Depth of Knowledge Questioning

Depth of Knowledge (DoK) categorizes tasks according to the complexity of thinking required to successfully complete them.

• Level 1: Recall and Reproduction Tasks at this level require recall of facts or rote application of simple procedures. The task does not require any cognitive effort beyond remembering the right response or formula. Copying, computing, defining, and recognizing are typical Level 1 tasks.
• Level 2: Skills and Concepts At this level, a student must make some decisions about his or her approach. Tasks with more than one mental step such as comparing, organizing, summarizing, predicting, and estimating are usually Level 2.
• Level 3: Strategic Thinking At this level of complexity, students must use planning and evidence, and thinking is more abstract. A task with multiple valid responses where students must justify their choices would be Level 3. Examples include solving non-routine problems, designing an experiment, or analyzing characteristics of a genre.
• Level 4: Extended Thinking Level 4 tasks require the most complex cognitive effort. Students synthesize information from multiple sources, often over an extended period of time, or transfer knowledge from one domain to solve problems in another. Designing a survey and interpreting the results, analyzing multiple texts by to extract themes, or writing an original myth in an ancient style would all be examples of Level 4.

A great resource for in-depth questioning is Illustrative Math. It is a non-profit math company that provides comprehensive math curriculum, tasks, lesson plans, professional services and a format for engaging mathematical discussion.

The Student tasks appear linked to the content standards, standards for mathematical practice, and/or the course blueprints. These tasks are a rigorous way to approach mathematical questioning and they are highly encouraged to be used in the classroom. They include games, hands-on activities, modeling, critiquing others, and promote reasoning strategies.

IM also stresses the need for teachers to deeply comprehend their standards at each grade level to ensure questioning is targeted, differentiated, and challenging.

To the right, you will find links to help teachers understand the standards and the Illustrative Math Student Tasks.