Blogging about Bloom and Marzano

Bloom’s taxonomy and Marzano’s Strategies are two concepts that I have been exposed to since very early on in my education classes almost eight years ago.  At first they seemed very abstract and empty ideas to me for the simple reason I didn’t have any tools in my tool box, meaning I didn’t have any of my own lessons to mold and modify using these ideas.  However, now that I am becoming a more seasoned teacher I can absolutely say that Bloom and Marzano have become invaluable influences in my career.

I have almost gotten to the point where I plan and formulate lesson plans based on Bloom and Marzano without even thinking about it.  Knowing that I have incorporated at least one of each of their ideas into my lessons makes me feel much more confident in the effectiveness of my teachings. That is by no means to say that I have mastered either of their concepts, and there are still times when I know I could have incorporated more elements.

Being a Spanish teacher of levels two and three, there are many occasions where I know I’m using more lower level elements of Bloom’s taxonomy.  This is mainly because of the grammatical aspects of what I teach.  Conjugating verbs, using and placing the various pronouns, and what prepositions to use are all things that I am still struggling with in terms of finding higher level activities for my students.  

As for Marzano’s strategies, the one area I feel I can improve in is the reinforcing effort and providing recognition.  This has more to do with my personal background, I never received much myself growing up so it has been something I have learned to go without.  However, I know that improving on this particular area can benefit my students’ level of success (as well as my own).  I feel I have made great strides in the last couple of years specifically, and I can definitely attribute a great deal of this to using Marzano’s findings and strategies.

Moving forward, I will continue to focus on integrating more and more of these educational pioneers’ ideas into my teachings.  Specifically, the two areas mentioned in the above two paragraphs: incorporating higher level thinking into traditionally mundane grammatical ideas and providing more consistent and obvious recognition to my students at every opportunity.  Using what Marzano and Bloom offer us as educators is invaluable and their work provides fantastic measuring tools for all educators regardless of level or content.