Prospective or current teachers are skilled assessors; workshop participants apply their assessing skills to identify the presence of Bloom's taxonomy in real-world lesson plans. Separate the workshop participants into pairs. Each pair receives a written lesson plan that includes learning objectives and relevant activities. The pairs assess the lesson plans and identify the varying levels of Bloom's taxonomy evident in the plan. The pairs present their lesson plan assessments to the class; for lesson plans that involve a limited variety of strategies and student tasks, pairs present alternative activities that would use a wider variety of learning categories according to Bloom's taxonomy.
Appeal to a teacher's subject area to engage him in workshop activities. Each teacher creates a quick outline of a lesson they may use in their classroom. The outline should include a topic, learning objective and major student activities. After the outline is complete, participants review their lesson plans and identify which of Bloom's categories are present. Each participant then creates a chart of Bloom's taxonomy; under each category, participants list an activity relevant to their lesson that applies to the category. Participants than select the top three activities and share them with the group.
Teachers benefit from creating an easy-to-follow graphic organizer that explains Bloom's taxonomy. Workshop participants create a hierarchical chart that begins with knowledge, the most basic level of cognitive inquiry. Draw a box and write "Knowledge" at the top of the box. Beneath the word, participants write key words or target works that indicate a task falls into the knowledge category; sample works for knowledge include define, remember, recall, list, tell or identify. An arrow beneath the box then leads to the second category, comprehension. Each box should include the name of the category and the relevant target words. For a list of target words for each category (see Resources).