“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”

1. “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” – Plutarch, On Listening to Lectures

2. Understanding Depth of Knowledge (DOK) for Use in Creating Classroom Assessments Presented by Rita Geiger, Educational Consultant Eugene Earsom, OKAGE Program Director Kelly Curtright, Director, Social Studies, OSDE

3. Just What Really is “Depth of Knowledge”? Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is a scale of cognitive demand.

4. Why DOK IS Important! Teachers of all subjects at all grade levels need to understand all DOK levels.

5. Why DOK IS Important! The range of cognitive demand for objectives within each grade spans from DOK 1 to DOK 4. No items written at DOK 4 will appear on the World Geography CRT.

6. Why DOK IS Important! Instruction, assignments, and classroom assessments must incorporate the expectation of rigor for students associated with the DOK levels of all standards and objectives for World Geography.

7. Depth of Knowledge Level 1 Recall Recall of a fact, information, or procedure. Level 2 Skill/Concept Use information or conceptual knowledge, two or more steps, etc. Level 3 Strategic Thinking Requires reasoning, developing a plan or a sequence of steps, some complexity, more than one possible answer. Level 4 Extended Thinking Requires an investigation, time to think and process multiple conditions of the problem.

8. Beginning at the Beginning: What DOK is can best be explained by saying first what DOK is NOT. DOK is not a verb. DOK is not about the “difficulty” of the task. DOK is not a grade-level indicator.

9. DOK is Not a Verb Describe . . . how many apples you see in the picture. the process of photosynthesis. how the two political parties are alike. your analysis of the literary elements in Snow Falling on Cedars as the novel reflected the effect of WWII on America.

10. DOK is About What Follows the Verb What comes after the verb is more important than the verb itself. “Analyze this sentence to decide if the commas have been used correctly” does not meet the criteria for high cognitive processing. Rationale: The student who has been taught the rule for using commas is merely using the rule.

11. DOK is NOT About Difficulty Who was the 16th president of the United States? If all of you know the answer, this question is an easy question. Who was the 14th president of the United States? If most of you do not know the answer, this question is a difficult question.

12. DOK is NOT About Difficulty What is the capital of the Iraq? If all of you know the answer, this question is an easy question. What is the capital of the Guyana? If most of you do not know the answer, this question is a difficult question.

13. DOK is About Intended Outcome, NOT Difficulty! DOK is a reference to the complexity of mental processing that must occur to answer a question, perform a task, or generate a product.

14. DOK ISAbout Complexity Every standard in Geography PASS has a DOK level. Instruction and classroom assessments should reflect the DOK level of the objective.

15. When Assigning the DOK Level, Consider . . . • the level of work students are most commonly required to perform. • the complexity of the task, rather than its difficulty. The DOK level describes the kind of thinking involved in a task, not the likelihood that the task will be completed correctly.

22. Sample Question 1

23. Sample Question 2

24. What Does DOK Look Like in the Classroom? Level One (Recall) – Name the presidents of the United States in order.

25. What Does DOK Look Like in the Classroom? Level Two (Skill/Concept) – Using the right and left political spectrum categorize the presidents of the 20th and 21st centuries according to their political standing.

26. What Does DOK Look Like in the Classroom? Level Three (Strategic Thinking) – Hypothesize how President Dwight D. Eisenhower would react to today’s political situation.

27. What Does DOK Look Like in the Classroom? Level Four (Extended Thinking) - Analyze the strategies and effectiveness of George H. W. Bush’s war strategies in the Persian Gulf with the war strategies of George W. Bush in Iraq.

28. What Does DOK Look Like in the Classroom? Level One (Recall) – Name two crops commonly grown in Argentina.

29. What Does DOK Look Like in the Classroom? Level Two (Skill/Concept) – Make a graph showing the annual production of the four largest crops grown in Argentina.

30. What Does DOK Look Like in the Classroom? Level Three (Strategic Thinking) – Develop a logical argument for planting a particular crop in the Pampas of Argentina, taking into account soils, weather, and other variables.

31. What Does DOK Look Like in the Classroom? Level Four (Extended Thinking) – Design a three year crop rotation system for an estancia of 500 hectares, using as little chemical fertilizer as possible. Justify your system. Project the expected costs and revenues.

32. Examining the Three Levels of DOK Used on the Geography Criterion Referenced Test (CRT)

33. Level 1 - Recall of Information Recall facts, terms, concepts, and trends or recognize or identify specific information contained in graphics.

34. Level 1 - Recall of Information Requires students to identify, list, or define.

35. Level 1 - Recall of Information Recall who, what, when, and where.

36. Level 1 - Recall of Information Recognize or identify specific information contained in documents, excerpts, quotations, maps, charts, tables, graphs, or illustrations.

37. Level 2 - Basic Reasoning Engagement of some mental processing beyond recalling or reproducing a response.

38. Level 2 - Basic Reasoning Requires students to contrast or compare people, places, events, and concepts.

39. Level 2 - Basic Reasoning Convert information from one form to another.

40. Level 2 - Basic Reasoning Classify or sort items into meaningful categories.

41. Level 2 - Basic Reasoning Draw simple conclusions.

42. Level 2 - Basic Reasoning Describe, interpret, or explain issues and problems, patterns, reasons, cause and effect, significance or impact, relationships, points of view, or processes.

43. Level 2 - Basic Reasoning A Level 2 “describe and/or explain” would require students to go beyond a description or explanation of recalled information to describe and/or explain a result or “how” or “why.”

44. Level 3 - Complex Reasoning Requires reasoning, using evidence, and a higher level of thinking than Level 1 and Level 2.

45. Level 3 - Complex Reasoning Draw conclusions from multiple or complex stimuli.

46. Level 3 - Complex Reasoning Use concepts to solve problems.

47. Level 3 - Complex Reasoning Analyze similarities and differences.

48. Level 3 - Complex Reasoning Evaluate solutions to problems.

49. Level 3 - Complex Reasoning Recognize and explain misconceptions.

50. Level 3 - Complex Reasoning Make connections across time and place to explain a concept or “big idea.”