8way thinking SOLO taxonomy hybrid part 1

Over the past few months I have been introduced too, and discovered the delights of SOLO taxonomy. I have found it to be a useful tool in planning lessons and assessing student progress. It's helped me focus the feedback and feed forward that I give students and given them a simple structure for self and peer assessment.

As a learner I get very excited by 'new' ideas and have been able to dive deep into the subject through great books like 'SOLO Taxonomy A Guide for Schools' by Pam Hook and Julie Mills and 'Using SOLO as a Framework for Teaching' by Steve Martin.  Not to mention a whole host of interesting papers in educational journals.

Now as a scientist I like to experiment and play with ideas, and during a conversation with a colleague (thanks Ryan) we talked about Ian Gilbert's 8way thinking wheel and SOLO Taxonomy.  Not sure where to go with it, I was nearly finished teaching a topic on adaptation and I wanted a way to really see what the students had learnt and I came to this: Pizza and Chips

The idea was to use SOLO learning verbs to create a series of hierarchical questions that would cover the topic from multiple angles. These questions could then in turn be used by the students to develop revision aids/ test each other.

 I had 5 groups of year 10 students and here is what they came up with:

 


As you can see a mixed bag, I am really pleased with the questions of the first 3 groups. They have tried to make hierarchical questions and have looked at the topic from different angles.  However, they all found it really challenging and we only got as far as developing questions.  Some students said they prefered to 'copy things of the board' others said that once they got the idea they enjoyed the process.

My own feelings were that it took the students far out of their comfort zone and there was some deep thinking taking place. I am not sure where I am going to go with this but, there will be more to follow this week