Free printable DOK wheel and Webb's Depth of Knowledge chart for K-12 teachers. Includes DOK verbs, question stems for levels 1 through 4, and a downloadable classroom reference.
Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is a four-level framework developed by researcher Norman Webb in 1997 for classifying the cognitive demand of an assessment item. DOK is not about difficulty; it is about the kind of thinking required. A hard trivia fact is still Level 1 (recall). A short prompt asking students to design an experiment is Level 4 (extended thinking).
Bloom's Taxonomy categorizes the cognitive process (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create). DOK categorizes the cognitive complexity of the task itself. A task can be "Create" in Bloom's but Level 1 in DOK (creating a list of vocabulary words). A task can be "Apply" in Bloom's but Level 3 in DOK (applying the scientific method to design an original experiment). Most modern assessment writers use both.
The DOK wheel is a circular reference chart used by K-12 teachers to write assessment questions at a chosen depth of knowledge level. Each of the four levels is a wedge of the circle, filled with the verbs and question stems that typically operate at that level. It is a fast lookup when writing or evaluating a question.
Yes. The chart on this page (SVG format, print-ready) is free to download and use in your classroom. It is licensed for classroom and school use. Attribution is appreciated but not required.
A balanced assessment usually spans multiple DOK levels rather than sitting at one. A common target for a unit test is roughly 20% Level 1, 40% Level 2, 30% Level 3, and 10% Level 4. Formative checks skew toward Levels 1 and 2 (build fluency), summative tests toward Levels 2 and 3, and projects or performance tasks toward Levels 3 and 4.
Verbs alone do not determine the DOK level of a question. "Explain" can be Level 2 (explain how photosynthesis works using the diagram we studied) or Level 3 (explain why two scientists disagreed about the cause of the Dust Bowl using evidence from both accounts). Judge the whole task, not just the verb. This is the single most common misuse of DOK charts.