Here’s a question I saw on several worksheets, from reading and social studies.
Place the following events in the correct order.
And then there’s a list of events from a story’s plot or from an event in history. Students put the events in the correct order. The end.
So, obviously, this is low-level. My most brilliant students will all give me the exact same answers. But it’s also a one-off, which is the true problem. It’s fine to ask a Remember-level question… if I’m using it to set up thinking. But there were no follow up questions on this worksheet. The next question was about matching vocabulary and definitions.
Worst of all, a question like this is just boring — for the students and the teacher.
So, let’s aim higher!
A Synthesis Question
Rather than just restate the plot in order, let’s speculate about the effects of changing the sequence of events.
Imagine that Event Y happened before Event X. How would that have changed things?
“Change it and explain the effects” is my favorite shortcut for getting to the Synthesize level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
And let’s get specific.
A Specific Story
If we’re reading something even as basic as The Cat in the Hat, I can still set the stage for students to think.
Imagine that Mom came home while they were cleaning up instead of after the Cat left.
And then, I make a sequence (and remember, I only give students the next part once they’ve done the previous part to my satisfaction):
- Would this version of The Cat in the Hat be better or worse?
- Would this have changed the moral of the story?
- Write the ending to this new version of the story.
Do you see how much room there is here for your students to self-differentiate? Your most creative minds will come up with delightfully different ideas. And if it works for the darn Cat In The Hat, imagine how it would work for a story you actually read!
An Event From History
Looking at social studies,
Let’s not stop with: “Put the events leading to the American Revolution in order.” Instead, let’s aim for:
“Imagine that The Stamp Act came either five years earlier or five years later. Which would have had a larger impact on the lead up to American Revolution?”
And I’d scaffold it, of course:
- Why was the Stamp Act significant to the American colonists?
- Imagine that the Stamp Act had come five years earlier, in the midst of the French and Indian War. How would this have changed its significance?
- Now imagine that the Stamp Act came five years later, around the time of the Boston Massacre. How would this have changed its significance?
Then, we can ask our final question: which of these situation would have had a larger impact on the American Revolution?
And, yep, we can still ask the “put the events in order question” first. But that’s a scaffold now, not our final goal.