1. VLC Training 2014 Steve Walker
SOLO Taxonomy
VLC Training 2014
Steve Walker

2. Further reading: Ross Morrison McGill, or @TeacherToolkit
Full on Learning by Zoe Elder

3. Further Reading http://pamhook.com/solo-taxonomy/

5. SOLO Taxonomy By the end of this session you will…
Have a clear understanding of what
SOLO Taxonomy is and the theory behind it; be able to link what it can do for you in the classroom with your learners to address issues raised by Ofsted (and others) that prevent Bradford Academy from being an outstanding school; have an opportunity to apply SOLO to your own practice and think about next steps.

6. Learning Steps Explore the theory behind SOLO Taxonomy.
Link it to the issues facing the Academy as we aim to move from Good to Outstanding.
Focus on Rapid Progress, Learning over Tasks, Differentiation, Feedback and LOT to HOT.
Case study – SOLO in action.
Questions and planning next steps.

7. What is SOLO Taxonomy?
SOLO stands for “Structured Observed Learning Outcomes”. Those colleagues familiar with DeBono’s Hats or Blooms will not have too much trouble with the basic idea behind SOLO. However SOLO goes beyond Blooms and is better for both learners and teachers because it is a theory of learning not knowledge.

8. What is SOLO Taxonomy?
With SOLO we can plan thoughtful and creative learning experiences that are focused on the learning rather than the activity. It allows for more rapid progress as it uses Pupil Level Feedback to identify prior learning so that learners can start accessing the learning at different entry points. Rather than feedback SOLO can provide “Feedforward” so that learners can reflect on their current understanding and have opportunities to develop this to a more complex level.

9. But what do these mean?

10. Hand our task to do

12. Examples of thinking skills that each level of SOLO utilises – becoming increasingly complex.

13. Dance SOLO
By Lindsey Shepherd
Possible design to use with Primary:

14. For English?

15. SOLO and Ofsted Outstanding
As a result of the teaching all pupils are making rapid and sustained progress
Teachers systematically and effectively check all pupils’ understanding throughout the lesson.
Teacher s plan and teach lessons that enable all pupils to learn exceptionally well.
Teachers use well judged and often imaginative teaching strategies in order to match individual needs accurately.
Ofsted criteria for outstanding
Consequently all pupils learn exceptionally well
across the curriculum.

16. Why we are not an outstanding school…
Teaching is not consistently
Good and not enough teaching is Outstanding.
Pupil progress is not always good.
We need to use information about pupil prior learning to plan and provide learning opportunities for all learners, whatever their ability that enable them to make at least GOOD progress in the lesson.
Fear of being creative and taking risks in lessons often prevents Good teachers becoming Outstanding – SOLO helps shift this mind set.
SOLO creates differentiation that allows all learners to demonstrate good visible progress.
What SOLO can do to address issues raised by OFSTED and BP
Learners self reflect on their progress in their understanding of a new topic. They then select SOLO activities that allow them to build upon this and make further rapid progress.

17. What did Ofsted say we need to do?
ensure that teachers use information about how well pupils have learned to plan future lessons and always set work for pupils, whatever their ability, that enable them to make at least good progress in all lessons.
Differentiation is clearly an issue for us at the Academy.

18. Focus – on Progress Using Thinking Skills to create differentiation.
For us to measure progress we need to have a starting point from which we can measure the progress against. These starting points are usually made visible in the LOs. I began my focus on Learning objectives because I received feedback after an observation that stated that differentiation was not visible in my learning objectives. This made me question the whole purpose of LOs. That is a big educational debate in itself and not one we have time for today. However I did then try and make changes to the LOs I used.

19. Here I tried to use cohorts that were based upon thinking skills
Here I tried to use cohorts that were based upon thinking skills. Using Blooms Taxonomy to provide opportunities for learners to up the challenge in their responses. However this still did not really solve my problems as I struggled to provide learning activities that matched the LOs within the lesson or to properly assess progress individual learners made in the lesson and over time.

20. Regularly in order to reshape the learning steps.
A sequence of lessons planned to achieve a DEEP LEARNING GAIN
Replace learning objectives with learning steps
that lead the student towards the LEARNING GAIN.
Use variable entry points based upon learners prior learning or existing understanding.
DIFFERENTIATION
Use SOLO TAXONOMY to construct main teaching activities that allow all learners to make rapid progress towards the learning gain.
ASSESSMENT
This led to a major rethink – which involved getting rid of LOs altogether. I am not advocating this approach to you, I am just sharing my thoughts as I went through a learning journey of my own.
Prior, Current, End
Regularly in order to reshape the learning steps.
Peer, Teacher, Self
HIGH
Expectations that all learners will achieve the learning gain.

21. Replace learning objectives with learning steps
that lead all students towards the LEARNING GAIN.
In order to move the focus away from learning activities and back on to the learning I sit down and think before each lesson – what is it at a fundamental level that I want the learners to take away from my lesson? What is it I want them to have learned and retain for next time – this is the “stickability”. So I replaced LOs which often focus too much on activities that learners need to complete with a learning gain. The Learning Steps are thinking and learning opportunities on the road to achieving that learning gain.

22. Regularly in order to reshape the learning steps.
A sequence of lessons planned to achieve a DEEP LEARNING GAIN
Replace learning objectives with learning steps
that lead the student towards the LEARNING GAIN.
Use variable entry points based upon learners prior learning or existing understanding.
DIFFERENTIATION
Use SOLO TAXONOMY to construct main teaching activities that allow all learners to make rapid progress towards the learning gain.
ASSESSMENT
ASSESSMENT – regularly to help give me and my learners a snap shot of prior and current understanding as we journey towards the future learning/understanding. This can be through questioning and/or peer/self reflection. This is used to reshape future learning steps or to make immediate whole class, group or individual interventions in order to ensure that the learning gain is achieved.
Prior, Current, End
Regularly in order to reshape the learning steps.
Peer, Teacher, Self
HIGH
Expectations that all learners will achieve the learning gain.

23. Use questioning…
Questioning can help achieve this – especially if you differentiate it. Each of these questions increases the level of thinking/challenge required by the learners. Through questioning like this you can build up a picture of the overall understanding of a topic, idea or concept by the group and/or individuals and make the necessary interventions to reshape the learning or lesson.

24. Regularly in order to reshape the learning steps.
A sequence of lessons planned to achieve a DEEP LEARNING GAIN
Replace learning objectives with learning steps
that lead the student towards the LEARNING GAIN.
Use variable entry points based upon learners prior learning or existing understanding.
DIFFERENTIATION
Use SOLO TAXONOMY to construct main teaching activities that allow all learners to make rapid progress towards the learning gain.
ASSESSMENT
This assessment then provides the evidence to create variable entry points for the learners based upon their current understanding..
Prior, Current, End
Regularly in order to reshape the learning steps.
Peer, Teacher, Self
HIGH
Expectations that all learners will achieve the learning gain.

25. Learners self review the stage of understanding they are on.

26. I am so HOT! Lower Order Thinking Skills Higher Order Thinking Skills
Where SOLO is most effective is in promoting differentiation and allowing learners to demonstrate rapid progress and in its ability to move learning from LOT to HOT.
Using SOLO the reflection on progress becomes more than simply what can the learner remember about a new topic. It becomes about applying that new knowledge, linking it to other knowledge, analysing and evaluating the knowledge to create a deeper rather than surface understanding.
Lower
Order
Thinking
Skills
Higher
Order
Thinking
Skills
SURFACE DEEP CONCEPTUAL

27. “The most powerful model for understanding these three levels – surface, deep and conceptual, and integrating them into learning intentions and success criteria is the SOLO model developed by Biggs and Collis in 1982.
Hattie 2012

28. SOLO in action
Year 10 History GCSE students have been studying the Cold War. Their final unit examines Détente and the End of the Cold War. Through questioning of
learners in class it became clear, reinforced by discussions with individuals after class, that the understanding of this key concept – détente was surface at best.
Teacher reflection leads to learning conversations with students which then reshapes the planned learning activities.
The focus is constantly on the learning and how the activities can support this NOT what can be learned from the activities.
This is an example of regular assessment being used to reshape the planned learning.

29. SOLO in action
In concert with my colleagues in the History department we agreed to
reshape the planned learning for this unit and spend time making sure
our learners had deep and conceptual understanding before moving on.
We also recognised that this would prepare our learners for a learning challenge that would further assess their understanding and develop their thinking and speaking skills.
Assessment is used again to gauge the different stages of understanding of the class – this is real differentiation in action.
First learners used SOLO to assess
their current understanding of the learning on détente.

30. Learners read the SOLO level
descriptors and decide upon their
current understanding.
There is an expectation that they
provide an evidence statement to explain their choice.
This will provide them with their personal starting point.

31. Depending upon their self-assessed start points learners had a choice of 4 SOLO tasks available from the SOLO stations to work on and towards.
Each of the tasks requires them to use their knowledge in an increasingly complex manner. From LOT to HOT.

32. Megan decided that she was still very vague on what she had studied in class. She decided to begin at the unistructural level. This provided her with an opportunity to review her detailed class notes from her book and identify the key features of détente.