxonomy Creating: Putting
elements together to form a coherent or functional
whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or
structure through generating, planning or producing
Achievement Chart - Use of Planning Skills /
Processing Skills / Critical / Creative Thinking
Processes:
generating ideas, gathering information, organizing
an arts presentation, body storming
analyzing, inferring, evaluating, forming
conclusions, detecting bias, synthesizing
creative & analytical processes, design process
exploration, elaboration, oral discourse, critiquing,
reviewing, evaluation, problem solving, reflection,
metacognition

these historical figures on Canadian

money?
How do you feel about the announcement
made by the Government about having
notable women on Canadian money?
Do you think you can be involved in the
process of choosing the notable woman /
women to be on Canadian money? How
would you make your choice known to the
Government?
House of Assembly - Debate
The 2 groups of the class will move the
class desks / chairs to each side of the
room, each group will chose a side of the
room to put up their banners, posters,
brochures and to sit at and respectfully
debate with the other group their choice to
be on Canadian money
The teacher will act as the mediator (The
Speaker of the House) to make sure
decorum is kept during the debate
The debate will end with a vote for the
woman / women of their choice (the
students can vote anyway they wish)
whereby the ayes and nays will be noted by
the Teacher (Speaker) and a final choice for
the Notable Woman to be represented on
Canadian Currency will be made
The class will then be able to vote for this
choice or another preference they may
have on an online nomination contest with
the Bank of Canada

Curiously, I found myself re-creating the lesson plans / unit and looking to the Revised Taxonomy and the
Achievement Chart to ensure I was addressing the Achievement Charts Thinking expectations as well as
progressing through Blooms Revised Taxonomy. When a teacher plans using UDL Principles and
addresses Multiple Intelligences in planning and strategies the expectations are often instinctively met and
the progression from Lower Order Thinking Skills to Higher Order Thinking Skills inevitable.
I noted each of the Achievement Chart expectations can overlap in lessons and units as well as a number
of the categories of Blooms Revised Taxonomy. Of course, before moving on to higher order thinking,
there must be a base of knowledge, but after the base of knowledge is learned, recalled, retrieved and
recognized, then the other classifications / achievement expectations can overlap as student

understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating does not happen chronologically. It will
overlap, occur simultaneously, be reversed and reviewed as students skills and abilities are varied.