Assessing student learning has been a controversial subject for many years. There are many schools of thought on how to go about writing objectives and assessments to measure student learning. Bloom’s Taxonomy is one structured method for categorizing assessments and the levels that each assessment is aimed at measuring. Bloom’s begins with the most simple or concrete and builds to the most complex or abstract. The taxonomy shows that students learn in steps and in order for the most advanced thinking skills to be developed the student has to truly understand the information and learned and be able to apple and use it. It is our goal as instructors to move our students from the very simplest level of the taxonomy to the higher level orders in order for students to achieve this goal.

Bloom begins with the very basic level of all, which is called knowledge. Knowledge is simply the learner recalling information that he/she has been exposed to. Simply put this is information that is memorized by the learner and is assessed by objectives that use verbs such as list, name, identify, repeat, group, define or match to name a few. At this level the student can recall information and has a basic grasp of events, major ideas and subject matter.

The second level of Blooms, is comprehension. The learner understands the information presented and can translate that knowledge into new context. For example objectives written at this level target the fact that the student can interpret facts; put those facts into order or group them; and they can predict consequences. The objectives that are written to measure comprehension will use verbs such as summarize, describe, distinguish, or differentiate.

Level three, application, expects the student to use the information presented to solve problems. They have to be able to use the information given to them in new situations and solve the problems using the required skills and knowledge. This means that they need to know the knowledge well enough to be able to use it correctly in the given situation. Key words to measure this level are use, demonstrate, operate, classify, solve, and model to name a few.

Analysis, level four, starts to become more complicated. The student can see the patterns and can organize these patterns. They have to be able to examine the different parts of several concepts and see how they related to each other. They can recognize assumptions and different points of view at this stage. Key words in the objectives written at this point are classify, categorize, analyze, examine, explain and interpret to name a few.

When a student can combine different ideas and create something original and unique they have reached the fifth level of Blooms – synthesis. The student has to be able to take old ideas and create new ones and relate several pieces of knowledge from different resources. They have to be able to predict an outcome and draw conclusions from the information presented. Verb terms used to describe the assessment for synthesis might be combine, integrate, plan, design, or formulate.

The student does not very often reach the last level in the classroom. At this level the student can review evidence and make a judgment about the knowledge presented. Students at this level will be able to make choices based on arguments presented to them. Assessments at this level are hard to create as well as evaluate. Objectives written at this level will use terms such as convince, recommend, decide, rank or assess to name a few.

It is very easy to assess students at the lower levels of Blooms Taxonomy and to create lessons and objectives to get our students to these lower levels. In order for classroom teachers to do justice to the learning process more time needs to be spent on the upper levels to move our students up to the higher levels of Blooms taxonomy.

Using Blooms Taxonomy, I will develop objectives and assessments for a unit on PowerPoint. The unit will be designed for ninth grade students at my school with the assumption that they have completed the prior required computer classes which are keyboarding, windows, and basic word-processing. The objectives written are for creating a PowerPoint presentation. Each level of Blooms that will be used will be listed in chart form as well as the objective(s) written for that level. The assessments that have been developed can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlink or by scrolling down to that attachment.

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The assignment will be corrected and a letter grade assignment using our schools grading scale which is:

93-100 = A

84-92 = B

75=83 = C

65-74 = D

64 = F

Create your own presentation. (One file)

• Create a new presentation.
• Choose a topic of interest to you.
• Your topic of choice must be approved by your instructor.
• Create a minimum 10-slide presentation about your topic.
• The presentation must be educational in the sense that anyone who views your presentation will learn about your topic of choice.
• Be sure not to clutter your slides with too much information or too many pictures, this will only confuse the reader.
• Make use of at least 5 different PowerPoint tools.
• Include at least three different color schemes of the slide background.
• Use at least five pictures throughout your presentation.
• Make use of the AutoShapes tool at least once.
• Create a transition between all slides.
• Be creative and original!

Microsoft PowerPoint

Student's Name: ____________________ Date: __________________

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