“Why are we learning this?”

“How am I going to use this in my life?”

“What’s the point of doing this?”

I’ve certainly heard these comments, or similar ones, from students over the years. Relevance is an important concept to our students, and many of us could probably do a better job at helping our students make those real-life connections to what we’re doing in the classroom.

I share some ideas about how to do that in my new book, and I’m trying out a new idea tomorrow in class. We’ve been learning about Bloom’s Taxonomy (you’ll also find that lesson in my book), and students are writing a short paragraph responding to the question “It is important to to learn about Bloom’s Taxonomy?” In addition to writing these paragraphs in an “ABC” form (Answer the Question; Back it up; Make a comment or connection), some will be recording what that wrote in a Fotobabble. You’ll be able to see their responses in our class blog on Friday.

Coincidentally, today I learned about a recent study that documented how helping clarify relevance can directly lead to increased student achievement. Chris S. Hulleman and Judith M. Harackiewicz wrote about it in Promoting Interest and Performance in High School Science Classes (you can access the paper after free registration, but it appears you can get “The Supporting Online Material” without registration.

Basically, they had students write a paragraph after science lessons saying how they could apply to their lives. Writing one-to-eight of these during a semester led to positive student learning gains.

Seems like a simple exercise that shouldn’t take up too much time (having students write about Bloom’s and then share them with a partner took less than fifteen minutes), and it certainly can’t hurt.

I’m adding this post to “My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students.”

Thanks to Carol Dweck for the tip on the study.

We’re in the middle of state test-taking season, as are many other schools. One of quick exercises I do with students on test-days prior to starting is to incorporate what studies have shown — Thinking About Our Ancestors Helps Us Do Better In Tests.

I’ve given students five minutes to write a few sentences and draw a picture responding to this:

Think about one of your ancestors, and write about one or more successes he or she had in their life. Write a few sentences about them, and draw a picture that represents them and/or their success.

Then, after a few minutes, I have them share with a partner, which incorporates what other studies have shown — Brief Social Conversations Improves Performance On Cognitive Tasks.

This exercise, which is completed within ten minutes, always goes very well, and I learn some amazing stuff about my students. I thought I’d share here what some students wrote (the pictures are great, too, but I don’t have time to reproduce them right now):

My auntie finally finished her college years.

My Mom’s grandmother’s mom was a slave and was alive when slavery ended. She it to the end and got to celebrate and even if she hadn’t anywhere to go it was a special moment for her.

My dad got to America. He got papers.

My Grandpa was born in Mexico and grew up there. Growing up he messed around with ropes because he loved the style, so he got really good and great with horses. He was a captain and never lost a match. It’s about how many you catch and you have is a horse and a rope.

One good successful person that I know is my Dad. I think that he is a successful person because when something bad happens in our family he always knows what to do.

My grandfather is a CIA soldier. That was one of his success because he helps Americans during the Vietnamese War.

I’m adding this post to The Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad).

There are tons of resources available on Bloom’s Taxonomy (you can see some great stuff at The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom) — much of it geared towards helping educators use it in developing their lesson plans.

In my newest book, though, in addition to talking about that aspect of Bloom’s Taxonomy, I include a detailed lesson plan for explicitly teaching what Bloom’s Taxonomy (revised) is to students.

My colleagues and I are actually using that lesson plan right now, and it’s been great to see students — without prompting from us — starting to incorporate what they are learning by using many of the question-stems found in the higher levels of Bloom’s — when they are demonstrating the reading strategy of asking questions, or if we’re watching a video clip and they need to list questions that are coming to mind.

One of the reasons I explain to students it’s important for them to learn about Bloom’s is because since good readers ask questions, by learning to ask deeper questions they can challenge themselves to dig deeper into the meaning of what they are reading. I also explain that it helps explain why I ask them to give reasons why they choose specific answers and show evidence for their conclusions.

I’ve decided, though, to create an additional Read Aloud specifically to help students gain an even greater understanding about why it’s important for them to learn Bloom’s. Some of the reasons tie in nicely about what they have learned about how learning new things physically impacts the brain. You can find that lesson plan available free at my publisher’s website.

I will share the text of the Read Aloud within the body of this post, and you can download the actual Read Aloud here.

Any comments on the Read Aloud, and any other ideas you can think of about why it’s important for students to know Bloom’s Taxonomy, are appreciated.

Here it is:

Why Is It Important For Us To Learn About Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Helps Your Brain Grow Stronger

Research shows that the critical thinking ability developed through using the higher-level thinking skills of Bloom’s Taxonomy “strengthens the brain—creating more synapses between nerve cells—just as exercise builds muscle tissue.” (1)

“…higher ordering thinking skills…helps learners make connections between past and new learning, creates new pathways, strengthens existing pathways, and increases the likelihood that the new learning will be consolidated and stored for future retrieval.” (2)

Helps You Develop Skills Employers Are Looking For

Surveys after surveys of employers show that they are looking to hire people who have the critical thinking skills demonstrated in the higher-levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (revised). They specifically say they want “problem-solving skills rather than memorization of coursework.” (3)

CREATE:
“creativity and innovation” (4)

EVALUATE:
“critical thinking” (4)

ANALYZE:
“analytic reasoning” (4)
“well-developed analytical skills” (5)

APPLY:
“apply learning to real world setting” (6)

(1) http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar97/vol54/num06/Seven-Strategies-That-Encourage-Neural-Branching.aspx
(2) p. 259 How The Brain Learns, Third Edition, by Daivd A. Sousa.
(3) http://psy1.clarion.edu/jms/qualifications.html
(4) http://www.aacu.org/leap/documents/MoreEmphasis_2010.pdf
(5) http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-060899-172321/unrestricted/BODY.pdf
(6) http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-01-22-graduate-assessment_N.htm