Cubing
By writing something for each of these categories, students progress through Bloom’s Taxonomy
and use higher levels of thinking to examine a topic or piece of reading.
1. Introduce cubing by giving each student a commercial, cube-shaped caramel candy.
Together, as a class, discussion progresses through each of the six cubing levels, listed below,
using the caramel as the object of the cubing.
a. Describe It—How would you describe the caramel you are holding to someone who is
not in the room?
b. Associate It—Does the caramel remind you of something you have experienced? Does
it make you think of someone, something, or some event in your life?
c. Apply It—What kinds of things can you do with or to the caramel?
d. Analyze It—Think of the caramel in parts. How would you separate the caramel into
those parts?
e. Compare/Contrast It—What other confection is similar to the caramel? How is it like
that confection? What other confection is unlike the caramel? Explain the difference.
f. Argue for or Against It—Do you like caramels or not? Why or why not?
2. After introducing the oral model, the teacher reads a piece of literature, a poem, or excerpt
from fiction or nonfiction, or provides a topic for study.
3. Students write on the topic from all six perspectives before making choices about whether or
not to incorporate all of the sides or several of the sides into their papers. They may focus on
one perspective, blur two or three sides together or omit a side that emerges as weak or
unrelated.
4. Teachers may make and keep a large cube with the perspectives written on each side to
make the idea of cubing more concrete—especially helpful for visual learners, young
students, or those needing structure.
From Joyce Armstrong Carroll and Edward E. Wilson, 2008, Acts of Teaching: How to Teach Writing, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.