Bloom’s & Critical Thinking: Remembering

The Remembering or Knowledge level (Bloom’s taxonomy) involves bringing to mind the information to be recalled.  That’s it.  Simple.  Unless you have a difficult time remembering things, or the information to be remembered had little or no significance to you at the time you encountered it.

Re-membering requires memorizing something.  When we think of memorizing we typically make it more difficult that it really needs to be.  For example, there are favorite poems that we can remember line-for-line without trying.  There are parts of a book that we can relate to others with perfect recall.  So we can think of this as a simple cause and effect or input and output.  If we want something to be remembered, the mind will need to act on it in some way — even if that means simply enjoying it.  Otherwise, if strictly memorizing without anything to hang the information on, we can expect the value to be very short term (remember it for a test, and forget it the next minute!).

At this level, think like a reporter.  Just the facts.  Who, what, where, when, how.  Or if you prefer verbs:

• read
• recall
• observe
• arrange
• memorize
• list
• repeat
• reproduce
• state
• listen
• ask
• recognize
• match
• review
• retrieve
• locate
• find
• show
• quote

Here are a variety of activities you can use for the Remembering or Knowledge level:

• Create a timeline for a character in history.
• List the characters in a story.
• Recite a poem you have memorized.
• Tell me what a story you have read was about.
• Recite the alphabet.
• Repeat the two times table.
• Tell me what you saw in the painting you viewed.
• Recall your favorite summer.
• Listen to a classical composer.
• Memorize and recite a favorite Scripture passage.
• Label the states on a map of the United States.

The Natural Application

It is much easier to remember something that has relevance for us or is important to us.

Determine what interests your child.  What is he into at the moment?  Help him pick out several books to read that deal with this interest.

Up next: Understanding

Additional Resources

ABC Match
Younger students can recall their ABCs.

Pre-Made Math Flashcards
Students can practice recalling their math facts.

Create Flash Cards
Application that helps you create your own flash cards.  Great for reviewing anything and everything — including Latin vocabulary.

U.S. States and Capitals Quiz
Interactive game.

View all of the posts in the series.

Bloom’s & Critical Thinking: Complete Series