Applications of Bloom taxonomy
specifically to the teaching of writing

As the Bloom taxonomy of educational objectives itself points out, knowing information and applying information are very different tasks.

I hope I can help you start thinking about how to use the taxonomy in designing your curriculum for teaching writing and other topics.

Note: I tend to use the terminology from the original taxonomy edited by Benjamin Bloom because I've used it for so many years.

If you are not planning to retire in the next two years, you should latch on to the language of 2001 revision of the Bloom taxonomy of educational objectives.

Determine the learning difficulty of what you assume students can do.

Teachers don't often stop to figure out if the tasks we assume students can do are actually within their capability without our instructing them in how to perform those tasks.

If you take some of the tasks you assume students can do and find where they fit on the Bloom taxonomy of educational objectives, you may be very surprised at what you discover.

Look at three assumptions writing teachers make:

1. Students who can recite the definition of a sentence can write in complete sentences.

2. Students can identify the organizational pattern of a piece of writing.

3. Students learn to write by reading good writing.

Teachers don't always say they are making these assumptions, but, by golly, they think them.

Which of those behaviors that we assume students can do without being taught requires only recall or understanding, the lowest level learning according to the Bloom taxonomy of educational objectives?

Not one.

#1 is a mid-level cognitive task. It requires application.

#2 is a mid-level task. It requires analysis.

#3 is a higher level task. It falls at least at the level of synthesis, if not at the top level on the taxonomy of educational objectives.

What that little exercise should tell you is that most students will not be able to do any of those things without explicit teaching from you.

Make sure that students have required "lower level" skills to apply to higher level learning tasks.

Another assumption teachers make is that students know material simply because the teacher presented it. That's like assuming all students have malaria because they've all been exposed to mosquitoes.

If you want to teach for higher level learning, you have to be sure students have a foundation in relevant lower level learning. Let me give you a very simple example:

If students do not understand the concept of a complete sentence well enough to distinguish a complete sentence from a fragment they will not be able to correct sentence fragments in their own writing. Understanding is a prerequisite to application.

In order to use objectives, you have to figure out what students must learn in order to reach each objective. Then you have to figure out what you must teach so they can learn that information, procedure or skill.

When you write your course objectives, use verbs that are appropriate to the tasks involved.

I saved the easiest for last.

Once you've decided what you must teach and learning level at which you must teach it, you can select an appropriate verb from one of the examples for that section of the taxonomy.

Isn't it nice that something about teaching writing is simple?