Blooms Ladder Rung 1 relates to critical knowledge you just need to know! Examples of these include: Key words; Defined terms and Key facts.
Learners should be given access to these for revision, should be tested on their knowledge of them and should consider them easy but important. Many teachers display such facts at the start of the lesson or provide copies.
Activities teachers can use to test these include:
- asking closed questions that have a correct answer such as ‘What is..’, ‘Who was…’, ‘What is the name of…’ etc.
- Matching words with their definitions
- Using rote learning, rhymes and a quick fire quiz
- Using flash cards
- Using multiple choice questions
- Using spelling tests or memorising times tables.
Habits required for these include: quick fire tests, regular reminders, post-it notes and a schedule of returning to these facts to reinforce them at regular intervals such as mid term tests, end of topic tests, key term tests and spelling tests for example.
SECRET skills required: Resilience on behalf of the learner (go for it, finish it), organisation on behalf of both the learner and the teacher.
These forms of learning can be highly rewarding for learners as generally, hard work is rewarded well. They can also be demoralising if used as a power base by the teacher e.g. if the teacher implies that not knowing one of these facts is in some way shocking or an indicator of poor intelligence.
Learning By Ladders 