How Notebooking Promotes High-Order Thinking

Dear Mama,

I love notebooking. I learned about this tool during my student teaching, and I fell in love with it. I was so sad that I didn’t get to have my own fancy, pretty notebook because the strategy was fairly new.

What is Notebooking?

Notebooking is a method that promotes higher—order thinking, organizational skills, and shows progress over time.

Let me introduce you to Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy was created by Benjamin Bloom an American educator and psychologist¹. He oranized learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity². And that’s exactly what notebooking does! You can do all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy in one notebooking spread. This doesn't have to be every lesson, but most lessons should hit three to four levels in this framework.

How do Bloom’s Taxonomy³ and Notebooking promote higher-order thinking?

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1. Remember: This is the base of all learning. Here, the student recalls what they have learned (e.g., Who/what did we talk about? When did this take place? Where did this person live?).

2. Understand: In this step, the student can explain ideas and concepts (e.g., Who/what did we talk about? When did this take place? Where did this person live?).

3. Apply: In this step, the student can use what they have learned and understand to find ways to apply it to the real world. In other words, in this step the student is problem solving (ex: Where can you use this skill in real life?).

4. Analyze: In this step, students draw connections between ideas (e.g., How did these two tribes differ in their hunting approach?).

5. Evaluate: In this step, students take a stand on what they believe is right and correct (e.g., Why was the Treaty of Versailles the right/wrong solution for World War I?).

6. Create: Create an original piece of work (e.g., write an original poem on the topic).⁵

I hope this blog post helps you out in notebooking. This really helps me keep notebooking challenging and fun.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Warmly,

Mirley

1. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Benjamin_Bloom

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_taxonomy

3. https://www.utica.edu/academic/Assessment/new/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20-%20Best.pdf

4. Bloom's Taxonomy Chart

5. How to use Bloom’s Taxonomy

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