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Extending the Standards for Gifted/Advanced Learners

VanBuren High School April 18, 2018

Doreen Underwood

Great Prairie AEA

doreen.underwood@gpaea.org

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Agenda

Welcome

Norms

Iowa Definition of Giftedness

Depth of Knowledge

Strategies and Resources for Extending Standards

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Norms

Support each other in the learning process

Monitor progress (individual/group)

Ask questions

Respect others’ viewpoints

Take time to reflect

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Outcomes for the day

Participants will…

Understand the importance of clearly defining success criteria for students
Learn about Webb’s Depth of Knowledge and how it can be used to increase the complexity of grade level standards
Practice & engage in a process to extend the grade level standards for gifted and advanced learners

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Iowa’s Definition of Gifted Learners

“Gifted and talented children” refers to those students, distinguished from the total K-12 student population, who are identified as possessing outstanding ability and who are capable of high performance. Gifted and talented children are children who require appropriate instruction and educational services commensurate with their abilities and needs beyond those provided by the regular school program.

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Iowa’s Definition of Gifted Learners

Gifted and talented children include those children with demonstrated achievement or potential ability, or both, in any of the following areas or in combination: general intellectual ability, creative thinking, leadership ability, visual and performing arts ability, or specific ability aptitude.

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How can we define Exceeds?

Silently read this short article from Thomas Guskey on “Why Exceeds Doesn’t Work”

Text code the article: PMI:

Plus: I agree
Minus: I disagree
Interesting: I find this interesting or this challenges my thinking

Discuss your codes with an elbow partner.

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Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

Norman Webb’s Depth-of-Knowledge (DOK) schema has become one of the key tools educators can employ to analyze the cognitive demand (complexity) intended by the standards, curricular activities, and assessment tasks. Webb (1997) developed a process and criteria for systematically analyzing the alignment between standards and test items in standardized assessments. Since then the process and criteria have demonstrated application to reviewing curricular alignment as well. The model categorizes assessment tasks by different levels of cognitive expectation, or depth of knowledge, required to successfully complete the task. Hess (2004-2012) further articulated the model with content-specific descriptions for use by classroom teachers and organizations conducting alignment studies.

How might this help collaborative teams discuss expectations for exceeding the standard?

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Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

Adapted from the model used by Norman Webb, University of Wisconsin, to align standards with assessments
Used for assessment alignment in more than twenty states
Serves as a mechanism to ensure that the intent of the standard and the level of student demonstration required by that standard matches the assessment items

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Depth of Knowledge

Focuses on content standard in order to successfully complete an assessment/standard task

Is not the same as difficulty

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Why Depth of Knowledge?

Serves as a mechanism to ensure that the intent of the standard and the level of student demonstration required by that standard matches the assessment items

Provides cognitive-processing ceiling (highest level students can be assessed) for item development

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Recall & Reproduction: Level 1
Skills & Concepts: Level 2
Strategic Thinking: Level 3
Extended Thinking: Level 4

Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Levels:

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Recall and Reproduction: Level 1

DOK 1 requires recall of information, such as a fact, definition, or term, or performance of a simple process or procedure.
Answering a Level 1 item can involve following a simple, well-known procedure or formula. Simple skills and abilities or recall characterize DOK 1.

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DOK Level 1 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
Identify basic rules for participating in simple games and activities

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Skills and Concepts: Level 2

DOK 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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DOK Level 2 Examples

Compare desert and tropical environments
Identify and summarize the conflicts in literary text
Explain the cause-effect of historical events
Explain how good work habits are important at home, at school, and on the job
Classify plane and three-dimensional figures
Describe various styles of music

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Strategic Thinking: Level 3

DOK 3 requires deep understanding as exhibited through planning, using evidence, and more demanding cognitive reasoning. The cognitive demands at Level 3 are complex and abstract.

An assessment item 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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DOK Level 3 Examples

Compare consumer actions and analyze how these actions impact the environment
Analyze or evaluate the effectiveness of literary elements (e.g., characterization, setting, point of view, conflict and resolution, plot structures)
Solve a multiple-step problem and provide support with a mathematical explanation that justifies the answer

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�� Extended Thinking: Level 4 ��

DOK 4 requires high cognitive demand and is very complex. Students are expected to make connections—relate ideas within the content or among content areas—and have to select or devise one approach among many alternatives on how to solve the problem.

Due to the complexity of cognitive demand, DOK 4 often requires an extended period of time.

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DOK Level 4 Examples

Gather, analyze, organize, and interpret information from multiple sources (print and nonprint) to draft a reasoned report
Analyze author’s craft (e.g., style, bias, literary techniques, point of view)
Create an exercise plan applying the “FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type) Principle”

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The depth of knowledge level is NOT determined by the verb, but by the context in which the verb is used and the depth of thinking required.

Depth of Knowledge

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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)
DOK 2: Describe the difference between metamorphic and igneous rocks. (requires cognitive processing to determine the differences in the two rock types)
DOK 1: Describe three characteristics of metamorphic rocks. (simple recall)

The Verb Issue

Same verb—three DOK levels

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What about Blooms?

With an elbow partner discuss:

How can you use what you know about Blooms to help with DOK?
What are some of the similarities and differences?

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An item/standard written to DOK 3 often contains DOK 1 and DOK 2 level demands.

DOK Levels Can Be Cumulative

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Remember…

DOK is a scale of cognitive demand.
Determining the DOK levels requires looking at the assessment item, not student work, in order to determine the level. DOK is about the item not the student.
The context of the assessment item, and not the verb chosen, must be considered when determining DOK.

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Checking for Understanding

DOK Sort

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Can you identify the DOK level of different tasks?

Each envelope on your table contains reading and writing tasks

As a table team sort the tasks by DOK level
There are reading and writing examples for DOK levels 1-4
Make sure you can explain why the task fits the DOK level you selected

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Hess Matrices

A Tool for extending the depth of content standards

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Hess Matrices

The Hess matrices are one resource you may want to use to deepen the level of complexity for your exceeds column. By identifying the box on the matrix the on-level expectation is, you can them move to the right and/or down in this tool for verbs that will deepen the complexity of the task.

Karin Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix (Reading)

Karin Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix (Writing/Speaking)

Karin Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix (Math/Science)

Karin Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix (Social Studies/Humanities)

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Extending the Standards Protocol

Step 1: Select a standard to work with

Iowa Department of Education Website for Content Standards:

https://iowacore.gov/

With your table group, use the Flip Chart to identify the DOK needed to demonstrate grade level proficiency for this standard

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Extending the Standards Protocol

Step 2: Use the Hess Matrix to increase the complexity of the grade level task

First identify which level the grade level task is at
Any box below or to the right of where the grade level task is gives one ideas for stems to help create tasks that increase the cognitive rigor.

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Feedback

Before you leave today, please take 2 sticky notes and give me feedback on the following:

Plus:

What went well?
What works for you?
What can you use in your classroom in the future?

Delta:

What could be improved?
What could be done differently?

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References

Author Unknown. (2010) Measured Progress Depth of Knowledge Basics powerpoint

Hess, K. (2014). Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrices. In Dr. Karin Hess Educational Research in Action.Retrieved from: http://www.karin-hess.com/free-resources

Iowa Department of Education (2018) Definition of Gifted and Talented. Retrieved from: https://www.educateiowa.gov/pk-12/advanced-learning-opportunities/gifted-talented