here are six levels of cognitive learning according to the revised version of

Bloom's Taxonomy. Each level is conceptually different. The six levels are
remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.

This change was made because the taxonomy is viewed as a hierarchy

reflecting increasing complexity of thinking, and creative thinking (creating level)
is considered a more complex form of thinking than critical thinking (evaluating level).

So let’s look at the levels and action verbs in a little more detail.

1. Remembering: recall facts and basic concepts

Define, identify, describe, recognise, tell, explain, recite, memorise, illustrate, state, match,
select, examine, locate, recite, enumerate, record, list, quote, label
2. Understanding: explain ideas and concepts
Summarise, interpret, classify, compare, contrast, infer, relate, extract, discuss, distinguish,
predict, indicate, inquire, associate, explore, convert
3. Applying: use information in new situations
Solve, change, relate, complete, use, sketch, teach, articulate, discover, transfer, show,
demonstrate, involve, produce, report, act, respond, prepare, manipulate
4. Analysing: make connections between ideas
Contrast, connect, relate, devise, correlate, illustrate, conclude, categorise, take apart, problem-
solve, deduce, conclude, devise, subdivide, calculate, order, adapt
5. Evaluating: justify a decision
Criticise, reframe, judge, defend, appraise, value, prioritise, plan, reframe, revise, refine, argue,
support, evolve, decide, re-design
6. Creating: produce new or original work
Design, modify, role-play, develop, rewrite, pivot, modify, collaborate, invent, write, formulate,
imagine

What is learning in the affective domain?

If the cognitive domain focuses on the mind, then the affective domain is all about
the heart.

Learning in the affective domain describes the way people react emotionally and
their ability to feel others’ pain or joy. It’s all about the awareness and growth in
attitudes, emotion and feelings.

Although the affective domain is part of what we call Bloom’s Taxonomy, it wasn’t
described by Benjamin Bloom. The affective domain was categorised by Bloom’s
collaborator David Krathwohl in 1964.

So, let’s take a look at how the affective domain describes emotional growth along
with the action verbs for each level.
1. Receiving: paying attention in a passive way
Ask, choose, describe, follow, give, hold, identify, locate, name, point to, select, sit, reply, use
2. Responding: active participation
Answer, assist, aid, comply, conform, discuss, greet, help, label, perform, practice, present, read,
recite, report, select, tell, write
3. Valuing: attaching value to learning
Complete, demonstrate, differentiate, explain, follow, form, initiate, invite, join, justify, propose,
read, report, select, share, study, work
4. Organisation: comparing, relating and elaborating
Adhere, alter, arrange, combine, compare, complete, defend, explain, formulate, generalise,
modify, order, organise, prepare, relate, synthesise
5. Characterisation: building abstract knowledge of their own
Act, discriminate, display, influence, listen, modify, perform, practice, propose, qualify, question,
revise, serve, solve, verify

Think about a positive learning experience of your own. How did you approach it?
Can you identify the stages? How does it contrast with a negative learning
experience you have had?
What is learning in the psychomotor domain?

So far the domains have covered thinking and feeling, the psychomotor domain is
the final piece of Bloom’s puzzle — physical skills.

The psychomotor domain is action-based and basically it means to change or

develop in behaviour or skills. It describes how learning a physical skill begins with
observation and progresses to mastery.

Bloom and his research team didn’t complete any work on the psychomotor domain.
It was developed much later in the early 1970s. A number of different researchers
have suggested different taxonomies to describe how skills and coordination
develop.

The model here is the taxonomy developed by Elizabeth Simpson in 1972 which
describes how physical skills develop.

1. Perception: sensing cues for motor activity

Choose, describe, detect, distinguish, identify, isolate, relate, select
2. Set: readiness to act
Begin, display, explain, move, proceed, react, show, state, volunteer
3. Guided response: imitation and then trial and error practice
Copy, trace, follow, react, reproduce, respond
4. Mechanism: the growth of a habit and greater confidence
Assemble, construct, dismantle, display, manipulate, measure, organise, sketch
5. Complex overt response: skilful performance and proficiency
Assemble, construct, dismantle, display, manipulate, measure, organise, sketch
(the verbs are the same as mechanism but will have adverbs or adjectives that indicate that the
performance is quicker, better, or more accurate)
6. Adaption: the ability to develop and modify these skills
Adapt, alter, change, rearrange, reorganise, revise, vary
7. Origination: the ability to create new movement patterns with the new skills
Arrange, build, combine, compose, construct, create, design, initiate, make, originate

You might think ‘what do physical skills have to do with learning maths?’ But actually,
‘doing maths’ means following certain steps in order, being accurate, adapting a
method when needed and ultimately coming up with new methods to solve
problems.

The structure of the three-part maths mastery lesson mirrors the levels of the

psychomotor domain. The guided response aligns with the guided practice. Learners
then move to independent practice before reflecting on their learning by doing a
maths journal activity.

‘taxonomy.’ Put simply, taxonomy is the science of organizing things and

classifying them according to various criteria.

In brief, Bloom’s taxonomy is a series of cognitive skills and learning objectives

arranged in a hierarchical model.

Originally, Bloom’s taxonomy was designed as a way of gauging competence by

placing a students knowledge on one of 6 levels which are often represented
visually in the form of a pyramid.

Each step of the pyramid from bottom to top represents a move from a lower order
thinking skill to a higher order one; from straightforward concrete cognition to a
more abstract, conceptual understanding.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels and Corresponding Verb Lists

Level 1: Remember - To recall facts and ideas

At this level, students are challenged to recall and remember the basic facts and
information of the story or text.

Verb List: Cite, Define, Describe, Draw, Identify, Label, List, Match, Memorize,
Name, Record, Repeat, State, Write

Level 2: Understand - To comprehend information and grasp its meaning

Level 2 gives the student a chance to show a fundamental understanding of the
story or text.

Verb List: Add, Clarify, Compare, Contrast, Explain, Give, Infer, Observe,
Predict, Summarize, Translate

Level 3: Apply - To use information, theories, concepts and skills to solve

problems

Here, students gain an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to use the

information in a new way.

Verb List: Adapt, Assign, Calculate, Construct, Employ, Express, Illustrate,

Modify, Show, Solve, Use

Level 4: Analyze - To make connections; recognize patterns and deeper

meanings

At this level, students can deconstruct the story into its component parts to better
understand it.

Verb List: Break down, Characterize, Classify, Contrast, Distinguish, Explore,

Identify, Investigate, Order, Prioritize

Level 5: Evaluate - To make and justify a judgement

This level gives students an opportunity to develop an opinion and back it up with
reasoning and evidence.

Verb List: Appraise, Assess, Critique, Defend, Determine, Estimate, Explain,

Grade, Justify, Rank, Rate

Level 6: Create - To combine elements of learning to create new or original

work

This level affords an opportunity for students to take what they have learned and
make something new from it.
Verb List: Abstract, Assemble, Combine, Compose, Construct, Correspond,
Design, Develop, Generate, Integrate, Portray, Produce

Bloom’s Taxonomy Questions

As Bloom’s taxonomy helps organize educational objectives into lower and higher
order cognitive thinking levels, its underlying framework is extremely useful in
assisting teachers in composing questions for students that provide opportunities to
assess those levels of thinking.

While the verbs listed above serve as good starting points for creating lesson
objectives, in this section we will take a look at some examples of specific
questions at each level, as well as some suggestions for possible activities you may
wish to use in lessons to help in your assessments.

Level 1: Remember
Suggested Questions

●     How many…?

●     Who was it that…?

●     What happened after…?

●     Can you name the person who…?

●     Who said that…?

●     What does this mean…?

●     Why did…?

●     Describe what happened when…?

●     Which is true and which is false…?

Suggested Activities

●     Match character names and profiles

●     Arrange scrambled story scenes in sequence

●     Identify most important attributes of main characters

●     Create a chart / picture / diagram of the information

 Level 2: Understand
Suggested Questions

●     Can you write in your own words...?

●     What do you think will happen next...?

●     Can you provide a short outline...?

●     Who was the main character...?

●     Who do you think…?

●     What was the main idea…?

●     Can you distinguish between…?

●     What were the differences between…?

Suggested Activities

●     Write a summary of the main events

●     Retell the story in your own words

●     Explain what you think the main idea of the piece was

●     Predict what could happen next in the story

Level 3: Apply
Suggested Questions

●     Have you experienced anything like this in your own life…?

●     What questions would you ask…?

●     Could this have happened in…?

●     How could you use this …?

●     What would happen if…?

Suggested Activities

●     Make a model to show how it works

●     Rewrite the scene according to how you would react

●     Transfer the main character to a different setting

●     Produce examples from real life based on the central problem in the story

Level 4: Analyze
Suggested Questions

●     What is the underlying theme…?

●     Can you identify the main idea / character / events…?

●     Can you distinguish between…?

●     What other possible outcomes could work here…?

Suggested Activities

●     Select the parts of the story that were the most exciting, happiest, saddest,
believable, fantastic etc

●     Differentiate fact from opinion in the text

●     Distinguish between events in the story that are credible and fantastical

●     Compare and contrast two important characters

 Level 5: Evaluate
Suggested Questions

●     What is your position on the text and can you defend it…?

●     Determine the most important points of the text and rank them in order…?

●     What would you have done…?

●     How effective was…?

Suggested Activities

●     Write a review of the text expressing your personal opinion on it

●     Assess the value of the story

●     Compare and contrast this story with another you have read

●     Judge the main character and their actions from a moral or ethical point of
view
 Level 6: Create
Suggested Questions

●     What would happen if…?

●     Can compose a song about…?

●     Can you see another solution to…?

●     How many ways can you…?

Suggested Activities

●     Compose an internal monologue for the main character during a pivotal
moment

●     Imagine you are one of the characters and write a diary entry

●     Create a new character and explain how they would fit into the story

●     Changing the setting and the characters, retell the story in your own words

 Knowledge questions:
 
1. How does the story end?
2. What is the problem in the story?
3. When and where does the story take place?
4. What people were in the story?
5. Name all the characters in the story in the order in which they appear.
6. Write 3 facts from the story?
7. Where did the story take place?
8. Tell 3 things that happened in the story.
9. What time of the day did the story take place?
10. Which character appears first in the story?
11. From what you read in the story, describe the main character and how he/she looked.
12. Describe the setting of the story.
 
Comprehension
 
13. Explain why the story has the title it does.
14. How did the main character feel at the beginning of the story? How at the end?
15. How was the problem in the story solved?
16. Tell how you would (could) have solved this problem.
17. If there is a picture in the story, describe the main character and how he/she looked.
18. Draw a picture of a main event in the story.
19. Think of the main event in the story.  Why did it happen?
20. What was the cause of the main thing happening in the story?
21. Tell another thing that could have happened that makes sense.
22. Tell me about the main character.  Use your own words.
 23. Tell in your own words what the story is about.
24. Explain what is happening in the first picture (part) of the story.
25. Tell this story in only 3 sentences.
 
Application:
 
26. If you had been in the story, would you have acted the same way the main character
did?
27. What would the main character do if he came to your house for a visit?
28. Select any of the people in the story and think of some things they would do if they
came to school during reading.
29. Select any of the people in the story and think of some things that each would do if
they came to your school during recess.
30. If you were in the story, what would you do?
31. What would you do if you could go to where the story takes place?
32. If you had to cook a mean for the main character, what would you cook?
33. What would your mother do if she were in the story?
34. Tell how you would (could) have solved the problem.
35. Give some examples of people who have had the same problems or have done the
same kind of thing as the person in your story.
36. Tell of a situation that occurred to a person in your story and decide whether you
would have done the same thing or something different.
37. Tell me about a time when something similar happened to someone you know.
38. What would have happened if you were there?
 
Analysis:
 
39. What parts of the story are necessary? Unnecessary?
40. Identify the different parts of the story.
41. Tell what things happened in the story that couldn’t have happened in real life.
42. Find your spelling words in the story.  How are they used? (nouns, verbs)
43. Who is the most important character in the story?  The least?
44. Find all the words in the story that show action.
45. Name 2 things in the story that happened outside (inside).
46. Find 5 words in the story that begin with the same sound.
47. Organize the story into parts and think of a good title for each of the parts.
48. Some of the things in the story were true and some were only opinions.  Lisa the
things that were true.
49. What do you do that is just like what the person in the story did?
50. What things in the story could really have happened?
51. What part of the story was funniest?  Or the saddest? Or the most exciting?
 
Synthesis:
 
52. Make up a story that tells about the main character’s next big adventure.
53. Rewrite the story briefly but change someone or something in it.  (For example,
substitute a lion for the wolf in The Three Little Pigs).
54. Write a poem about the story.
55. Write another ending for the story that has main character acting more bravely.
56. Draw a picture of the place where most of the story took place.  Do no copy the book.
57. Make up a story about what would happen after this story (the next day, etc.)
58. Make a story like this one but use only your friends in it.
 59. Use your imagination to draw a picture about the story.  Add one new thing of your
own that was not in the story.
60. Make a different problem for the main character to solve.
61. Think of 2 -3 new titles that five a good idea of what the story was about.
62. Retell the story from another character’s (such as an animal’s) point of view.
63. How else could the story have ended?
 
Evaluation:
 
64. Compare two of the characters.
65. Was the main character in the story good or bad?  Explain your answer.
66. Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
67. Could this story happen on another planet? In the days of the caveman? Why or why
not?
68. Why do you think the author wanted to write this story? Would you?  Why or why not?
69. Do you like this story?  Why or why not?
70. Does this story seem interesting to you? Why or why not?
71. Compare this story to the last one you read.  How are they the same?  How are they
different?
72. Was this the best ending for the story?  Why or why not?
73. Do you think the main character acted in the best way? Why or why not?
74. Do you think this is a good story for a fifth grader?  Why or why not?
75. Could this story have happened in the year 2000?  In the year 1600?  Why or why not?
76. How do you think the author could have improved this story?  Be specific.