Easter Sale -- 15% off EVERYTHING!

Find my TpT Store here.  My Teachers Notebook Shop is here.  You know you can't resist a sale!

HOTS or Bloom's Taxonomy

It's about time, teachers, ... to revisit Higher Order Thinking Skills or HOTS.  If you've been a teacher for more than 5 minutes, you must have some knowledge of Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.  Did you know Benjamin is not actually the author of the taxonomy?  It bears his name simply because he chaired the committee that developed it.  So, the next time someone asks you to chair a committee, you may want to say "Yes."

It seems like Bloom's Taxonomy has been around forever.  Actually, it's been around since 1956, which for most of the educators at work today IS forever.  It's been 56 years and it's still going strong.  Although, it has morphed some over the decades.  When 1st proposed, the taxonomy strove to deal with 3 domains of education: cognitive, affective, & psychomotor.  The goal of the 3 domains was to produce holistic education.  Over time, however, the cognitive domain has become the taxonomy we all think of when Bloom's Taxonomy is mentioned.  In fact, each domain was to have it's own handbook, but after publishing the cognitive domain  handbook, it took 8 years for the affective domain handbook to be written and the psychomotor domain handbook was never written!

Too often, I think, the taxonomy is taught and used in educating gifted and talented learners.  That may be a matter of practicality.  The taxonomy is scaffolded; the lower levels must be broad and strong in order for the upper levels to be built. In an age of standardized testing mania, knowledge and comprehension, the foundation levels, are the name of the game. Since those are the most easily evaluated components, performance is naturally based on those levels.  And so, I surmise that only the teachers of G/T have the time to work on the upper levels of the taxonomy since their students, presumably, have the requisite knowledge and understanding.    

Let's not dwell in the basement, teachers!  It takes more work to bring your students to the upper levels of the taxonomy. The payoff, however, is well worth the effort.  Who doesn't want to spend their time in the penthouse rather than the basement?

Following is Bloom's Taxonomy model in 2 versions:

Any student of the taxonomy knows that there are lists of verbs to help us remember how to incorporate each level into our teaching.  While I am a visual learner, perusing those lists tends to make my eyes roll to the back of my head.  So, I created the following visual to expeditiously remind me what each level should look like.

I don't know if Easter eggs brought this to mind or the hatchlings that spring promises us, but I do know that teachers everywhere need to break out of their shells and push their students to work in the higher levels.  Our children deserve to be grade A educated.

Now I'll climb down from my soap box and get back to dyeing eggs.

Easter/Spring Freebie

It's about time, teachers, ... for Easter.  To celebrate the arrival of spring and the Easter bunny, I'm filling your basket with Easter/Spring Patterns & Sorts.  

This unit is best suited for Pre-K -- 2nd grade.  However, the letter cards can be used as a fluency exercise for older students.  Challenge them to make as many words as they can using the letters in Happy Easter, Happy Spring, April and/or egg.  A recording sheet for this is included.

The letter cards could also be used by pre-readers to do letter sorts; sorting by color, upper case/lower case, short/tall letters, and vowels/consonants.

Easter/Spring Patterns & Sorts includes a printable page that combines color word review with identifying patterns.

There are 18 color picture cards that can provide patterning practice and/or sorting practice.

You can find this FREEBIE unit at either my TpT Store or in my TN Shop.  So hop on over and scoop it into your basket. 

April Fools' FREEBIE

It's about time, teachers, for April Fools' Day.  Are you bummed that it's not on a school day? Never fear, it will be on Monday next year to start the week off on a celebratory note.  In the meantime, enjoy an April Fools' poem and some teaching suggestions to go with it. 

If you like this poem and the teaching possibilities that accompany it, you may like my product, Poetry Possibilities for Spring.  The poem above comes from that unit.

You can find it at my TpT Store or in my TN Shop.

You can find many more spring units at Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives' linky party.

Check it out!  You'll be glad you did.

Many, many thanks to Heather at Beg Borrow & Teach for giving me the One Lovely Blog Award.  You have made this newbie blogger feel very special!  

The rules for this award are to:

1. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.  
2. Pass the award on to 15 other lovely bloggers.
3. Follow the person who sent it to you.

If you haven't discovered Heather's blog, go there now.  Her blog title surely speaks to teachers everywhere.  We're all beggars, borrowers & underpaid teachers.   (I only crossed out the "underpaid" to be p.c.)   Her blog is filled with wonderful ideas and, right now, she is offering a FREE Reading Comprehension bookmark. 


It gives me pleasure to pass this award on to:

1. Ms Emily @  My Crazy Life in Kindergarten
2. Delighted @ First Grade Delight
3. Ashlyn @ The Creative Classroom
4. Roaming Around 4th Grade
5. Katie @ Queen of the First Grade Jungle
6. Wendy @ One Happy Teacher
7. Katherine @ Third Grade Teacher Files
8. Ms Winstead @ Fabulous Fourth Grade
9. Mark Lyons @ readingwarmupsandmore
10. Susan Hardin @ 3rd Grade Grapevine
11. Mrs. K @ The Teacher Garden
12. HoJo @ HoJos Teaching Adventure
13. Mary Bauer @ The Artistry of Education
14. Mrs. McCumbee @ Mrs. McCumbee's Class
15. Felicia @ Adventures in Teaching: Learning as I Go

Many of these blogs are new, like mine.  Do them a favor and check them out.  They represent a treasure trove of new ideas.

Easter Hink Pinks

Are you egg-cited about checking your answers for the Easter Hink Pinks and Hinky Pinkies?  Or are you egg-ravated that you had to wait?  Are you cracking up at my egg humor or do you just want to yolk choke me?  Before I reveal the answers, I have to share the following egg humor:

This cracked me up, no yolk-ing!  (I think the season has me deviled.)  

Egg-nuff already!  Here are the answers:
     9. Twin rabbits = hare pair
    10. Royal leader of the season = spring king
    11. Egg coloring belongs to me = my dye
    13. Chocolate bunnies by the ocean = sandy candy

    14. Tall building made of lilies = flower tower

    15. Bunny's routines = rabbit's habits

How did you do?  Did you find them to be hard boiled and frustrating?  Or were they over easy?  

One of the things I love most about Hink Pinks, Hinky Pinkies, and Hinkity Pinkities is that they require ALL students to really think.  Even "Gavin Gifted" can't produce the answer before you finish reading the clue.  That alone makes them worth their weight in gold! However, I will admit that the more of them you present to the class, the quicker the response time.  I like to think they are building new neural pathways in their brains.  

If you are intrigued by these riddles, you may be interested in:  

      

These are FREEBIES:

As you can see, I'm really into Hink Pinks.  This is just a fraction of what I have in my files.  Do you think I need an intervention?

Easter Hink Pinks Freebie

Eggs-actly what you need for spring -- a fun, challenging, activity that develops vocabulary, practices parts of speech, eggs-ercises synonyms and rimes, all while using Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS).  I'm not eggs-aggerating; I'm talking about Easter Hink Pinks & Hinky Pinkies.   

If you're not familiar with Hink Pinks, you are in for some egg-citement! Hink Pinks are riddles for which the answer must be a pair of rhyming words with just 1 syllable in each word (hink & pink each have just 1 syllable).  Similarly, Hinky Pinkies are riddles with rhyming word pair answers, but each answer word must have 2 syllables (Hinky & Pinky have 2 syllables each).  For example:      

 

                      

Hink Pink clue: superior bird home  

Hink Pink answer: best nest             

Both you and your students will be egg-cited about learning when it’s this fun!  

These riddles and their cousins, Hinkity Pinkities, have been staples in G/T education for decades.  They eggs-ercise  brain muscles your students didn't know they had.  As a teacher, I eggs-perience great satisfaction when I witness that "AHA!" moment in a student.  

The best way to understand Hink Pinks & Hinky Pinkies is to try them for yourself.  So, try these:

                                            

                                           

   

If you're not eggs-actly sure if you solved them, check back tomorrow for the answers. Until then, I hope you have an egg-cellent weekend.

                     

Spring Fling Sale! & $1 Words FREEBIE

Hurry over to my TpT Store or my TN Shop and enjoy 20% off of EVERYTHING!

Did you try the $1 Word clues I posted yesterday?  If so, here are the answers:

                   1. cookout          2. chimpanzee          3. violins & autoharp

You will get a lot of bang for your buck when you introduce $1 Words to your students.  The skills they will hone include:

·        Addition computation

·        Calculator

·        Vocabulary

·        Parts of speech

·        Base words

·        Prefixes & suffixes

·        Participles

·        Singular & plural

·        Compound words

·        Spelling & proof-reading

·        Dictionary & thesaurus skills

·        Study skills

·        Internet skills

·        Critical thinking

·        Problem solving

·        Cooperative learning

This is a seriously integrated unit.  Your students will learn to pay close attention to verb tenses and singular/plural nouns. Before too long, they will realize that prefixes and suffixes can impact their calculations.  Encourage them to make an anchor chart of common affixes' values.  

If you make your $1 Words a competition, I have created rules to make it demanding and fair.  In the spirit of teamwork, I require every student to have someone on his/her team verify their answer before giving it to me.  The "verifier" has 2 important jobs:  check the addition & the spelling.  If a clue is turned into me with a wrong answer, the team not only does not score a point, they LOSE A POINT!  If the spelling is wrong, even though the word is correct, the team LOSES A POINT! Your students will instantly become meticulous editors when they see their team lose a point.  Be prepared for some bad sportsmanship and quash it immediately. 

My students write their answers on the back of their "dollar bills."  Both the solver and the "verifier" must sign the dollar. Then I post them outside my classroom under the name of their teacher.  I post correct and incorrect answers so that students may check and challenge MY calculations.  Believe me, they will!!  If an answer is incorrect, I write "-1" in red marker across the face of the dollar.  This saves me lots of explaining.  Similarly, if a student submits a "bonus buck" (one with 2 correct answers), I write "+2" on the face of the bill.  I keep a running tally posted next to the teacher's name.  

If you are wondering why I penalize teams with a lost point for an incorrect answer, the reason is simple.  I have had students who "couldn't find the answer" turn in any old solution in order to get another clue; hopefully an easier one.  If you allow this, you will have expended a lot of wasted effort and paper in preparing the clues.  But perhaps more importantly, you will have allowed your students to evade a challenge.  All of the clues are solvable.  Perseverance is a good thing, as well as a trait of G/T students  If everything you give them is easy, you're not really meeting their needs. 

Over the course of the competition (2 - 3 weeks), my students go through clues at lightning speed.  Thus, I have created more than 400 clues to meet their demand.  You can get more of my clues through my series of $1 Word products, available on both TpT and TN.  (I have not posted ALL of my clues yet.  But more will be coming as soon as I format them. Patience is a virtue!)  You may be interested in:

You can find all of these products at my TpT Store or in my TN Shop.  Of course you will want to start with the $1 Words FREEBIE!

FREEBIE

Remember, EVERYTHING is 20% off through Sunday!