Look at the two 5th grade assessment questions above. The first question is from a 2012 California Standards Test. The second question is from a 2014 Smarter Balanced Common Core assessment. In the first question, students only need to remember the formula for volume and complete the calculation. In the second question, students must recognize that the problem is assessing volume, and then calculate the volume with a variable height that would equal the volume of 1050 cubic inches. The Smarter Balanced question involves a higher level of thinking and a deeper knowledge of the concept of volume. Seeing this evolution in testing, it’s no wonder why administrators often ask DataWORKS, “What are you doing to address the Depth of Knowledge issue?”
Depth of Knowledge Levels
In the latest round of Common Core assessment questions released by Smarter Balanced, each question is labeled with a Depth of Knowledge (DOK) level. The four levels and examples of questions within each level are shown below:
DOK Level 1: Recall.
Recall facts, information, or procedures.
ELA
According to the presentation, what happens when a star is near a black hole? (4th grade)
Which word would make her word choice better? (6th grade)
Choose the sentence that is punctuated correctly. (11th grade)
Choose the sentence that does not contain errors in grammar usage. (8th grade)
MATH
Click all of the shapes that are quadrilaterals. (3rd grade)
Enter the temperature in degrees Celsius (C) equal to 113 degrees Fahrenheit (F). (6th grade)
Multiply and combine like terms to determine the product of the polynomials. (11th grade)
DOK Level 2: Skill/Concept.
Requires thinking beyond habitual response using conceptual knowledge. Often requires multiple steps.
ELA
Which sentence best describes the lesson of the passage? (3rd grade)
Which sentence best describes the author’s main idea in paragraph 1? (4th grade, informational text)
Click on the sentence that best supports the inference that Coyote uses his imagination. (4th grade)
Select the sentence that best supports the conclusion that clothing manufacturers have not been operating in an ecologically sustainable way. (11th grade)
Select the statements that best explain why the author chose to include the first two paragraphs. (6th grade)
Why does the author use the rhetorical technique of comparison to show how popular culture is mass produced? (11th grade)
Choose two credible sources that would most likely give the student more information for his paragraph. (11th grade)
MATH
Enter the perimeter, in feet, of the city park. (3rd grade)
Enter the unknown value that makes this statement true: 30% of ___ is 60. (6th grade)
Enter one solution in the first box. If there are two solutions, enter the second solution in the second box. (11th grade)
DOK Level 3: Strategic Thinking.
Requires reasoning, developing a plan, or following a sequence of steps. Often more than one possible answer.
ELA
Click on the sentence that gives the best conclusion about the people who make maple syrup. (3rd grade)
Based on the text, what conclusion can be drawn about the fashion industry? (11th grade)
Which detail from the presentation best supports your answer in part A? (11th grade)
Why is including dialogue important to understanding the passage? (3rd grade)
What most likely did the author intend by mentioning Ansel Adams’s apprenticeship with Frank Dittman in paragraph 2? Support your answer with evidence from the text. (8th grade)
What inference can be made about the author’s message about animals? (3rd grade, written response)
What do the stories of survival in the last paragraph suggest to the reader about the narrator? Support your answer using details from the text. (11th grade requires written student response. The exemplary is 114 words.)
MATH
Drag the numbers to the boxes and the symbols to the circles to create an equation to show how much money Christy has left to spend. (3rd grade)
Use the Connect Line tool to draw a base that shows Micah’s claim is incorrect. (6th grade)
Part A: Drag numbers into the boxes to create one example to evaluate the student’s claim. Part B: Decide whether the student’s claim is true, false, or cannot be determined. Select the correct option. (11th grade)
DOK Level 4: Extended Thinking.
Requires investigation, complex reasoning, planning, and developing over an extended period of time.
ELA
How does the author’s use of these paragraphs add to the reader’s understanding of air movement? Make two choices. (4th grade)
Which source most likely has the most useful information about the kinds of work that astronauts do while they are in space? Explain why this source most likely is the most useful information about the kinds of work that astronauts do while they are in space. Support your explanation with two details from the source. (3rd grade)
Explain what Source #1 and Source #3 say about how robots are able to save lives by paraphrasing the information while avoiding plagiarism. (6th grade)
MATH
None of the Smarter Balanced released questions were labeled DOK level 4.
Addressing Depth of Knowledge
To meet the rigor of Common Core assessments, daily lessons in all content areas should address higher-order thinking by:
Including question types modeled after the Smarter Balanced questions.
Having the teacher model thinking processes.
Asking students to justify answers and explain how they determined their answer.
The chart below shows the breakdown of questions from the Smarter Balanced assessment questions in ELA and math released in May 2014. From this data, teachers can determine that basic recall questions in ELA are nearly obsolete. Students are now expected to answer conceptual questions and/or questions involving strategic thinking or analysis.
In math, the questions are heavily weighted in the skill/concept category; however, recall is still alive and well in mathematics.
DOK 1
Recall
DOK 2
Skill/Concept
DOK 3
Strategic thinking
DOK 4
Extended Thinking
ELA
9%
46%
37%
8%
MATH
33%
52%
15%
0%**
To address the narrower and deeper aspect of DOK, DataWORKS is using higher-order questions in all lessons, coupled with a strong focus on building deep conceptual knowledge. DataWORKS is designing lessons that are narrowly focused on a standard and a concept, and that require students to go beyond the basic arithmetic or recall of information. Lessons are challenging students to explain why, interpret their results, translate an author’s idea, and solve problems with applications to the world around them.
DataWORKS believes that by increasing the depth of knowledge in the classroom every day, students will be better prepared for the assessments, and ultimately, better prepared for college and careers.
What do you do in your class to address Depth of Knowledge? Which level of DOK are you most comfortable with and why? Discuss your ideas in the comments section below.
