How Bloom & Marzano Have Impacted My Teaching

How Bloom & Marzano Have Impacted My Teaching

Because I received my teaching license in an unconventional way, through the Alternative Teacher Licensure Program, I did not have a strong understanding of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Marzano’s Instructional Strategies.  Even though they were mentioned during my alternative program, I did not begin to understand how important they were to the learning process until I started my masters program at Regis University.  My research will definitely change the way I think about and develop my lessons.

            After studying Digital Bloom’s Taxonomy I realized that I use a lot of the higher order thinking skills already in my lesson.  Since I am the technology teacher everything we do uses technology, however it was nice to see that the verbs being used in Bloom’s to describe each level are words that I use every day with my students.  Focusing more on these terms in my lessons and posting them in my room will ensure the students not only hear them but also understand what they mean.  I feel this will benefit their learning experience.

            Marzano’s Instructional Strategies are a great guide to classroom practices that enhance student achievement.  These nine instructional strategies are tools that teachers can integrate into their lessons to help with best practices and applications in teaching.  I find that I use some of the ideas, however they have not been front-and-center while planning my lessons.  Making sure to incorporate each of these strategies during my lessons and not just focusing on a few will make me a more effective teacher.

            To enhance my lesson planning process I have changed my lesson plan template to include an area for Bloom’s Taxonomy and Marzano’s Instructional Strategies at the beginning of my template.  This will allow me to focus first on the overall lesson and then these two important components to increate student achievement.  Keeping them at the beginning will allow me to effectively implement them into my lessons.  I can continue to reference them as I’m creating the content portion of the lesson, using the strategies Marzano has defined and integrating the key vocabulary from Bloom’s Taxonomy.

            Another reason having both Marzano’s Instructional Strategies and Bloom’s Taxonomy at the beginning of my lessons is that it will allow me to quickly and easily browse through my lessons to identify what strategies and vocabulary I’ve already used.  This way I can ensure that I’m integrating all aspects and keep my lessons well rounded in the use of these important tools of teaching.