DOK

DOK (Depth of Knowledge) was an acronym that sounded so foreign to me when I first heard of it during our discussion this week; however, the relationship between DOK and performance tasks intrigued me to research a little more about it.  Dr. Parker had suggested to look up Alice Keekler and her explanation of DOK, so that is exactly what I did, and I found an awesome resource called her website that broke down the difference between the DOK levels and it also gave some tips as to how to differentiate the difference between a DOK task and one that is not. 

While reading this article, I learned that most assignments or tasks that are assigned most often in the classroom are DOK level 2 tasks.  Level 2 tasks are usually when students can provide the same answers and can have their answers checked against an answer key to see if they are correct.  Assessments are usually the main focus when it comes to DOK level 2.  Alice Keekler, being a math teacher admitted that she struggled with assigning DOK level 2 tasks most of the time.  She referenced a cool resource called www.quia.com/web that she uses for assessment in her class.  She explained the many advantages that it provides for the students, but then she quickly realized this website does not make her students think critically about the concepts being taught, which does not make it a higher DOK level task.  There is a difference between DOK level 2 and DOK level 3.  DOK level 3 tasks make the students go beyond the point of just providing an answer, it makes the student explain their reasoning for providing that answer.  Strategic thinking and critiquing the reasoning of others, which would allow the students to participate in peer evaluation; these are just some ways to apply DOK level 3 tasks to any subject area.  DOK level 4 tasks expands students' critical thinking skills even further!  Level 4 requires students to be able to apply their knowledge of the particular concept and to invent or create something new.  This evidence allows one to prove that they have mastered it and can model their understanding by transferring their knowledge from the thing being taught to this new idea.  Alice emphasizes that DOK is more than just a verb chart, and teachers should be responsible for checking their assignments against these guidelines instead of the DOK verb chart to see more affective results.  At the end of the article, Alice challenges upcoming and present teachers to keep a tally chart of what kind of assignments they are using in their classroom. 

Furthermore, I am connecting this article with my progression of creating my unit by following these DOK guidelines when designing my performance tasks. My two concepts for my unit are Leadership and Society, and my grade level is second.  I have an idea for my first performance task, which is to have the students pick a historical figure and create an infomercial/ election commercial about that particular figure.  They will have to explain how the contributions of this person has affected society and how it still affects them today.  Then, they will post their video to SchoolTube, and their videos will be broadcasted for the whole school to watch.  The school will then vote on who they think was the most influential and who is their favorite historical figure.  Judging the task on these DOK guidelines stated above, this would be a DOK level 4 assignment.  However, this is just brainstorming about this activity, so if you have any ideas or suggestions feel free to share!!!

This concept of the DOK goes along with the fourth NCPTS, which is teachers facilitate learning for their students.  Teachers are responsible for planning instruction that is appropriate for their students. 

~P.s. This article was an awesome read and if you want to check it out for yourself, here it is:
http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/2015/02/13/dok-levels-students-critically-thinking/