Bloom's Taxonomy & DOK Question Stems for Every Lesson
Good questioning is planned, not improvised. Bloom's Taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge give you a ladder - so you can deliberately move students from recalling a fact to reasoning with it. Keep these stems on your desk and reach for the next rung on purpose.
Remember & Understand (DOK 1-2)
- What is…? / Define… / List the steps in…
- Summarize… in your own words.
- What is the main idea of…?
- Give an example of…
Apply (DOK 2)
- How would you use… to solve…?
- What would happen if…?
- Which examples fit… and which don't?
- Show how you'd calculate…
Analyze (DOK 3)
- What evidence supports…?
- Compare and contrast… - what's the most important difference?
- What is the relationship between… and…?
- Why do you think… happened?
Evaluate & Create (DOK 3-4)
- Which is the stronger argument, and why?
- Do you agree with…? Justify your answer with evidence.
- Design a… that would…
- How could you improve…? What trade-offs would that involve?
Use the ladder deliberately
Start a topic lower to build the knowledge, then climb. A DOK 3 'analyze the evidence' question falls flat if students don't yet have the facts to analyze - the levels are a sequence, not a ranking of which questions are 'better'.
LessonHQ writes tiered questions across Bloom's and DOK levels for any topic and grade - with a full answer key - so the climb from recall to reasoning is built into the resource.
LessonHQ builds tiered questions across Bloom's and DOK levels for any topic - with an answer key.
Generate questions by level →