HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS

When we talk about HOTS "higher-order thinking skills" we're concentrating on the

top three levels of Bloom's Taxonomy: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Questions that tap higher level thinking

SkillSample Prompts

Purpose Level

Creatingdesign, construct, plan, produce

combine elements into a new pattern or product

Higher

Evaluatingcheck, critique, judge, hypothesize, conclude, explain

judge or decide according to a set of criteria

Higher

Analyzingcompare, organize, cite differences, deconstruct

break down or examine information

Higher

Asking "Good" Questions to Promote Higher Order Thinking SkillsTo increase higher order thinking:How did you get that answer?Can you explain your thinking?What makes that tricky?What would happen if…?What words in the story prove that?Can you give an example of that?

BLOOM’S TAXANOMY Higher Order Thinking Skills, also called critical

thinking skills categorizes lesson activities and questions into a pyramid. HOTS are categorized from the top down, in order of skill required and educational value of question type.

Evaluation - Making decisions Synthesis - Using information in new ways to create new

thingsAnalysis - Identifying components Application - Using information to solve given problems Comprehension - Restating, paraphrasing, summarizing Knowledge - Rote fact recall (These are on the bottom

because they are both the most common and least effective)