Most of us write the same kind of question over and over. Define it, list it, name it. Those are fine questions, but if every item on the exit slip sits at the bottom of the taxonomy, you only ever find out whether students remember the words. This builder gives you a starting stem for each of the six levels of the revised Bloom's taxonomy, with your topic dropped in, so the harder questions are as easy to write as the easy ones. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Build stems
Enter a term and choose Build stems. A second term adds compare and combine stems.
How to use it
Name the idea
Use the exact term your students will see on the board, such as "photosynthesis" or "the Treaty of Versailles".
Pick a level
Or choose all six and scan down the page for the one question that fits tomorrow's lesson.
Fill the blanks
Stems with ____ need your own scenario, source or data. That is the part that makes a question yours.
Copy or print
Paste into a slide, an exit ticket or a discussion prompt, or print the page for a planning binder.
Spreading the levels across a lesson
You do not need every level every day. A workable rhythm is Remember and Understand questions during the first pass at a concept, Apply once students have seen a worked example, and Analyze, Evaluate or Create when there is time to talk. Higher levels are not better questions; they are slower ones. A Create stem on a concept students cannot yet define produces a lot of silence. For a longer look at how the levels fit together, see Bloom's taxonomy explained, and for a different scheme that sorts by task complexity rather than verb, depth of knowledge.
A verb is not a level. "Explain" can be an Understand question or a pure recall question, depending on whether students have already memorised the explanation. The stems here are a starting point. Check each one against what your class has actually seen.
How it compares with ClassSense
This builder helps you write open questions: discussion prompts, exit-ticket lines, short-answer items. ClassSense works from the other direction. You upload a unit, and it generates skill packs on its own, each with a Bloom-style level recorded for the skill. The practice items students answer inside the app are multiple choice, so the open-ended Create and Evaluate stems on this page are still something you pose in class or on paper. If you want to see how a pack is built, see the AI lesson plan generator page. Your first 30 days are free, no card.
Common questions
Which version of Bloom's taxonomy does this use?
The 2001 revision, with the six levels Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and Create. The older version put Synthesis and Evaluation in a different order and used nouns rather than verbs.
Why do some stems have blanks?
The blank (____) marks where your own example, quotation, graph or scenario goes. A stem with no material to think about is only half a question.
What does the second term do?
It adds stems that compare, contrast or combine two ideas. Leave it empty and those stems are left out.
Is anything saved or sent anywhere?
No. The stems are built in your browser and disappear when you close the page. Copying uses your own clipboard.