Scott Anderson 21-11-16

1. Higher Order Thinking Skills
What they are, why they are important and how you can use them in class

2. HOTS
 What you hope to get from today’s
workshop
 What are HOTS?
 Personal interest
 Why should we care about them?
 HOTS in action
 Resource sharing

3. What are HOTS?

4. What are HOTS?
 Slide here with explanations of each skill

5. Personal Interest

6. “Professional” Enquiry
Summary of Main Findings
 Pupil Questionnaire:
Use skills all the time but are not aware of terminology
Simple starters (understanding/remembering) helped to link learning
Identifying skill aided concentration
Resources helped pupils to formulate questions
 Teachers:
Structure of lessons
Structure of assessments

7. Rationale - CfE
Problems - SQA
 Misuse of language of transferrable skills e.g. to apply knowledge of a
particular moral theory is called analysis!
 When drilling down to examine technique, skills words mean different things to
pupils across each curricular area.
 BTC 4
 Kier Bloomer
‘highlighting the skills component’ of tasks
‘use a common language to describe skills’

8. Applying Bloom’s
 Knowledge – List the items used by Goldilocks while
she was in the Bears’ house.
 Comprehension – Explain why Goldilocks liked Baby
Bear’s chair the best.
 Application – Demonstrate what Goldilocks would use
if she came to your house.
 Analysis – Compare this story to reality. What events
could not really happen.
 Evaluation – Judge whether Goldilocks was good or
bad. Defend your opinion.
 Creation – Propose how the story would be different
if it were Goldilocks and the Three Fish.
Using the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears

9. Applying Bloom’s
Little Red Riding Hood
Question Skill
Illustrate the main idea of the story on a poster.
Rank the characters from best to worst and
explain how you ranked them.
Write a new story by placing Red in a modern-day
city.
What did Red do when she first saw the Wolf?
Tell what happened to the grandmother in the
story.
How does the moral of this story compare to
other fairytales?

10. Applying Bloom’s
Little Red Riding Hood
Question Skill
Illustrate the main idea of the story on a poster. Application
Rank the characters from best to worst and
explain how you ranked them.
Evaluation
Write a new story by placing Red in a modern-day
city.
Creation
What did Red do when she first saw the Wolf? Understanding
Tell what happened to the grandmother in the
story.
Knowledge
How does the moral of this story compare to
other fairytales?
Analysis

11. Applying Bloom’s
Three Little Pigs : Create a Question/Task for
Each Skill

12. HOTS Lesson Ideas - Starters

13. HOTS Lesson Ideas – Extension Questions

14. HOTS Lesson Ideas – Tasks

15. HOTS Lesson Ideas – Plenaries