Maslow Before Blooms... What Does This Even Mean?

You've probably seen the memes on social media: 

Maslow Before Blooms. 

But what does it actually mean?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Bloom's Taxonomy are two of the most widely known theories relating to human development and learning. 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs highlights the importance of physical, emotional, and psychological needs in order to reach self-actualization. 

Let's talk about these parts!

Our fundamental needs are quite simple. We all need air, water, food, health care, shelter, and sleep in order to survive and maintain a healthy life. 

As the world continues to evolve and change, one thing becomes increasingly clear: safety and security needs are at an all-time high. From personal security and property protection to ensuring the safety of family members, it is essential for individuals to stay aware and be proactive about their safety. This need has become stronger in the classroom, as children hear about and practice "active shooter" drills. It's a scary world.

Humans have an innate need to feel a sense of belonging, friendship, and family. It's a basic fundamental that serves an important role in our day-to-day lives. Whether it's having someone to talk to or spending quality time with loved ones, these connections are essential for feeling secure and content. Morning meetings and Team Building Games are great for building a sense of belonging in the classroom.

It's no secret that self-esteem needs are essential to any individual’s growth and development. When people have a healthy sense of self-esteem, they have the confidence to take on challenges and believe in their capability for achieving great things. 

Self-actualization is when an individual exercises their own potential and can accept themselves for who they are. According to Maslow’s theory, humans strive to reach their utmost potential by discovering purpose in life and accepting themselves at all stages of development. Achieving this kind of self-acceptance allows us to reach our full potential, giving us a sense of fulfillment in life. 

Can you hear the angels singing? Honestly, it's rare when small children meet this stage of development. Seriously, not many adults have total self-actualization!

But we can work toward this with our students, can't we?

Bloom's Taxonomy classifies different levels of thinking and learning objectives that must be achieved in order for an individual to process information.

When I went to college (many moons ago) This is what Bloom's Taxonomy looked like.

Now it looks like this! I like the new one, as the keywords are all verbs! It's much easier to think about how we can help students achieve these levels. 

Let's explore these levels:

At its most basic level, Bloom's Taxonomy requires students to recall facts and memorize them. This involves repeating information until it can be recalled with ease. We're talking the very basics, from letters and their sounds, to memorizing math facts, to states and their capitals, or even the periodic table!

 

Understanding requires the learner to go beyond that surface-level comprehension and dig into higher-order thinking skills such as summarizing information, identifying key points from a text they read or heard about, describing the main themes from a video they watched, discussing subtle aspects of an article or book they read or paraphrasing complex ideas in their own words. There's a lot more thinking involved here!

Applying involves taking what you know from one context and using it in another context. It requires students to think beyond basic understanding or remembering facts; instead they must demonstrate their ability to take information and apply it in new situations. 

Students can justify their position on a particular issue by organizing their thoughts into logical arguments that are supported by evidence.

At the highest level of Bloom's Taxonomy, producing original work and inventing something new requires learners to synthesize ideas from multiple sources and come up with unique solutions or products. This involves analyzing facts and details carefully, drawing inferences, making comparisons, creating abstractions, and more. This is the level teachers strive for with their students.

So what can we do to help our students?

The best we can. That's all we can do... the best we can. 

We can make them feel safe, loved, important, and special.

It's a lot, but we do all that every day, 
don't we?

Seven Ways to Be the Teacher They'll Remember

I'll bet you have a teacher you remember from your own education. If you're anything like me, you want to be that teacher for your own students. Here are some suggestions!

Get to know them individually!

Each child has a special personality, special interests, and special families that love them. Getting to know all those parts to each child is no easy task. I find having a Morning Meeting sharing time helps getting to know them. I also have an end-of-the-day "High-Low" meeting (See THIS post and THIS post.) I also find that having private conversations, when possible, is also a great way to know them as individuals.
 

Let them get to know you!

Tell stories about yourself and your loved ones when you can fit it in. I always share at Morning Meeting as well as High-Low. I also share connections that I have with books we read and things we are learning. They particularly love when I tell about my cat!

Let them know you care!

I never miss an opportunity to let them know that I care. If someone is absent, that's my low of the day. If someone arrives late for class, I'll stop everything and let them know how glad I am to have them there. If someone is upset or hurt, I make it clear that it upsets and hurts me as well.

You may have heard it said before: they won't learn anything from you unless they know you care!
 

Be their biggest cheerleader!

Feedback is always important in the classroom. Most of the time, it should be positive. For some struggling students, that's not always easy, but I've found there's always something the child is doing well. Find that thing, and celebrate it! It doesn't even have to be academically related, but I'm sure there are plenty of those! Just a warning: not everyone wants to be singled out. Know these students, and be a private cheerleader for them. (Most students love getting notes celebrating their accomplishments!) This all reflects back to #1: Get to Know Each Child Individually!
 

Do fun things!

I'm sure you're already doing this one, along with most of the others! (Teachers who read educational blogs are always trying to make themselves better, agreed?) You probably already have a lot of tricks up your sleeve, but here are a few suggestions. 

• Do STEM/ STEAM projects!
• Play educational games!
• Bring "Team Building" games into Morning Meeting. (Some ideas HERE!)
  
• Include art projects and crafts!
• Find a super fun way to present research projects!
• Have them create puppets and put on shows!
  
• Have an "Author's Night!"
  
• Record and videotape educational activities! (Be careful who has access to this, of course!)
  
• Do a class play!

This last suggestion is near and dear to my heart. Why? Well, not only because I enjoy performing in regional theatre myself, but also because of the excitement! Brain research tells us that memories are very much connected to emotions! (See THIS post for more information!) Whenever students come back to visit, they always mention the plays and performances we shared. Such a shared experience is also great for building teamwork and community! (Want some scripts? Try THESE, or if you want something curriculum related, try THIS!)

Keep a safe classroom!

We've all heard "Maslow's Before Blooms," and I truly believe this matters.

As classroom teachers, we probably won't be able to reach all these levels, but the very basic needs are essential before any learning is going to happen! If they don't feel healthy and safe (Physiological Needs and Safety Needs), we might as well just toss the curriculum out the window. That third level, Love and Belonging, is one we can work on as well! Again, Morning Meetings are great for building community and making each child feel like an important member of the classroom!

Be a role model

This is more of a responsibility as much as a suggestion. If the children remember you, you want that memory to be inspiring. Some suggestions:

• Let them see you getting emotional when you read books.
• Let them see you making mistakes, and responding appropriately.
• Talk about something that bothered you, and what you did about it.
• Let them see you showing kindness and respect to the other students as well as other adults in the school.
• Write thank you cards for gifts they give.
• Let them see you taking care of your health. Talk about the exercising you do and the healthy food you prepare.
• Be a good listener.
• Talk about how you stay organized.
• Let them see you doing things you don't necessarily want to do... with a smile.
• Be positive, even when times are tough.
• Always say please, thank you, and all those other magic words!
• Think out loud. Let them know the reasons for your actions.
• Show extra respect to all the extra helpers in the building: secretaries, custodians, kitchen workers, and assistants. Let the children see that you appreciate what they do for your students.
  

 

 

Drill and Kill? Do Students Still Need to Memorize?

The words "Drill and Kill" refer to rote learning. 

They imply that rote learning will kill a student's motivation to learn.

With today's technology and all the improvements in the world, do we really still need to include rote learning in education. Don't we want to get the children thinking beyond the basic information?

Well, yes, we certainly do want them to think above the basic information! We want children to learn how to learn, and think beyond that learning! In fact, here's a little reminder of Bloom's Taxonomy:

 

Of course, we want our students to get to those upper levels of the triangle, but before they get there, they have to do some remembering and understanding. 

The remembering part is where rote learning comes into play. These are the building blocks for our learners.

Here are some examples of things that primary students need to learn by rote:

• the alphabet
• letter sounds
• numbers
• math facts
• sight words

Here are some example of things older learners need to learn by rote:

• A football players needs to learn the plays and drills.
• A musician needs to learn the notes and chords.
• An actor needs to learn his lines and movements.
• An airplane pilot needs to learn the purpose of all those buttons.
• A grocery store manager needs to learn what products are sold and where they are located.
• A pharmacist needs to know the names of the prescriptions and dosages.
• A physical therapist needs to know the muscles of the body.
• A member of the clergy needs to know the Bible.

I'm sure you can think of plenty more! 

But memorization doesn't have to be painful or miserable for the learner!

Here are some ideas that will help learning basic information be a little more valuable, as well as more fun and  motivating:

Five minutes each day is much better than a half hour, once a week! Research shows a little bit each day is best!

Saying it out loud really helps the memory! If it's a math fact, recite the entire fact, not just the answer. Remember when we learned spelling words we were told to "Say it, spell it, say it?" They were right on track! I've often told my students to say it "out soft." It's not a real expression, but my students know it means, "loud enough to hear yourself, but not loud enough to disturb others!"

Humans need socialization. Learning information tends to "stick" better when students are talking about what they're learning! Quite often, they share tricks that help the learning! 

If I want my students to remember something, I'll repeat the phrase over and over in a rhythm the children will remember. Most often, they will join in with me. The next time it comes up, I'll repeat the phrase with the same rhythm, and they'll remember it. If necessary, I'll add some movement as well. It never fails!

How many of you know all the words to The Brady Bunch theme song? Probably most of you! Now how many of you worked hard to learn those words? Probably none of you! Music is magical! If you put important information to a tune, it helps the memory! (Remember Schoolhouse Rock? it works!)

Working with information over and over until it is remembered isn't a whole lot of fun, but teachers know how to make it fun! I'm a big believer in playing games! 

Did you realize there are 200 basic addition and subtraction facts to be learned? You can't just give all 200 to the kiddos at once! Give a few at a time, then when those are learned, add a few more. We want them to have success, not be overwhelmed! 

Rote learning, or memorization, is an important part of learning, but please remember it is only the beginning. These are the building blocks. Once the basic information is learned, children need to grow from that knowledge and develop a deeper understanding with motivation to learn more and process that information. Rote learning only covers the bottom step of Bloom's Taxonomy. It is our job to bring the children much further!

Here are a few resources to help with some of the information that needs to be memorized:  

Addition and Subtraction Facts: Fact Fluency System for Addition and Subtraction: The Bundle 

Addition and Subtraction facts for distance learning:
Fact Fluency for Addition and Subtraction Boom Learning: the Bundle

Multiplication and Division Facts: Fact Fluency System for Multiplication and Division: The Bundle 

Multiplication and Division facts for distance learning: 
Fact Fluency for Multiplication and Division Boom Learning: the Bundle

Sight Words: Fry Sight Word Phrases The First Three Hundred Bundle

Sight Words: Dolch Sight Word Phrases Bundle

Spelling: Research-Based Sight Word Task Cards for ANY Words

or you can get the whole bundle at a huge discount:

Practice, Practice, Practice Bundle