How many of you have used Dr. Karin Hess’s Cognitive Rigor Matrices at some point in the last few years? They are one of my go to tools when discussing rigor, DOK and how to think about designing lessons that get at the full range of DOK levels. Depth of Knowledge becomes more actionable and less aspirational when teachers can work with the specific content area matrices that Karin has created. These tools help to create learning opportunities that lead to deeper learning. We are in the middle of state testing season…and this is a really good time to revisit these matrices, the learning standards, your own common assessments, and the state’s released item scoring guides, to get a feel for how to continue to create learning tasks and assessments that help students engage in deeper learning across all DOK levels..
I had the chance at ASCD 2023 to attend Dr. Karin Hess’s session on her new work, Assessing deeper learning. I loved her opening quote, “In order to teach for deeper learning, you have to experience it yourself. When do we have opportunities to continue to be learners? How do professional learning plans incorporate DOK 1-3?
Here are my key takeaways from her session:
One goal of deeper learning is the transfer of knowledge. Near transfer is the ability to do something the way that you were taught = DOK 1, DOK 2. Far transfer is how you can apply what you learned to anything - real world projects that have an impact = DOK 3,4. As a student, you can think about it in this way: What am I learning? How is it impacting me? What am I going to do with it? How do I want to show you what I can do with it? What problems do I want to solve?
Assessment is actionable. This statement fits right into my thinking on Evidence Centered Design that I have shared with you a lot! Assessment is about uncovering thinking, identifying where students are in the learning journey and planning next steps, or providing feedback to understand themselves as learners, thinkers or strategizes, or ourselves as educators.
Stop Random Acts Of Rigor: Hess has identified 5 teacher moves that lead to consistent, intentionally planned deep learning opportunities.
Use essential questions to lead to probing questions
Build schema in each content area
Use strategic scaffolding for different purposes
Design complex tasks - with emphasis on student voice/choice and evidenced based solutions
Allow time for students to engage in metacognition and reflection throughout their learning.
Student engagement can be negatively active, negatively passive, positively passive, and positively active. This was a different way to think about this. Terms on this engagement line start with disruptive, avoidance, withdrawn <<--->> participate, invested, drive How does this change the way you see students in your classroom? Students who are disruptive are actively engaged in a non-productive way. What’s the difference in how they are experiencing the learning compared to a student who is driving the learning and is actively engaged in a very productive way?
Finally, she suggested some engagement activities that involve the most students. The two I found most interesting were using Scrum Boards to help student teams monitor their own work and seek input from peers. And, doing gallery walks of work, converting rubrics into feedback sentence stems and look-fors.
I appreciate Dr. Hess’s research, and her willingness to make so many of her resources freely available for educators to use.
And, because I want to continue to model how to use ChatGPT in an ethical, efficient way - You can ask ChatGPT to become a DOK bot and create sample problems/tasks/activities for you. Try using this prompt: I need you to be a DOK bot. When I give you a standard, I need you to create a set of tasks or activities at a DOK 1, DOK 2, DOK 3 and DOK 4 level. You can follow that up with this prompt: Create a set of lesson plans using the 5 E model based on this standard, incorporating DOK 1, DOK 2, DOK 3 and DOK 4. And then, use this prompt: Create a reflection sheet to help students focus on their own learning at each DOK level. Make it in a chart form. Refine these prompts to meet your needs and to produce the response that will be most useful for you.
Resources To Spark Your Thinking
Rigor By Design, Not Chance (2023) Dr. Karin Hess
The complete set of content area cognitive rigor matrices along with a lot of other free resources from Dr, Karin Hess.
Applying Cognitive Rigor To Project Based Learning - Dr Karin Hess
An example of the importance of building schema - Building Schema In Reading
Scrum Boards - PBLWorks.org
ODE Mathematics DOK Resources - includes example math problems at DOK levels
All of the ODE Released Item Scoring Guides (DOK is referenced beginning in 2019)
- And, not about DOK but this is a really nice list Social Emotional Learning Reading List