I think one of the most powerful learning tools teachers can bring into the classroom is a poster of the updated Bloom’s Taxonomy. Considering how many print-ready posters are already online, if I were an administrator, I’d provide all my teachers with  full-blown, color-coded charts they could easily point to and use as a framework for discussing the multiple approaches to conquering content standards.

The power of a Bloom’s Taxonomy is maximized when students  align everything from daily assignments to long-term projects to the six levels.

I recently joined elementary computer lab teacher Kelly Tenkely for a wonderful Elluminate session on Creative Thinking with Digital Blooms Taxonomy webinar. Her presentation is on the LiveBinders site and includes samples of the grade-level appropriate graphic organizers, such as the peacock below, she – and her students – have developed to help think through the levels various assignments fall into.

As Kelly explains, “I created the Bloomin’ Peacock to show teachers the Blooms Taxonomy break down and the Bloomin’ digital Peacock that shows how the digital tools in the supplement break down.” By making Bloom’s levels more visual, her students become active participants in analyzing the steps (which are sometimes recursive) involved in moving from remember to create. For Kelly, the difference is between simply focusing on a tool  itself to using that tool to extend learning across the content areas.

The Visual Blooms Wiki is a great resource for more ideas on  rolling out Bloom’s taxonomy with a 21st century skills frame. Check out the Web 2.0 graphic, which I just shared with a high school English teacher…who is now rethinking how his 11th graders will reflect on the lessons of the Holocaust and Elie Wiesel’s powerful survivor story Night.

With so many possibilities for learning  tied to and promoted through shared conversations between teacher to students, students to students, students to teacher, and students to the world, I am intrigued by the structure Bloom’s Taxonomy provides for jump starting and guiding the conversations.