STRATEGIES for ASSESSING

Higher-ORDErThinking

Create multiple-choice questions using one of the questions from the strategies on the right.

1

Adapt one of the general questions to your content. 3Provide three or four choices that are plausible and of a similar nature, and one that is clearly the best answer.

4

Provide materials that suit your content: 2

Cartoon Characters • Political Cartoon • Work of Art

Experiment and Results •

Experimental Design • Graph, Data Table, or Chart

Text(s) • Policy • Website

Concepts • Principles • Problem •

Theory

Events • Scenarios

Advertisement • Editorial or Other Persuasive Communication • Speech

Learn more about the Designing Assessments for Higher-Order Thinking PD Online® course at

WWW.ASCD.ORG/HIGHER-ORDER-ASSESSMENTS

SOURCE | Adapted from How to Assess Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Your Classroom (pp 144-147), by Susan M. Brookhart, Alexandria, VA: ASCD. © 2010 by ASCD.

© ASCD 2015. All rights reserved.

To identify or evaluate rhetorical and persuasive strategies, ask: » What is the author trying to persuade readers [viewers] to do [think]?

» How persuasive would [some aspect] be with [some audience]?

» What imagery [or other strategy] is intended to persuade the audience [to do or think something]?

To analyze arguments, ask: » What evidence does the author gives that…?

» What is the most critical piece of evidence that…?

» On what assumptions does this argument rest?

To evaluate materials and methods for their intended purposes, ask: » What is the author trying to accomplish?

» What elements in the work [accomplish some purpose]?

» How well does the author [accomplish some purpose]?

To identify issues or problems, ask: » What is the main issue?

» What is the problem?

To compare and contrast, ask: » Which elements in [text] are like [or not like]?

» Ask for a generalization based on similarities or differences.

To evaluate the credibility of a source, ask: » Is the information is believable?

» Why is the information believable [or not]?

To reason with data: » Solve the problem.

» Identify the key information for solving the problem.

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SUGGESTED STRATEGIES