Introduction

The fourth grade students who will be involved in this Action Research inquiry are an
energetic and talkative group who are most engaged when they are using technology during
group or independent work. Students are provided daily opportunities to collaborate in groups
and discuss their learning in various subject areas within the classroom. During this time, I have
noticed students literacy discourse to be shallow and not representative of deep or critical
thought. With the nationwide push towards The Common Core State Standards there is a distinct
need for these fourth graders to be able to delve deeper than surface level thinking.
We have 30 students in our fourth grade classroom with a range of academic needs. With
the latest implementation of the Common Core Standards curriculum, including the more
prevalent need for critical thinking, reasoning, and building deeper meaning, the students needed
development of deeper level thinking strategies. As I observed the students interactions more
closely in the subjects of mathematics, language arts, writing, and science, I became increasingly
aware of their ability to develop mathematical reasoning based on problems as well as a well-
developed imagination for writing. However, a gap remained in students reading comprehension
skills. Having just begun reading the book Holes, I heard them discuss the story or respond to
questions from my master teacher. Their responses were markedly surface level, answers one
could easily find in the book by skimming and without having to think deeply. Moreover, the
students found it challenging to make real world connections, inferences, and predictions based
on the text. Therefore, I concluded that the largest area of need remained the developing of
deeper thinking comprehension strategies.
Another contemporary movement that has emerged regarding the fostering of students
thinking is Webbs Depth of Knowledge (DOK). This powerful thinking model contains four
levels: 1) Recall and Reproduction, 2) Skills and Concepts, 3) Short-term Strategic Thinking and
4) Extended Thinking. Each level of thinking requires students to delve further into their
knowledge based on a text or subject, from DOK Level 1 and Level 2 which can be acquired
from a text or subject itself to DOK Level 3 and Level 4 in which more than just the text or
subject itself aids in the students knowledge and thinking. The students Depth of Knowledge
(DOK) discussions and questions amongst each other are mostly at the lowest level (1) of DOK
and their School District is striving towards students being at the higher levels (3/4) by the end of
the school year. The chart below shows how many of my fourth graders ask DOK questions at
each level: 1, 2, 3, or 4 during their reading of Holes and prior to my interventions and research.

0
5
10
15
20
25
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
Students' Depth of Knowledge:
Based on Holes Question Development
Students
After viewing this chart, I concluded that there was a definite need for students to learn how to
deepen their thinking in terms of reading comprehension. I decided to try an intervention that
would hopefully increase student comprehension levels by fostering student-created questions
that, in turn, would deepen students ability to think. In the next section a case will be made for
the importance of students being taught how to construct their own questions at increasingly
higher cognitive levels.
Research Question:
In what ways do student-created Depth of Knowledge (DOK) questions affect levels of student
thinking in reading instruction?