I uncovered this worksheet from when I taught ancient civilizations. We were comparing Alexander The Great and Julius Caesar. I know what you’re thinking! Compare and contrast? Oh, he’s already at Analyze? Great job.
But, look at this table that I gave students. You’ll see that my questions were actually at the Remember level. I’m asking students to remember facts, not Analyze leaders.
This table sets up an Analyze question, but I never actually asked an Analyze question. Instead, I jumped from Remember all the way to Evaluate with no scaffolding. I need a smoother transition from the low-level table to the higher-levels of Bloom’s.
Also, my Evaluate question was, “Who was better?” That is painfully dull. We need to sharpen that. (More on sharpening questions here.)
I’ll keep the original table. Then, I’ll ask a sequence of questions. Remember, each part is a checkpoint. Students do not get to see Part 2 until they’ve answered Part 1 to my satisfaction.
- Part 1: (I’ll keep the table from above, but ditch “Who was better?”)
- Part 2: What do these two leaders have in common? What might they disagree about? (This is the missing Analyze step!)
- Part 3: If you were to give an award to each of the leaders, what would those awards be for? Think of a clever name and description for each one. The awards can be positive or negative.
- Part 4: Pick one of the awards to present to the leader. Write a short speech to explain to the crowd why this person has earned this particular award. (You can have your students actually design and present their award in class or not).
- Part 5: Tour your classmates’ awards. Which awards would Caesar appreciate? And which would he decline? Write from Caesar’s perspective. (You could also offer Alexander as a choice).
This little sequence offers so much more opportunity for thinking than my original, meek, “Who was better?”
Yep, I have a video version of this at Byrdseed.TV.