Recently I was in a Region IV training about DOK in social studies STAAR test questions and it got me thinking about how DOK takes shape in a world language class. In a conversation with another educator, I realized that many of our colleagues aren’t familiar with DOK in general and how it can be used in the classroom.
DOK, or Depth of Knowledge, was developed by Norman Webb, and it categorizes tasks according to the complexity of thinking required to complete them. In this way, DOK is a reflection of rigor, and in turn challenges the common belief that rigor means quantity of work or how long a task takes to complete. We can use DOK to identify the rigor of a task at any level.
I researched DOK in world language courses to gain some inspiration and had a difficult time finding much content on the subject. However, I found an ACTFL forum in which Paul Sandrock responded to a post about DOK, and if it’s possible to reach higher levels of DOK at the novice level.
“Learners at the Novice level can think and process at higher levels of DOK (Level 3 - Strategic Thinking; Level 4 - Extended Thinking), but will need scaffolded tasks in order to express those thoughts - - or represent those thoughts. Teachers in elementary grades definitely engage their learners in higher levels of DOK. Second language learners can do this too! Consider from our recent ACTFL Winter Learning Series these examples for helping learners at the Novice Level deal with food, nutrition, and hunger issues: Tonja Byrom started learners at the Novice level with an Interpretive Task of identifying foods they eat (from an authentic resource) and categorizing them into food groups, then creating a list of foods they should eat and foods they should avoid; next was an Interpersonal Task of discussing the list of foods to eat or avoid to come to agreement; and ending with a polished Presentational Task (written or spoken) to make a recommendation or explain a personal choice. This could be extended further by working in a small group to write out four reasons why a school should make a change to the lunch program - when schools can be in-person again! Higher levels of DOK - at Novice level!”
In this response, Sandrock develops a series of steps to guide students to higher levels of DOK within the topic of food - everyone’s favorite unit. So we can see that it’s possible, but what does it look like as we design our lessons?
If we look at Bloom’s Taxonomy, we can connect the categories to Webb’s DOK. Looking at the graphic below, we can see that as we move up the pyramid (or up the scale) on Bloom’s, we also move up the DOK.
I noticed similar language between Webb’s DOK definitions and our ACTFL performance indicators, so I wanted to make a comparison. (I live in Texas so I also added language from our state standards.) As I listed out common tasks in a world language class, I categorized them into DOK based on Webb’s definitions (image A). Once here, I quickly realized that many world language teachers I know are likely (and unknowingly) hitting DOK 1 and 2, but not progressing through 3 and 4. Perhaps due to lack of time, student perceptions, lack of resources and support, when I think of lessons I see most, we’re landing in the lower levels. So, what do we do to move up? See the graphic below (image B) for questions to consider and using culture to reach DOK.
Image A
Image B
Back to Paul Sandrock - how does a novice student reach DOK 4 if they don’t have the language? In the Region IV training I attended, one quote stuck out in particular - DOK is about the type of question asked, not your students. So, we ask more of our students and help them navigate their way to completing the tasks. Below, you can see a very simple graphic from Statista, as well as ways to move through DOK 1-4 using novice/intermediate low language. Of course, this can be supported even more by using sentence stems, identifying key vocabulary, etc. The flow through DOK supports the idea that it’s positive to use the same text multiple times, looking at it for different reasons.
When you look at your daily activities, your lessons, your assessments, etc., are you seeing that your content hits all four levels of DOK, or are you sitting comfortably within one or two? How can you increase DOK of your current unit, and how can you guide your students to get there?
Want to discuss with your team? Click here for a slideshow to guide your conversation; please do not remove any citations or sources if you choose to edit the slide deck.
