• Instruct students to examine a peer’s or previous student’s work on a mathematical problem and orally explain how that student solved it. (Convert graphics to paraphrased speech.)
• Have students listen to the story of a raindrop and its journey, and then instruct them to create a diagram to show the route the raindrop travels through the water cycle. (Convert text to pictures.)
• Instruct students to paraphrase a partner’s answer after a Think-Pair-Share activity. (Convert speech to paraphrased speech.)
Exemplifying
With exemplifying, students must understand an existing concept and then find and suggest another example of that concept. These examples may include connections to other content areas or prior experiences. The following are examples of activities that use the exemplifying cognitive process.
• After having students learn about different types of graphs, instruct them to scan a report and locate similar examples of different types of graphs.
• After having students study the states of matter, instruct them to identify various chemical changes, such as making ice cubes, burning firewood, melting a snowman, or putting gelatin in a refrigerator.
• After providing students with several examples of similes from a text, instruct them to create their own original example of a simile.
• After having students learn about fact versus opinion, instruct them to locate an example of an author’s opinion in a text.
Classifying
When classifying, students categorize information or items based on similar characteristics. For example, students group information under headings based on their common attributes. The following are examples of activities that use the classifying cognitive process.
• Instruct students to group mathematics equations into categories based on the basic number properties (such as associative property, distributive property, and so on).
• Instruct students to sort real-world pictures—such as a stop sign, a wheel, and so on—based on the subject’s number of sides and angles.
• After explaining the difference between living and nonliving things, instruct students to read a story and sort objects in the story based on whether they are living or nonliving.
• Instruct students to sort new vocabulary into categories based on connotation.
Summarizing
When summarizing, students simplify information in a succinct statement. The summary could be about reading, watching a video clip, or observing a natural event. The following are examples of activities that use the summarizing cognitive process.
• Direct students to use sticky notes in the margin of a text to write down one sentence that summarizes each paragraph.
• After listening to a story, instruct students to write down three important plot points.
• After examining a word problem and modeling a valid answer to it, instruct students to describe the steps necessary to solve the problem.
• Have students identify the key points in a science video on force and motion.
Inferring
Inferring involves using evidence and reasons to make a conclusion. Inferences drawn with limited evidence can be inaccurate so it’s important for teachers to model for students how to recognize and use valid and reliable evidence to support their conclusion. The following are examples of activities that use the inferring cognitive process.
• Instruct students to determine the next three numbers in a pattern. For example, “List the next three numbers in a pattern that begins: 345, 355, 365.”
• Based on their use of microscope slides of different matter, instruct students to determine if an object is a solid or a liquid.
• Instruct students to use context clues to determine an author’s opinion when it is not explicitly stated in the text.
• Instruct students to predict what will happen next in a text, based on clues from the reading.
• After having students watch a pot of boiling water for ten minutes, instruct them to describe what happens to the water level and what reasoning might explain the change.
Comparing
Comparing involves examining two different ideas or items to assess their similarities and differences. For example, students can use metaphors or analogies to make their comparisons. The following are examples of activities that use the comparing cognitive process.
• Instruct students to compare two solutions that slow or prevent wind from changing the shape of the land by providing two similarities and three differences between the solutions.
• Instruct students to examine the data on two graphs and determine how they are similar and different in terms of mean, median, and mode.
• Instruct students to identify similarities between two paragraphs with a similar theme.
• Instruct students to describe two similarities and two differences between two ecosystems.
Explaining
Explaining involves understanding cause-and-effect relationships. The following are examples of activities that use the explaining cognitive process.
• Instruct students to consider a mathematics problem that highlights the order of operations. Ask them to explain how changing the order changes the solution.
• Instruct students to assess a flowering plant from the school grounds that has wilted leaves and explain what might have caused the wilting.
• After having students read about the Boston Tea Party, instruct them to explain how they think England might react.
• Instruct students to explain how using dashes instead of commas might impact the readability of a text.
Thinking at the Apply Level
At the third level of Bloom’s taxonomy revised (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), the Apply level involves executing certain procedures or steps to address a new problem. This usually involves teaching procedures to accomplish a task, such as teaching the steps to analyze a political cartoon, a procedure for analyzing a five-paragraph essay, or a method for finding the area of a triangle.
There are two cognitive processes in the Apply level: (1) executing and (2) implementing.
Executing
In executing, students must grapple with a new problem and identify a procedure to solve the problem. This might include solving for a variable in an algebraic equation, editing a paper for punctuation, and so on. At this lower-cognitive process within the Apply level, students should very quickly be able to identify a procedure and apply it to the new problem when there is one correct answer. The following are examples of activities that use the executing cognitive process.
• After demonstrating a method for adding three-digit numbers, instruct students to add two such numbers together; for example, 654 + 162.
• After presenting different objects in the room, instruct students to draw models of the waves that dropping the objects into the water would produce.
• After modeling an example, instruct students to write an original sentence demonstrating the same structure of the model sentence.
• After teaching the rules for semicolon usage, instruct students to add semicolons to a paragraph.
• After modeling the steps involved in free-throw shooting, instruct students to practice shooting free throws.
Implementing