Depth of Knowledge

Curricular elements that fall into this category involve basic tasks that require students to recall or reproduce knowledge and/or skills.

The subject matter content at this level usually involves working with facts, terms, details, calculations, principles, and/or properties. It

may also involve use of simple procedures or formulas. There is little or no transformation of the target knowledge or skill required by

the tasks that fall into this category. A student answering a Level l item either knows the answer or does not; that is, the answer does

not need to be fgured out” or “solved.

Level 2 includes the engagement of mental processing beyond recalling, reproducing, or locating an answer. This level generally

requires students to compare or diferentiate among people, places, events, objects, text types, etc.; apply multiple concepts when

responding; classify or sort items into meaningful categories; describe or explain relationships, such as cause and efect, character

relationships; and provide and explain examples and non-examples. A Level 2 “describe or explain” task requires students to go

beyond a basic description or defnition to predict a possible result or explain “why” something might happen. The learner makes

use of information provided in context to determine intended word meanings, which tools or approach is appropriate to fnd a

solution (e.g., in a math word problem), or what characteristics to pay attention to when making observations.

At this level, students are asked to transform/process target knowledge before responding. Example mental processes that often

denote this particular level include: summarize, estimate, organize, classify, extend, and make basic inferences.

Tasks and classroom discourse falling into this category demand the use of planning, reasoning, and higher order thinking

processes, such as analysis and evaluation, to solve real-world problems or explore questions with multiple possible outcomes.

Stating one’s reasoning and providing relevant supporting evidence are key markers of DOK 3 tasks. The expectation established for

tasks at this level require an in-depth integration of conceptual knowledge and multiple skills to reach a solution or produce a fnal

product. DOK 3 tasks and classroom discourse focus on in-depth understanding of one text, one data set, one investigation, or one

key source, whereas DOK 4 tasks expand the breadth of the task using multiple texts or sources, or multiple concepts/disciplines to

reach a solution or create a fnal product.

Curricular elements assigned to this level demand extended and integrated use of higher order thinking processes such as critical and

creative-productive thinking, refection, and adjustment of plans over time. Students are engaged in conducting multi-faceted investigations

to solve real-world problems with unpredictable solutions. Employing and sustaining strategic thinking processes over a longer period of

time to solve the problem or produce an authentic product is a key feature of curricular objectives assigned to DOK 4. Key aspects that denote

this particular level typically include authentic problems and audiences, and collaboration within a project-based setting.