DOK and GRASPS, an Introductionfor new staff

Caitlin Winebarger and Joan Gonzales

Depth of Knowledge

• Focuses on the cognitive rigor of a standard.

• Is descriptive, not sequential• Is not the same as difficulty

Recall & Reproduction: Level 1

Skills & Concepts: Level 2

Strategic Thinking: Level 3

Extended Thinking: Level 4

Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Levels:

Recall and Reproduction: Level 1

DOK 1 requires recall of information, such as a fact, definition, or term, or performance of a simple process or procedure.

Answering a Level 1 item can involve following a simple, well-known procedure or formula. Simple skills and abilities or recall characterize DOK 1.

DOK Level 1 Examples

List animals that survive by eating other animals

Locate or recall facts explicitly found in text

Describe physical features of places

Determine the perimeter or area of rectangles given a drawing or labels

Identify elements of music using musical terminology

Identify basic rules for participating in simple games and activities

Skills and Concepts: Level 2

DOK 2 includes mental processing beyond recalling or reproducing a response. Items require students to make some decisions as to how to approach the question or problem.

These actions imply more than one mental or cognitive process/step.

DOK Level 2 Examples

Compare desert and tropical environments

Identify and summarize the major events, problem, solution, and conflicts in literary text

Explain the cause-effect of historical events

Predict a logical outcome based on information in a reading selection

Explain how good work habits are important at home, at school, and on the job

Classify plane and three-dimensional figures

Describe various styles of music

Strategic Thinking: Level 3

DOK 3 requires deep understanding as exhibited through planning, using evidence, and more demanding cognitive reasoning. The cognitive demands at Level 3 are complex and abstract.

An assessment item that has more than one possible answer and requires students to justify the response they give would most likely be a Level 3.

DOK Level 3 Examples

Compare consumer actions and analyze how these actions impact the environment

Analyze or evaluate the effectiveness of literary elements (e.g., characterization, setting, point of view, conflict and resolution, plot structures)

Solve a multiple-step problem and provide support with a mathematical explanation that justifies the answer

Extended Thinking: Level 4

DOK 4 requires high cognitive demand and is very complex. Students are expected to make connections—relate ideas within the content or among content areas—and have to select or devise one approach among many alternatives on how to solve the problem.

Due to the complexity of cognitive demand, DOK 4 often requires an extended period of time.

DOK Level 4 Examples

Gather, analyze, organize, and interpret information from multiple sources (print and nonprint) to draft a reasoned report

Analyze authors craft (e.g., style, bias, literary techniques, point of view)

Create an exercise plan applying the “FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type) Principle”

• DOK 3: Describe a model that you might use to represent the relationships that exist within the rock cycle. (requires deep understanding of rock cycle and a determination of how best to represent it)

• DOK 2: Describe the difference between metamorphic and igneous rocks. (requires cognitive processing to determine the differences in the two rock types)

• DOK 1: Describe three characteristics of metamorphic rocks. (simple recall)

Same verb—three DOK levels

The Verb Issue

Remember…

• DOK is a scale of cognitive demand.

• Determining the DOK levels requires looking at the assessment item, not student work, in order to determine the level. DOK is about the item not the student.

• The context of the task, and not the verb chosen, must be considered when determining DOK.

ActivityPlease access the DOK article/ Activity listed on

the inservice website.

You will also find some helpful resources like the DOK wheel, and examples from multiple content areas.

Performance Assessments

Stage 2, Yay!

Continuum of Assessments

informal c

hecks for u

nderstanding

tests and quizz

es

academic

prompts

perform

ance ta

sks

Think Like An Assessor• Three Basic Questions

– What kind of evidence do we need to determine level of understanding?• (e.g., test, task, quiz, check for understanding)

– What specific characteristics in student responses, products, or performances do we need to determine student understanding?

– (e.g., criteria, rubrics, exemplars)

– Does the proposed evidence in Stage 2 help us determine student’s knowledge, skill, or understanding?• (e.g., Does it align with goals in Stage 1? Does it

assess what we taught?)

Big Ideas and Enduring

Understandings

Important to know and do

Worth being familiar with

Assessment Methods

p. 141 Professional Development Workbook

Traditional quizzes & tests

•Paper-and-pencil•Selected-response•Constructed Response

Performance tasks & projects

•Complex•Open-

ended•Authentic

Types of Assessment

Performance Tasks •Complex challenges that mirror the issues and problems faced by adults. Ranging in length from short-term tasks to long-term, multi-staged projects, they yield one or more tangible products and performances.  

informal c

hecks for u

nderstanding

tests and quizz

es

academic

prompts

perform

ance ta

sks

GRASPSA form of Performance Task

Framework for designing an assessment prompt

In your unit, one of your assessments needs to be in this form.

Contains the following: Goal Role Audience Situation Product, Purpose, or Performance Standards or Criteria for Success

Characteristics of Performance TasksActivity

Part One - On your own

Choose four of the performance task vignettes on the handouts from the Inservice webpage. What distinguishes these tasks from typical test items? What common features or characteristics do these share? List characteristics that you observe.

Part Two – With your group

Share and discuss your observations with members of your group. List the common characteristics or features of the performance tasks you examined.

Characteristics of Performance Tasks

Complex challenges that mirror the issues and problems faced by adults

Range in length from authentic short-term tasks to long-term, multi-stage projects

Yield one or more tangible products and performances

Typically require the student to address a specific audience (real or simulated) with a purpose that related to the audience

The task can be personalized

Evaluation criteria is known in advance

Resources within Rubicon Many resources live on the Rubicon site.

There are Understanding by Design workbooks at your site. The Professional Development Workbook is split up by stage and has many templates you may find useful.

Rubric HelpResources exist!