Using a Bloom Balls Project for Choice Reading in High School English

One week I was still recovering from a minor medical procedure, a mountain of essays to grade, lessons to record for my online classes, and much more! In short, I needed something engaging and high level for my students to do while I got some much needed work done.

Can you relate?

I quickly remembered how much I loved completing a Bloom Ball activity in college one time and decided to have my 10th graders complete something similar.

What are Bloom Balls?

In case you are not familiar; Bloom Balls, also known as Bloom’s Taxonomy Spheres or Bloom’s Balls, are a three-dimensional representation of Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives.

They can be a valuable tool in the high school English classroom for several reasons:

1. Engagement: Bloom Balls provide a hands-on and visually stimulating way for students to engage with the material. Manipulating the sphere and interacting with different aspects of Bloom’s Taxonomy can make learning more enjoyable and memorable.
2. Differentiation: They offer opportunities for differentiated instruction. Teachers can customize Bloom Balls to suit the diverse needs and learning styles of their students. For example, they can create different versions with varying levels of difficulty or focus on specific skills or content areas.
3. Critical Thinking: Bloom Balls encourage critical thinking and higher-order cognitive skills. As students manipulate the sphere and engage with different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (such as analyzing, evaluating, and creating), they are challenged to think deeply about the subject matter and make connections between different concepts.
4. Collaboration: Students can work together in groups to assemble and discuss the Bloom Balls, sharing their insights and interpretations. This collaborative process fosters peer-to-peer learning and enhances communication skills.
5. Assessment: Bloom Balls can be used as both formative and summative assessment tools. Teachers can observe students’ interactions with the sphere to gauge their understanding of the material and identify areas where further instruction may be needed. Students can also present their completed Bloom Balls as a form of assessment, demonstrating their mastery of the content.
6. Creativity: They provide opportunities for creative expression. Students can personalize their Bloom Balls by adding illustrations, quotations, or examples that resonate with them personally. This creative aspect of the activity encourages students to take ownership of their learning and express themselves in unique ways.
7. Cross-curricular Connections: Bloom Balls can be used to integrate different subject areas or themes. For example, in an English classroom, students could create Bloom Balls focused on a specific literary work or genre, incorporating elements of history, psychology, or social studies as relevant. This interdisciplinary approach helps students see connections between different disciplines and deepen their understanding of complex topics.

Here is how I used Bloom Balls in my classroom!

On Day One, I broke them up into their groups from a previous poll I’d taken. Per the county’s unit they were supposed to be researching other cultures and identifying cultural “truths” about them.

I have them 6 options: Viking, Greek, Japanese, Indian, Mali, and British. Whichever group they were in resulted in them researching some cultural values of the culture and reading a prized heroic story.

For Greek it was Perseus; Viking was Sigurd; Indian was Rama vs Ravana; Japanese was Prince Yamato; British was more King Arthur Tales; and Mali was part of Sundiata.

That first day they researched and made a Venn diagram about ways they saw the cultures overlapping with ours and then started reading. But, then Day 2 came and 15 minutes before class I realized I still didn’t have anything concrete for them to actually do with it!

I went into my Mind Palace (for all you Sherlock fans!) and BAM! I remembered one of my professors having us work in small groups creating a Bloom Ball. It was engaging, creative, and rigorous. I found a template online, made the copies moments before they walked in 😂

Student directions for creating their Bloom Balls:

I told them to make 2 sides for each of the following categories:

Characters (main and secondary or heroes vs villains)

Theme (one for the theme statement and one to explain it fully from the text)

2 Cultural values and how they were seen within the story

2 powerful quotes and a brief explanation of why they were important

2 sides for setting (most of our heroes were on a journey and were in several different places)

2 drawings of critical/iconic scenes

I had NO IDEA how well this would go over! They were engaged in some fantastic higher thinking conversations, discussion over the stories, and taking their creativity to a whole other level. I ended up giving them a little over 2 class periods. I got a lot of stuff done and they did some truly amazing work- total win-win!

These Bloom Balls turned out amazing and I hung them from my classroom ceiling for the rest of the year. If you like the idea of this project, but want to save the leg work of creating everything involved; check out my store and you will have everything you need!

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