To determine the DOK level of an activity, do not look at the verb as an automatic indicator of level. We often look at the verb first, but we have to analyze how it is being used in context. A common mistake is assuming that verbs like “analyze” or “evaluate” automatically mean DOK 3. If a student is told to “analyze” a text by simply finding three facts they already discussed in class, that mental process is actually just DOK 1 recall. The level is not about the word you use in the prompt; it is about the complexity of the thinking the students actually engage in.
We also have to consider the student’s actual engagement with the task. You might design a perfect DOK 3 task, but if a student gives up or simply waits for the answer, they are not hitting that level. I often call “I don’t know” or a blank page DOK 0. If students engage with a complex task in a shallow way or use a tool to bypass the reasoning, the task effectively drops to a lower level. To keep the cognitive demand high, we must ensure the task requires students to make sense of the information and navigate a path to the solution themselves.
