BLOOM’S TAXONOMY: A GUIDE

A Taxonomy Classifying Six Levels of Comprehension and the Story Elements

Bloom’s Taxonomy (Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objective, 1956) is one classification system that demonstrates the many types of questions that children can be taught in developing comprehension. The categories can overlap. This offers a guide for teachers, parents and students in generating questions that reflect different levels of thinking and comprehension. Questions in generic form taken from the levels can be learned and internalized by children so that they can think about and focus on these while reading, heightening their comprehension process. Such questioning can be done before children even learn to read, after reading to them. Such questioning can be done about TV shows, movies, plays and day- to- day life experiences. Specific questions from the different categories will insure a deep understanding of what is read. Students can learn how to generate questions reflecting these categories.

Story Elements include the Settings (places, times in the story) the Plot (what happens in the story); the Characters (the people, animals, beings in the story); and the Themes (main ideas, morals, universal truths, universal relationships; lessons learned)

To demonstrate the categories, Cinderella is used below. The questions are only examples of each category and by no means exhaustive. Next to each question you will see a bold S for Setting, P for Plot, C for Characters or T for Theme. You can see how questions can reflect overlapping elements.

KNOWLEDGE LEVEL:

These are questions recalling facts and details about characters, setting or plot and can include what, where, who, when, how and where questions.

• How many stepsisters did Cinderella have? C
• When did Cinderella leave the ball?P
• What was used to make Cinderella’s carriage? P/S
• Where did Cinderella meet the prince? S
• Who helped Cinderella get to the ball? C

COMPREHENSION LEVEL:

These questions check for understanding memory (sequence) or interpretative skills and include the why questions and retelling parts or the whole plot.

• Why was Cinderella sad? C/P
• Retell three main parts of the story in the order that they happened. P Why were the stepsisters so mean to Cinderella? C

APPLICATION LEVEL:

These questions apply the text to the reader’s world and other texts.

• Can you think of a time when you wanted to go somewhere very badly and you couldn’t, like Cinderella wanting to go to the ball? C/P/T
• Do you have someone in your life like Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother? T/C
• Can you think of a time this person helped you? P/C
• How is Cinderella like another book or movie you know? P/C/T/S

ANAYLYSIS LEVEL:

These questions break down information by categorizing or identifying parts.

• What part of the story made you feel excited? Happy? Sad? P
• What was your favorite part of the story? P
• Where in the story would you like to visit? S
• What place in the story did you not like? Why? S
• What could be real or make-believe? (fact or fantasy) C/P/S/T

SYNTHESIS LEVEL:

Here you are taking what is given and creating something new. These are questions that use the information in the story in a new, original way by expanding on what was given. Such examples of these would be taking a character’s point of view or creating a new ending for the story.

• What would it be like to have Cinderella for a friend? C/P
• How would you change the ending of Cinderella? P/S
• Rewrite the story with a nice stepmother. C
• Become a character in the story and tell the story from your point of view. C

EVALUATION LEVEL:

These questions help us decide on the value of our information. They can be questions about the theme or lessons learned from the story. They are questions about making judgments about the plot, characters, theme or setting.

• Do you think the story had a happy ending? P
• Why or why not? Who is a kind character in the story? C
• What is a lesson learned (or theme) in the story of Cinderella? T
• Did you like this story? Why or why not? P/C/S/T