Connecting Depth of Knowledge to Instruction: Instructional Rigor'

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Connecting Depth of Knowledge to Instruction
Instructional Rigor.

• Kentucky Department of Education
• sean.elkins_at_education.ky.gov

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Todays goals

• Review the four levels of DOK
• Discuss the importance of DOK with regard to the
  the classroom
• Discuss the relationship of rigorous assessment
  to rigorous instruction.
• Find ways to increase instructional rigor

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National Standards Learning Goals Academic
Expectations
Program of Studies
Core Content
Depth of Knowledge
District and School Curriculum
Curriculum Hierarchy
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Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

• Taken from the model developed by Norman Webb,
  University of Wisconsin, to align standards with
  assessments
• Used by the Council of Chief State School
  Officers (CCSSO) for assessment alignment in more
  than ten states

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Why Depth of Knowledge?

• Mechanism to ensure that the intent of the
  standard and the level of student demonstration
  required by that standard matches the assessment
  items (required under NCLB)
• Provides cognitive processing ceiling for item
  development

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Why Depth of Knowledge?

• No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires assessments
  to measure the depth and breadth of the state
  academic content standards for a given grade
  level (U.S. Department of Education, 2003, p.
  12)

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Depth of Knowledge

• Focuses on the cognitive processing that is
  required to complete an assessment task
• Descriptive, not a taxonomy
• Not the same as difficulty

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Depth of KnowledgeFour Levels of Depth of
Knowledge

• Recall and Reproduction - Level 1
• Skills Concepts/Basic Reasoning - Level 2
• Strategic Thinking/Complex Reasoning - Level 3
• Extended Thinking/Reasoning - Level 4

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Recall and Reproduction - Level 1
requires recall of information, such as a fact,
definition, term, or performing a simple process
or procedure. A student either knows the answer
or doesnt. Answering a Level 1 item can involve
following a simple, well-known procedure or
formula. Simple skills and abilities or rote
responses characterize DOK 1.
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Recall and Reproduction Examples

• List animals that survive by eating other
  animals.
• Locate or recall facts explicitly found in text
• Describe physical features of places
• Determine the perimeter or area of rectangles
  given a drawing or labels
• Identify elements of music using musical
  terminology
• Recognize basic rules for participating in simple
  games and activities

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Skills Concepts/Basic Reasoning - Level 2
includes the engagement of some mental processing
beyond recalling or reproducing a response. Items
require students to make some decisions as to how
to approach the question or problem. These
actions imply more than one mental or cognitive
process/step.
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Skills and Concepts Examples

• Compare desert and tropical environments
• Identify and summarize the major events, problem,
  solution, conflicts in literary text
• Explain the cause-effect of historical events
• Predict a logical outcome based on information in
  a reading selection
• Explain how good work habits are important at
  home, school, and on the job.
• Classify plane and three dimensional figures
• Describe various styles of music

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Strategic Thinking/Complex Reasoning - Level 3
requires deep knowledge as exhibited through
planning, using evidence, and more demanding
cognitive reasoning. The cognitive demands at
Level 3 are complex and abstract. An activity
that has more than one possible answer and
requires students to justify the response they
give would most likely be a Level 3.
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Strategic Thinking Examples

• Compare consumer actions and analyze how these
  actions impact the environment
• Analyze interrelationships among elements of the
  text (plot, subplots, characters, setting)
• Solve a multiple-step problem and provide support
  with a mathematical explanation that justifies
  the answer

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Strategic Thinking Examples

• Develop a scientific model for a complex idea
• Propose and evaluate solutions for an economic
  problem
• Explain, generalize or connect ideas, using
  supporting evidence from a text or source
• Create a dance that represents the
  characteristics of a culture

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Extended Thinking/Reasoning - Level 4
requires high cognitive demand and is very
complex. Students are expected to make several
connectionsrelate ideas within the content or
among content areasand have to select or devise
one approach among many alternatives on how the
situation can be solved. Due to the complexity
of cognitive demand, DOK 4 often requires an
extended period of time.
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However, extended time alone is not the
distinguishing factor.
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Extended Thinking Examples

• Gather, analyze, organize, and interpret
  information from multiple (print and non print
  sources) to draft a reasoned report
• Analyzing authors craft (e.g., style, bias,
  literary techniques, point of view)
• Create an exercise plan applying the FITT
  Principle

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Extended Thinking Examples

• Analyze and explain multiple perspectives or
  issues within or across time periods, events, or
  cultures
• Specify a problem, identify solution paths, solve
  the problem, and report the results
• Write and produce an original play

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DOK is NOT Difficulty

• List Kentuckys 120 counties.
• (Hard, but not complex)
• List the most embarrassing event of your life.
  Explain why it was so embarrassing, then describe
  what you would do differently if you could relive
  that event.
• (Complex, but not hard)

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DOK is not verb-dependent
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DOK 1- Describe three characteristics of
metamorphic rocks. (simple recall) DOK 2-
Describe the difference between metamorphic and
igneous rocks. (requires cognitive processing to
determine the differences in the two rock types)
DOK 3- Describe a model that you might use to
represent the relationships that exist within the
rock cycle. (requires deep understanding of rock
cycle and a determination of how best to
represent it)
Same verbthree DOK levels
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Remember

• Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is a scale of cognitive
  demand.
• DOK requires looking at the assessment
  item/standard-not student work-in order to
  determine the level. DOK is about the
  item/standard-not the student.
• The context of the assessment item/standard must
  be considered to determine the DOK not just a
  look at what verb was chosen.

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Increasing DOK levels

• DOK 1 items arent evil
• Assessment design suggests a mix of complexity
• KCCT DOK designations are ceilings, not floors
• Increased DOK on assessments must be accompanied
  by classroom practice that supports cognitive
  complexity

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Increasing DOK levels (cont.)

• Response to graphics (meaningful)
• Justification-explain thinking
• Multiple plausible responses
• Prediction, extrapolation
• Synthesize data from multiple sources
• Develop a model
• Reliance on evidence
• Focus on concepts, not trivia
• Less what, more how and why
• Comparison, analysis

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Instructional Implications

• Rigorous assessment- examine classroom summative
  and formative assessments for levels of DOK.
• Rigorous instruction- your instructional
  strategies must support cognitively complex
  assessment.

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Instructional Implications

• DOK was created specifically to measure
  assessment-it is not an instructional term.
• We already have plenty of measures of
  instructional depth (Blooms, anyone?)
• Use DOK to talk about assessment
• Strategies that increase DOK on assessments are a
  good place to start when changing instructional
  practice

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Next steps

• Deconstructing standards to uncover student
  learning targets
• Connecting instruction to assessment- assessing
  learning targets
• Crosswalk activities and assessments
• Effective instructional strategies

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Assessment and Instruction must work hand in hand
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You need a common understanding of rigor, not a
common definition!
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Rigor?

• I shall not today attempt to define the kinds of
  material I understand to be (it) and perhaps I
  could never succeed in intelligibly doing so.
  But I know it when I see it...

-Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, ruling on
what constitutes obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio
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Do we know it when we see it?
Rigorous instruction?
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What is rigor?

• Questions to discuss
• Whats the difference between hard (difficult)
  work and rigorous work?
• Can you have an assignment that is rigorous but
  not difficult?

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What is rigor?

• Instructional Rigor and Student Engagement a
  teacher supports and encourages a students
  commitment to initiate and complete complex,
  inquiry-based learning requiring creative and
  critical thinking with attention to problem
  solving
• (from CHQTL document)

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What is rigor?
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Ranking rigor

• Briefly scan the lesson plans with your group
• Rank them ino rder of increasing rigor-discuss
• Move around the room and observe how other groups
  have ranked them--do we all agree?

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Whats missing from this equation?
Rigorous Instruction Rigorous Assessment (X)
Student Success
X Student Engagement
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Engagement is the path to rigor

• Gateway to acceptance of rigorous work
• Engaged students dont become office referrals
• Positive attitudes foster positive results
• The person doing the work is the person doing the
  learning school shouldnt be a place where kids
  come to watch teachers work

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Planning for Rigor

• What is the most rigorous lesson you teach all
  year? What makes it rigorous?
• What is the most engaging lesson you teach all
  year? What makes it engaging?
• How can you blend the attributes? (not the
  content!)

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Rigor Safari!

• Best done in PLCs, small groups
• Tuning protocols
• Common definition is critical
• Is it rigorous or is it just hard? is the most
  common question

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Roadmap to Rigor

• Identify learning targets
• Practice backward design (targetsgtassessmentsgtlear
  ning experiences)
• Check for alignment-CRUCIAL

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• If students make a good-faith effort on every
  activity and assignment, will I have given them
  the opportunity to learn (or demonstrate) what my
  assessment actually measures?

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Roadmap to Rigor
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Roadmap to Rigor

• Start with your most engaging activities
• Find ways to incorporate higher levels of
  thinking discussions, extensions, real-life
  connections
• Dont be a Blooming idiot

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Try it yourself

• Think about the most engaging lesson you taught
  (or observed) this year. How could it have been
  more rigorous?
• Think about the most rigorous lesson you taught
  (or observed) this year. How could it have been
  more engaging?

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Vocabulary clues A

• DOK 3
• DOK 1
• Rigor
• Difficulty

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Vocabulary clues B

• DOK 2
• DOK 4
• Engagement
• Relevance