• Each level of thinking generates specific ways of responding. Quality teaching includes planning for levels of thinking within the context of the curriculum.

• As a teacher designs questions or tasks for students, deciding which cognitive verbs to use helps organize and plan for quality instruction.

• Deciding which tasks are expected of students at different cognitive levels opens the door to differentiated responses from them.

Curricular Unit: Learning About Weather, Third Grade

BIG IDEA: Sky conditions impact human weather forecasting.

Differentiated Instruction: Questions, tasks, and products can range from simple to complex using cognitive verbs at increasingly more difficult levels.

Words in green show level of thinking.
Words in brown show the cognitive verb.
Words in purple show the product possibility.

• On the knowledge level, an idea might be introduced,
  • Tell me the different colors you have seen in the sky.
  • Make a list.

• On the comprehension level, showing understanding is required. *
  • Describe the sky when it's just about to rain.
  • Write a descriptive paragraph.

• For the application level, a student might be asked to
  • Organize your ideas about colors of the sky with matching weather conditions and temperature.
  • Make a chart or list.

• When a student is thinking at the analysis level, they are examining an idea in detail.
  • Compare an early morning sky (with no precipitation) with an early evening sky (with precipitation).
  • Draw a diagram of each.

• At the synthesis level of thinking, someone is creating a new idea or speculating.
  • If you could be master of the weather and could change the predictors of weather, what would the sky look like in the morning if the day were to be mild, balmy, and calm?
  • Create a computer image to show what the sky would look like.

• When a student is thinking at the evaluation level, that usually requires the highest level of cognitive thinking. *
  • From what you have learned about sky conditions and prediction of weather, what is your opinion of the weather forecasting done on local TV or radio stations.
  • State your reasons in a well-developed paragraph.