Moving Up

by Linda Stanek

The second tier on Bloom’s Taxonomy, that hierarchy of learning, is Understanding. Here, students begin to be able to classify, describe, discuss, explain, and identify the things they are learning about. In stitching, we would see students recognizing the different stitches and having an idea of how they are formed.

Just above the second tier, is the third, Application. Here, knowledge and skill begin to take hold. Now students can not only know what the stitches are and how they are formed, but they can also apply them—doing the actual stitching. Here, the fine motor skills come into play even more, as stitches move from the simplest to more complex. Math skills come into play as students need to space their stitches, or read a chart and place their stitches in the right place. At this stage of the game, the creativity is just beginning to take root.

Reflect on your own past for a moment. What did you think of yourself when you were first learning to stitch? Did you consider yourself to be creative? Has that changed? Do you consider yourself to be creative now?

Linda Stanek was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and has always loved visiting the zoo. She spends her time taming stray cats and corralling words into stories and books—both fiction and nonfiction. She also writes for magazines, e-zines, and non-profit organizations and writes teacher’s guides for award-winning children’s books.

Linda has a B.S. degree in elementary education from The Ohio State University. She lives in Columbus with her three cats, Frankie (named after a Columbus Crew soccer player), Chloe (just because she likes the name), and Cubby (named after the Chicago Cubs baseball team). Beco’s Big Year is her second book.