Depth of Knowledge Basics

1. Depth of Knowledge Basics Presented by: Jeremy O’Neil

2. Recognizing Key Characteristics of the Common Core State Standards • Are focused and coherent • Are evidence-based • Include rigorous content • Representintegration of interdisciplinary content • Expect students to demonstrate their knowledge • Call for application in real-world context • Require transfer of understanding to multiple situations

3. In order to measure Common Core State Standards effectively, assessments must: • be aligned with the cognitive rigor expected within the standards • be focused on tapping into higher-order thinking skills • require students to apply previous understanding and multiple skills • expect students to synthesize many ideas in order to make judgments

4. Framing Our Thinking • Defining Cognitive Rigor

6. Depth of Knowledge (DOK) • Adapted from the model used by Norman Webb, University of Wisconsin, to align assessments with standards • Used by Smarter Balance and PARCC Consortiums

7. Depth of Knowledge • Focuses on content and Process standard in order to successfully complete an assessment/standard task • Descriptive, not a taxonomy • About Complexity, not difficulty

8. Cognitive Complexity • Webb’s Depth of Knowledge • Bloom’s Taxonomy • Level 1: Recall • Arrange, recognize, match • Level 2: Basic Application of Skill/Concept • Categorize, predict, show • Level 3: Strategic Thinking • Formulate, cite evidence • Level 4: Extended Thinking • Design, synthesize, create • Remember • Recognize, recall • Understand • Construct, clarify, summarize • Apply • Predict, apply • Analyze • Analyze, organize • Evaluate • Make judgments • Create • Reorganize, design

9. Recall and Reproduction: Level 1 • Level 1 requires recall of information such as a fact, definition, 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 Level 1.

10. Level 1 Examples • List animals that survive by eating other animals. • Locate or recall facts explicitly found in the 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.

11. Skills and Concepts: Level 2 • 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 step or process.

12. Level 2 Examples • Compare desert and tropical environments. • Identify and summarize the major events, problem, solution, and 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.

13. Strategic Thinking: Level 3 • Level 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.

14. 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.

15. Extended Thinking: Level 4 • Level 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 the situation can be solved. • Due to the complexity of cognitive demand, Level 4 often requires an extended period of time.

16. Level 4 Examples • Design a comprehensive health plan for multiple types of clients which includes a workout program, nutritional guide, and preventive healthcare guide. • Conduct a research project relating to local recycling issues, include hypothesis, data collection, presentation.

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

18. The Verb Issue • DOK Level 3: Describe a model that you might use to represent the relationships that exist within the rock. • Requires deep understanding of rock cycle and a determination of how best to represent it • DOK Level 2: Describe the difference between metamorphic and igneous rocks. • Requires cognitive processing to determine the differences in the two rock types • DOK Level 1: Describe three characteristics of metamorphic rocks. • Simple recall • Same verb – three DOK levels

19. DOK Levels Can Be Cumulative • Interpret a fraction as division of the numerator by the denominator (a/b = a÷b) • Solve word problems involving division of whole numbers leading to answers in the form of fractions or mixed numbers, e.g., by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem • CR ITEM • An item or standard written to DOK Level 3 often contains DOK Level 1 and DOK Level 2 demands.

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

22. Evidence from Item Types • Different item types provide different evidence of student understanding. Show clip from Module 2.

23. Multiple-Choice Items • (Items and distractor rationales shown here – one ELA and one math) • What evidence do these items provide?

24. More on Distractor Analysis • The role of a distractor is to identify the nature of a student’s misunderstanding and give insight into student learning. • Analyzing student response patterns can inform instruction and help monitor the effectiveness of intervention. • What evidence do these items provide?

25. Short-Answer Items • Short-answer items may provide more insight about student understanding than multiple-choice items. • Short-answer items fall in between multiple-choice items and constructed-response items. • What evidence does this item provide?

26. Short Answer Response

27. Evidence Based Selected Response Items • EBSR are two part items that require students to identify the justification of their initial response. • What evidence do these items provide?

28. Constructed-Response Items • Constructed-response items require students to provide more evidence of understanding by showing their work and explaining their reasoning. • What evidence do these items provide?

30. Scaffolding • Scaffolding helps students approach complex assessment tasks by • breaking down the task into multiple parts • starting with easier parts and progressing to more complex parts • Teachers get a better sense of existing gaps when learning progressions are incorporated into the scaffolding of the item.

31. Performance Tasks • Performance based tasks integrate knowledge and skills across multiple claims and targets • PTs measure depth of understanding, research skills, and/or complex analysis with relevant evidence • Require student-initiated planning, management of information/data and ideas, and/or interaction with other materials.

32. Performance Tasks cont… • Reflect real-world task and/or scenario-based problems • Allows for multiple approaches • Allows for demonstration of knowledge

33. Item Types Matter • Some item types are • better suited for • collecting specific • and varying kinds • of evidence. • A lot depends on the target being assessed.

34. Oneil.jeremy@measuredprogress.org • 310-936-5431