HOT Topics
Bloom's Taxonomy and the HOT ROD Series
Decodable books offer reading practice with previously taught word structures. They don’t always provide the richness of text required to develop Higher Order Thinking skills. The HOT ROD series (Higher Order Thinking through the Reading of Decodables) was developed to do both. Specifically, the questions and activities in the supplementary materials are based on the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy as described by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.
The Components of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
Anderson and Krathwohl changed Bloom’s original six cognitive process categories into active verbs. They range from simple to complex as follows: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create. In addition, they added a grid with a second dimension for four types of knowledge. The list moves from concrete to abstract in this order: Factual, Conceptual, Procedural, and Metacognitive.
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Moving from simple to complex, the most simple and concrete type of response would be Remember + Factual: Recalling specific details from the story. The most complex and abstract type of response would be Create + Metacognitive: Using knowledge gained from the story to make something new that is based on the story or inspired by it.
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The span across the dimensions of Bloom’s taxonomy makes the activities that accompany the books in the HOT ROD series appropriate for students of a wide range of ages and abilities. If students have dyslexia or other learning challenges, remember to scaffold the activities. This may be done by reading directions aloud, allowing verbal responses, or completing activities as a group.
Resources
The Downloadable PDF below provides examples of activities and questions for No Gift for Man from Set 1, Book 1 of the HOT ROD series. Each book in the series will have similar questions and activities. These will be found in the Supplementary Resources. A few of the activities on the downloadable PDF contain links that are available as free resources. In addition, for a deeper discussion of the rationale for each activity and how it connects to the Components of Reading Instruction, visit the page for COR Instruction on this website.
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Based on No Gift for Man by Carolee Dean
Reference
Anderson, L.W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.