By Nimisha Jain · IB Science & Design Teacher · Co-founder, AssessmentWiz
A K-12 teacher's guide to Webb's Depth of Knowledge: what each DOK level asks of students, how to tag test items, and how to balance rigor on any assessment.
Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is a framework that measures the cognitive complexity of tasks and assessment items. Unlike Bloom's Taxonomy (which categorizes the type of thinking), DOK focuses on the depth and complexity of thinking required.
Understanding DOK is critical for creating balanced assessments — especially summative tests where you need to ensure you're measuring more than just recall. In this guide, we'll break down each of the four DOK levels with examples and show you how to use them in your assessments.
DOK 1 requires students to recall facts, definitions, terms, or simple procedures. The answer is either right or wrong, and there's only one correct response. No reasoning or explanation is needed.
Turn any topic into a DOK-balanced quiz — Type a topic. AssessmentWiz builds a quiz with a DOK distribution across levels 1-4 plus an answer key. Free, no signup to try.
DOK 2 requires students to make decisions about how to approach a problem. It involves processing beyond recall — classifying, comparing, organizing, or explaining. There may be more than one step, but the path to the answer is still relatively clear.
DOK 3 requires students to reason, plan, and use evidence. There is no single correct answer — students must justify, analyze, or synthesize. These questions often require multiple paragraphs and take several minutes to complete.
DOK 4 requires extended investigation, multiple sources, and complex analysis over time. These tasks typically cannot be completed in a single class period and are best suited for projects, research papers, and performance tasks.
Here's a recommended distribution for a balanced unit test. DOK 3 sits at the top of what most secondary teachers actually grade in class, so it deserves the most careful design.
| DOK Level | % of Test | Question Types |
|---|---|---|
| DOK 1 (Recall) | 20-25% | Multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-blank |
| DOK 2 (Skills) | 35-40% | Short answer, classify, compare, explain |
| DOK 3 (Strategic) | 25-30% | Extended response, analyze, justify, design |
| DOK 4 (Extended) | 5-10% | Projects, performance tasks (usually separate) |
| Bloom's Taxonomy | Depth of Knowledge (DOK) | |
|---|---|---|
| Measures | Type of cognitive process | Complexity of the task |
| Levels | 6 levels (Remember → Create) | 4 levels (Recall → Extended Thinking) |
| Key question | "What kind of thinking?" | "How deep is the thinking?" |
| Example | Analyze = Level 4 | Analyzing a simple chart = DOK 2; Analyzing conflicting sources = DOK 3 |
The key insight: A "Create" question in Bloom's can be DOK 1 if the task is simple (e.g., "Create a list of vocabulary words"). And an "Apply" question can be DOK 3 if the application is complex (e.g., "Apply the scientific method to design an original experiment").
AssessmentWiz's Test Generator lets you set DOK level distribution before generation. Specify "30% DOK 1, 40% DOK 2, 30% DOK 3" and the AI creates questions at each level — with the DOK level labeled on the teacher answer key.
The DOK levels chart below (also called the Webb's Depth of Knowledge chart or the DOK level chart) is a visual reference that helps teachers quickly identify the cognitive complexity of any task or question. Use this chart when designing assessments to ensure you include an appropriate range of DOK levels:
| DOK Level | Label | Student Actions | Assessment Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOK 1 | Recall & Reproduction | Remember, recognize, identify, define, list | Multiple choice, fill-in-blank, labeling diagrams |
| DOK 2 | Skills & Concepts | Compare, classify, sort, estimate, interpret | Constructed response, graphic organizers, data tables |
| DOK 3 | Strategic Thinking | Analyze, justify, prove, evaluate, formulate | Essays, investigations, designing experiments |
| DOK 4 | Extended Thinking | Synthesize, connect, research, create, apply across contexts | Research papers, multi-week projects, portfolios |
The DOK Wheel (also called the Depth of Knowledge Wheel or Webb's DOK Wheel) is a circular visual organizer that maps action verbs to each DOK level. Teachers use it as a quick-reference tool when writing assessment questions.
Here's how to use the DOK wheel in your daily practice:
The DOK wheel is particularly useful when combined with Bloom's Taxonomy. While Bloom's tells you what type of thinking (remember, analyze, create), the DOK wheel tells you how deep that thinking needs to go. A question can be Bloom's "Analyze" but only DOK 2 if the analysis is straightforward. Use both frameworks together for the most rigorous assessments.
Want the printable? See our free DOK wheel reference for the classroom, with all four levels, verbs, and question stems on one page.
DOK verbs are the action words that signal the cognitive depth a task requires. Use this DOK verbs list when writing objectives or checking that your assessment covers a balanced range. For a fuller DOK verbs list at each level, with 30 to 40 subject-specific stems per level, see the dedicated per-level guides linked below.
| DOK Level | DOK Verbs (Action Words) | Signal Words |
|---|---|---|
| DOK 1: Recall | define, list, identify, recall, name, label, match, recite, state, memorize | What, Who, When, Where |
| DOK 2: Skills & Concepts | classify, compare, organize, summarize, predict, estimate, interpret, describe, apply routines | How, Why (single step), Explain |
| DOK 3: Strategic Thinking | analyze, justify, cite evidence, formulate, hypothesize, differentiate, critique, defend | Why, Support, Evaluate, Justify |
| DOK 4: Extended Thinking | design, synthesize, connect, prove, investigate, apply concepts across contexts | Design, Investigate over time, Research |
A word of caution on DOK verbs: the same verb can live at different levels depending on the task. "Compare" is DOK 2 if students match two obvious features, and DOK 3 if students weigh evidence to decide which of two policies is stronger. Treat the DOK verbs list as a starting signal, not a final label.
Each of the four DOK levels has its own dedicated guide with 30-40+ subject-specific question or task stems, common mistakes, and where each level fits in your assessment sequence:
DOK 1 is Recall (facts, definitions), DOK 2 is Skills & Concepts (compare, classify, explain), DOK 3 is Strategic Thinking (analyze, justify, design with evidence), and DOK 4 is Extended Thinking (multi-day projects, research, complex synthesis).
DOK is not about difficulty — it's about complexity. A question can be DOK 1 and very difficult ("What is the atomic number of Ytterbium?") or DOK 3 and relatively easy ("Explain why you agree or disagree with this simple statement"). Complexity = depth of thinking required.