Bloom’s Strategy: Let students lead

4. Let Students Lead

For starters, you can let students bring their ideas to the Bloom’s framework.

Among other effects, this can make cognitively challenging work at the upper levels of Bloom’s seem more accessible.

One example? Compare and contrast Shakespeare’s use of thematic development across 3 sonnets, or do the same for two songs by The Beatles and one sonnet by Shakespeare. If nothing else, this approach allows students to start any learning experience on somewhat solid ground.

Further, as a classroom, this should collectively yield a diverging collection of media, which can be celebrated in classroom showcases, and community-driven and place-based education, with diversity being among the strategies Silver, Strong, and Perini recommend in Teaching What Matters Most (a book I highly recommend for any educator).