Analysis

Day 4, Bloom's Taxonomy

The one who gets wisdom loves life; the one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper. Proverbs 19:8 (NIV)

              I had two quiet girls in my fourth-grade classroom. They sat by each other, shared books between one another, kept journals, and loved to write stories. These girls also had an intellectual sense of humor; they made word plays and jokes under their breath with each other. I grew to enjoy their humor and banter, but especially their love for the deeper things.

              One of the girls was reading the Harry Potter series and her friend wasn’t ready to tackle that large of a book, so the first girl would ask to sit with me at lunch and discuss what she was reading. She shared her favorite parts, made in depth inferences about various characters and scenes, and analyzed why she thought certain characters conducted themselves in the ways they did. This young lady was hungry for more—more knowledge, more understanding, more wisdom.

              In high school, one of my dearest friends made decisions without thinking about the big picture scenario. When he turned eighteen, he opened a line of credit at a local furniture store. His family wasn’t able to spend money on extras, so he decided now that he could open lines of credit, he could get whatever he wanted. A week later, he called me outside and in the trunk of his car was the most hideous monkey rug I’d ever seen; but to him, it was amazing. He then purchased lamps, artwork, and shelving units until his whole bedroom was perfect.

              The next month, the bill came in. His minimum payment was nineteen dollars a month, but he had charged nearly a thousand. He couldn’t understand why I was so concerned and obviously he had no concept of interest accumulation. A few months later, he and his mom cosigned on a mobile home. Within a few months his mom lost her full time job and my friend, still in high school, had to make payments on the house from his part time CNA job. It wasn’t long before his financial life was turned upside down and he had to file for bankruptcy before he turned twenty-one.

              My friend knew about credit, but no application of how to use it, much less analyzing how to move forward with a budget and living within his means. Most students aren’t like my Harry Potter fan; they are more like my high school friend. They don’t have people at home teaching them how to read between the lines, make assumptions, and come to correct conclusions. We must teach them.

              Some of the ways to assess students at the Analysis level of Bloom’s Taxonomy are:

·       Distinguish between what could and couldn’t happen in this story versus real life.

·       Compare and contrast the two species of poison dart frogs.

·       Differentiate facts in the story from statements that are opinion in nature.

·       Select parts of the story that were the funniest, saddest, scariest, or most humiliating.

Notice how the level of brain involvement increases with each category on the taxonomy. If we want to help our students attain subject mastery, we must guide them toward higher levels of thought. Would our students say that we are challenging them? Would they say we are teaching them to analyze the world around them?

Do the Heart Work

1.      Name your students who are your higher-level thinkers. What made them this way?

2.      In what ways do you purposely teach students how to analyze topics in your subject area?

3.      Do you take people at face value or dig deep and analyze what they are saying when you’ve never heard their perspective before?

Digging Deeper

1.      Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 (NIV) 

a.      In order to break the patterns of this world, we must analyze the patterns and find the flaws. Renewing, transforming, and not conforming are important pieces of growing deeply spiritually.

2.      And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. Philippians 1:9-10 (NIV)

a.      Paul desires for the Philippian believers not to settle for surface spiritual maturity. He prays for them to dive deep and to discern what is pure. These are higher level prayers.

If You Get Spare Time 

              Spend some time with a friend or by yourself and think through the following questions:

Who am I when no one is looking? 2. What are the sins that I fail to acknowledge or that I justify? 3. How am I intentionally growing in Christ? 4. Who challenges me to grow the most in my spiritual walk with Christ? How do I know?