Voice, Choice, Ownership and SOLO Taxonomy

The beginning didn’t really go to plan and after the first day with students I was left wondering if this year really would see deep inquiry and agency in action simultaneously in my classroom. But despite my initial concerns we have kept at it…and the results have been amazing! Already we have had several student initiated actions and inquiries, and the atmosphere in the classroom has been electric. Students are collaborating and beginning to use the language of inquiry as they work. We have deeply reflected on what it means to take ownership of our learning and the balance that must be kept when using our voice and choice.

SOLO Taxonomy – how it has changed reflection and assessment.

One aspect that has really helped the past two weeks is the power of reflection and self differentiated learning. After quite a lot of reading into the use of SOLO taxonomy the students and I have worked to implement this in every aspect of our learning. It has even extended beyond our classroom into our grade level assessments for our transdisciplinary units and will also be used to help inform our student support services for students that require extra help.

Introducing SOLO Taxonomy to students and its use as a self assessment tool

Rather than explicitly front loading students with the SOLO taxonomy I showed them only the icons for each phase (see above) and asked what they thought they meant in terms of growth as a learner. One student suggested that the pre-structural phase was like a seed waiting to grow. The positive nature of this student’s comment on the beginning phase of learning has really stuck with me. I began to reflect on the use of smiley faces on previous self-reflection sheets that I had used. The beginning of learning is a powerful stage that should also be celebrated. We immediately then started to use the images and definitions that the children gave to them to assess ourselves as inquirers, how much we thought we knew about the conceptual understandings in math and language.

Going further with SOLO Taxonomy.

After an email from the PYP Coordinator with a link to an ATL document asking how we might use it within our school I suggested I pose it to my students. Perhaps we could use SOLO taxonomy? I asked the students what they already knew and wondered about our focus ATL skills (social and self-management) for our current unit of inquiry. After recording they were able to match their understanding with numerous pictures that they had sorted through that I had gathered. I asked how we could know where we were and how we could improve. And as I hoped they suggested SOLO Taxonomy. We created human graphs to show where we think we were and plan to dive deeper into what those phases actually look like this coming week. I look forward to sharing this back with our PYP Coordinator. This could be the beginning of student agency informing teaching and learning at our school, and what assessment looks like.

This is just one example of how student agency has been promoted so far, and it’s only WEEK 1! Students also have choice with the use of flexible seating, how they record work, what manipulatives they work with and most importantly with what inquiries they dive deeper into.

I can honestly say that I am looking forward to what this week will hold for PYP2. The impact that agency has had on the students enthusiasm for learning is truly inspiring!