Chapter 5c: The Curriculum

               Objectives are one of the most significant parts of creating a unit or lesson plan.  They are important because they are what a teacher uses as a standard to determine if the students are meeting the requirements outlined in the national or state standards. 

                Because the core of the objectives come from the national and state standards, the objectives must be written in a manner that covers all aspects of measurement.  This is where Bloom’s Taxonomy comes in. 

                They are six ascending levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, synthesis, and evaluation.  Each of these levels play a significant role in the outlining of what the students should be able to do at the end of the unit or lesson.  However, there is a distinction between the lower and higher order levels of thinking.  The lower order levels are knowledge and comprehension, and the application, synthesis, and application levels are higher order.  These two levels are distinguished by the level of cognitive ability needed to fulfill the levels.  For example, the knowledge level of the hierarchy requires simple tasks such as labeling or defining; whereas, the level of synthesis requires the compilation, understanding, and a creation of something based on a topic or theory. 

                Because I believe both lower and higher order levels are important, I will utilize both in my classroom.  I see this ascending hierarchy as a means to guide the students in a scaffolding manner when it comes to units or lessons.  I am a big supporter or scaffolding and Vygotsky’s theory of ZPD, so I would absolutely see Bloom’s Taxonomy as a means to fulfill the undertakings of these beliefs.

                When it comes to units and lessons, you are more likely to see a lower order thinking objectives within lesson plans are they are the everyday learning steps toward the big idea.  However, you will still find some higher order level thinking objectives in the lesson plans, but they are more typically found in the objectives for the unit plans.