Saturday 10 May 2014

SOLO Taxonomy and PBL - Interrelated Yet Again...

Still learning... but here's what I know already.

Pre-Structural - need to figure out what they want to learn
Unistructural - One idea
Multi Structural - A few ideas about what they're learning
Relational -  Making connections between ideas
Extended Abstract - making connections but then also asking what if... and thinking outside the box.

SOLO Taxonomy was created by Biggs and Collis in 1982. A wonderfully onto it woman called Pam Hook then developed the idea further and in particular it has wide reaching uses - not just for use here in New Zealand.

SOLO to me makes a lot more sense than Blooms Taxonomy. We were taught a little about Blooms during teacher training, but I still struggle with using and applying it successfully.

EDIT: Here comes a brain explosion.

Reading through a great Blog. New idea with PBL - excuse the messy thinking...

Year 11s. Studying V for Vendetta. Have just had them do a mini-project on a particular aspect from the film... though basically I've just made them put what we've already learnt in their own words. Yes most of them have developed our ideas even further, but I think some may have not got the point. And that's probably because I wanted them to engage deeper with the film but didn't explain to them why before they went on holdiday... so now I'm dealing with holding them accountable for completing it still.. mainly because I had about five kids in the holidays who DID do their work and did it amazingly well. So. new thought.

If I had done this differently, I would have instead got to the point where we are now... looking at the themes of V for Vendetta. We have come up with a plethora of ideas as a class... I have modelled how to link specific ideas to one another so that we only have 6 themes in total.

Next step. Have the students think about the real-life issues from the film within the themes.

For example - theme of Accepting Diversity. Students could list ideas such as gay rights, marriage equality, protests and spin propaganda - all of which happen in the film as well as in the real world... excepting marriage equality of course.

As they have six differing themes to choose from - and hopefully an even greater number of ideas for each within the real-life relational comparison - they would then be able to choose an issue that is important/interesting to them.

From there they could then develop a project. The project could include hosting their own breakfast to fundraise money or get awareness for the Malala fund or question why the Nigerian govt still hasn't found the girls. Or even why propaganda is still used in today's governments... and why we get spin coverage from some news shows/newpapers. The projects and questions of course would be lead by the students themselves..

I was thinking that the end assessment... merely from an assessment pov... would be their Formal Writing 1.3 assessment. This could be a report... so would need to teach report writing skills - though not that different from essay structure anyway. Their reports would be handed in individually? But all the research and finding out how to get their questions answered would be done in a group - if they so chose.

After reading D. Fawcett's blog - link here. I agree with him that PBL should work within and around SOLO... as SOLO is such a great tool to coincide with NCEA and how the assessment criteria is worded as well.

Prestructural - Not Achieved - Missed the Point - or Not Quite there Yet
Unistructural - Achieved - Understands what's happening and can explain an idea
Multistructural - Merit - Understands and can analyse the relevance of the ideas
Relational - High Merit/Low Excellence - Can make links between ideas and analyse significance of those ideas
Extended Abstract - True Excellence (IMHO) - Can make links, analyse but also relate it to ouside world, show impact on them and the world around them and why it's important - outside the box stuff

So the project would work around that... let's take... the theme of The Use and Abuse of Power - and the Nigerian girls who have yet to be rescued.
- Learning stage: Find out what's happening - immerse self in understanding.
- Planning Stage: Formulate questions for what you want to find out, how it relates to V4V
- Making a Connection: Comparing and contrasting the event with events in V4V and showing the similarities and differences - awareness by celebs for #bringbackourgirls and videos... no big news coverage yet though... how we're not told the real truths about our world.
- What we can do: Make serious plans in what we can do to take action, help or spread awareness to get more people to understand. Can't just stop at a report.... need to think BIG. Outside the box. Organise a mass awareness event or something. Mini-project inside a big one. Share ideas. Get feedback
- Evaluate project and self-assessment: what did you learn, what comparisons can you now make with the rest of the world and V4V, how successful were you in your project - What are some other ways that you could have done this differently -
- Report back on findings: Your experience, how this project impacted you and made you think differently, what you might do now - now that you know about this issue, how has it changed your thinking, in what ways can this project be continued on, ETC.

Because what I love is history - it's hard not to teach to it and I tend to do so from an English perspective.... so I think this could work. I suppose the only way to do it is to try.

I also like the idea of not grading for learning... discussed here... grading for assessment sure - but how can you successfully have equitable learning assessment rubrics. This person has learnt more so they get a cupcake. While this person has only learnt one thing...so only gets a star. Why not be intrinsically motivated to learn - for starters, and secondly who says what one person has learnt is more valuable than what someone else has? All people learn at different rates and success levels. And success is a moot point. We all succeed every day. What is my success may not be your success - vis a vis.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions and tweaks to my ideas are most welcome. :)

#GrowthMindset #HackyrClass

Also was listening to this as I was immersing myself in yet more SOLO docs. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJNSvlR64VA


http://cargocollective.com/nickdenton/HookED-Design

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