Here is a Goggle Doc’ I used to explain to the staff the reasoning and plan for the day The 5R Day

The day consisted of various sessions for the students to develop their 5Rs. During the day we had…..

• Guest Speaker (Jeremy Dry from Maximise) who spoke about motivation, resilience and how the brain works.
• Games Based Learning – where students created their own computer games and assessed each others efforts using a piece of software called Sploder (thanks to my PLN for the heads up!)
• Problem Based Learning – where students either in a team designed and created a way to safely drop an egg from the canteen balcony; or as a team in the Gym lifted the equivalent of the school minibus or ran the equivalent distance from Leeds to Scarborough!
• Urban Arts – where students were learning new skills such as Street Dance, DJing and Graffiti.

During the day all students collected stamps from staff in their 5R passport.

As you can see we asked the students to reflect on the day and record their thoughts using a Linoit canvass. Although not a huge response, the comments were extremely pleasing. See the canvass here.

I have cobbled together some images from the day explaining the 5Rs that are now being displayed throughout the school – the personal touch of the images showing “our students” has had a pleasing impact. We aim to probably create a better standard of posters in the future.

….and what next? Well we have “Independence Day” where we are encouraging all staff to create opportunities for our students to develop the 5Rs, this has already been dubbed a “lazy teacher day” where we are hoping to see much more opportunities for our students to develop independent learning.

A lot of learning in the TLCs this month will be centered around collaborative learning and students leading learning – which fits in really nicely with the follow up to the 5R day and Independence Day. At the end of the term we plan to celebrate these successes with our very first in house Teachmeet!!

Many thanks go to @MrPHorner and @57Mason for the TeachMeet advice and support. And @croix2000 for the “Lazy Teacher Day” idea

I’ve been playing around with Capzle – take a look!

I asked my Year 8 class to research Respiration using SOLO Taxonomy – they collated facts and information about their chosen subject (red blood cell, oxygen etc) this lended itself to “shallow learning” – unistructural and multistructural. Working collaboratively they then discussed which parts links with which – e.g the red blood cell links with oxygen, carbon dioxide etc – this was the relational stage. The class then co-constructed a video to explain what they had learnt – they had reached extended abstract.

* Five Easy Pieces is a film starring Jack Nicholson…..it is very good.

Anyway, I hope you will use it to inspire your colleagues to use SOLO Taxonomy.

SOLO Taxonomy on Prezi

  A lot of the quotes in the Prezi have come from a book I recently purchased called

SOLO Taxonomy: A Guide to Schools, a suitable addition to any Christmas list! Details can be found here

I have also included this 2004 paper from the University of Auckland entitled “Cognitive Processes in asTTle (Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning): The SOLO Taxonomy”.

The link to the full paper can be found here.

There is a very interesting piece in the Appendix about “The Problems of Bloom’s Taxonomy”

I have also summarised and uploaded this onto Google Docs and highlighted (in my mind) the key points and principles that need to be recognised and communicated when introducing SOLO Taxonomy to other colleagues. It is an open document so please feel free to add comments.

The summarised and highlighted article can be found here.

I have now used SOLO Taxonomy successfully (in my opinion) with all my KS3 classes  – the class that I was most excited about using SOLO with was with my Year 8 Science class. This is my most challenging and interesting group, in terms of behaviour, motivation and mind-set. I really wanted to use SOLO with them to prove (to myself really) that the learning taxonomy can work with almost any student. Everybody has classes like this – a “poor” lesson with them can leave you disappointed and frustrated, while a “good” lesson with them can leave you feeling extremely satisfied and well, on top of your game. Just to put this group in context – their end of KS3 targets range from a Level 2 to a low-level 4.

Lesson One using SOLO Taxonomy.

The first video shows three students using the Leeds Utd statements (these can be found in a previous post here) to define and understand the five stages of SOLO. Now it is fair to say that they haven’t quite grasped the five stages yet, but I really like the way they articulated their understanding and justified their decisions. These three students had been learning about SOLO Taxonomy for approximately 40 minutes.

Lesson Two using SOLO Taxonomy.

This video shows two students using hexagon shaped key word cards to show how they had connected their learning. We have been learning about Respration in class and this lesson was consildating their understanding. They really enjoyed using the cards to construct individual and personal connections with the content they had been learning. Thanks to DamianClark @clarky099 for the fantastic idea.

Right at the end I asked the two students which level of understanding they had achieved using the SOLO Taxonomy – listen to their reply!

To me this shows huge progress in the understanding of the taxonomy by this group. We are going to continue to use SOLO (they have already asked me!) to assess each others thinking, to use it to construct feed forward comments to help each other move on and to use it for differentiating learning outcomes.

I hope you find the videos of interest, I intend to take more videos and podcasts to communicate to others the amazing benefit and success of using SOLO Taxonomy for learning.

I have now used SOLO Taxonomy in many lessons this half term – I have used it for self assessment, peer assessment, co-constructing and student generated success criteria and linked it with learning intentions.

However, I wanted to use this post to show the quality of peer assessment and more importantly the high calibre of feedback (or feed-forward) my students gave each other when using SOLO Taxonomy.

Year 9 – assessment piece on Variation.

Using a student generated success criteria and in an agreed time allocation my students “set to learning” (my students don’t work!) to create an information poster on a chosen part of the Variation unit we had been learning (AQA Biology Unit 1 – new spec). Not the most aesthetically pleasing posters I’m sure you will agree – but the learning and thinking was phenomenal!

I then asked my students to use our SOLO taxonomy success criteria to peer assess each others learning. Firstly to indicate why the posters were at a certain stage and secondly how their peer needed to improve their learning to get to the next stage on the SOLO Taxonomy.

I have chosen a selection of what was written, and typed it exactly as my student’s wrote them;

Example 1

MULTISTRUCTURAL – “You are here because you gave several ideas about the cells but didn’t manage to link them together”

RELATIONAL – “To get to this level you need to link them together”

Example 2

RELATIONAL – “She has several ideas about cell structure and DNA and she has linked them together”

EXTENDED ABSTRACT – “Add ideas in a new and different ways”

Example 3

RELATIONAL – “he has linked the nucleus to the chromosomes, dna, genes – he has also detailed these and has written multiple facts”

EXTENDED ABSTRACT – “to get to this point you need to use a metaphor to explain these facts to others”

Example 4

EXTENDED ABSTRACT – “you have given snippets of info. you have also linked it to the big picture by drawing diagrams. Finally you have created a way of remembering it for you and other people”

Now considering this was the second time my Year 9 students had seen and used SOLO – I was very impressed by the detail and formative comments they gave each other.

Year 7 – assessment on Particles (Solids, Liquids and Gases)

I used a similar format with my Year 7 students – we co-constructed the success criteria this time and I spent considerably longer explaining SOLO Taxonomy. I personally believed that this had more of an impact than before as the following examples hopefully show…

Again I have typed the comments out exactly as they were written by my students.

Example 1

MULTISTRUCTURAL – “I also say that she got multistructural because she didn’t link gas to the rest. try to learn more about gases so that you can link them all together”

RELATIONAL – “I say relational because she has linked solid and liquid together by saying liquid particles still cannot be squashed – just like solids. Try to learn more about all of them so you have more info to link together”

Example 2

MULTISTRUCTURAL – “I think Tyler’s work is multistructural because he has talked about several ideas about all the particles”

RELATIONAL – “To get to relational, Tyler’s work needs to link his ideas together, like to link the properties of the particles together”

Example 3

RELATIONAL – “because you have lots of ideas and can link them together like liquids have weak bonds so they can move around”

EXTENDED ABSTRACT – “it could have improved by putting the ideas into a different background, so it made sense but looked at in a different way”

Example 4

RELATIONAL – “I think this piece of work is relational because the work is correct and he has linked all the properties of the particles together and linked it into a big picture”

EXTENDED ABSTRACT – “It could be in here if you said what the particles reminded you of – he needs to say that it’s like something else and why”

I’m sure you will agree it is difficult to measure the impact or the benefit to learning that SOLO Taxonomy has had in these lessons simply by reading these comments. I intend to take videos and podcasts next half term (thanks to @Croix2000  for the idea) which will provide further evidence hopefully. However, I was both pleasantly surprised and impressed with the level of care and attention that my students showed when giving feedback. I also thought that the quality of their comments were brilliant – far superior to anything they have produced so far. To me, this indicates that they “get” SOLO and “get” how it can be used to not only assess their learning but also how they can use it to provide constructive feedback to help them improve. An over used saying by me in class is “let’s improve what we know, not prove what we know”.

Milestones are important,  and I think this is one.

Today I have altered my Twitter bio – I wanted to tell followers and others that I love SOLO Taxonomy and the benefits it can have on deep and connective learning. I thought long and hard about how to write this on my bio……I settled happily with “SOLO learner”.

I highly recommend you become one too.

SOLO Taxonomy is something that I have researched for a long while and now I’ve finally had the opportunity to try it out for real in the classroom – with, in my mind, staggering results.

For everything you need to know about SOLO Taxonomy please refer to the fabulous Hooked on Thinking website.

In a nutshell the taxonomy allows “.. the learner to think about the strengths and weaknesses of their own thinking when they are learning and to make thoughtful decisions on what to do next.”  The taxonomy focusses on learning, is extremely student friendly, allows teachers and students to consider feed”forward” strategies, can be used for any learning context and above all is easier to use and understand than Bloom’s Taxonomy.

So the taxonomy itself….

We then publicised these onto the five stage of the Taxonomy as shown below (please don’t judge me on my borders, the Science Technician put them up for me and as every good Science teacher will tell you  – never argue with your technician!)

Finally, the various ideas and thoughts were centralised by an identified group and transferred onto our SOLO Taxonomy board – this was now our success criteria. I used newly bought talking postcards to help the group collect the “best” statements from the class.

The next lesson I asked the students to create a poster on Variation …..yes I know a poster, but bear with me. I displayed an overview of what we have covered so far in the unit using Popplet then after asking them how long they required, set them off on the task (textbooks, workbooks and the knowledge/skills of each other were available).

Now usually when students create posters, a large majority of the given time is spent on producing the title in bubble writing (I’m sure that’s pretty common), but not this time, in fact it’s fair to say most of the “posters” were pretty scruffy – and why was this? Well, my students all wanted to get to extended abstract or at least relational – they wanted to show off their learning!

I then asked the students to peer assess each other’s work using our success criteria  – at this stage I was uncertain as to if this experiment had worked – I should have listened to Dazza!

The feedback (or feed-forward) they gave each other was staggering, not only had they understood the taxonomy itself but they were able to use it to create specific and personal feedback to each other. I asked each student to write on the blank SOLO Taxonomy sheet (at the top of the post) stating where their partner was and what they needed to do to move on to the next stage.

I asked two colleagues to come and observe me using SOLO Taxonomy – they were so impressed with the students understanding and how it could be used effectively for assessment they are now trying it with their classes….

The futures bright, the futures SOLO.

How many of these strategies/activities do you plan into your lessons?

• Attempt to ask every student a question.
• No hands up rule.
• Random Name Generator/Lollypop sticks to choose students to ask questions to.
• Socratic Questioning.
• Questioning using Blooms Taxonomy.
• Mini White Boards to gauge students’ answers.

We tend to ask a lot of questions, don’t we? Don’t get me wrong, effective questioning is key to many successful learning experiences and underpins AfL but…….we tend to ask a lot of questions, don’t we?

It stands to reason that if a student creates their own question they are more likely to take ownership of it and actually want to answer it. Students can learn more from asking questions than they can answering them. Students will probably be very creative in what they want to learn and therefore their questions will be little inquisitive gems!

After a lesson on Forensic Science (we discussing the importance of observational skills and took some fingerprints from a mock crime scene – part of the UpD8 Wikid Forensics Module) with my Year 7 class, I asked them to come up with two questions each that they wanted answers for.

I told them to literally write down the first questions that popped into their head – we talked about how sometimes a question that may seem “silly” or appear to be “unanswerable” can sometimes lead to a fascinating learning dialouge when we attempt to answer them. A perfect example of this is Ian Gilbert’s brilliant “Thunks”.

We also used our “Ask Really Good Questions” cards (from Alite’s Learning to Learn series)

Anyway, read a selection of what they came up with……

• How do fingerprints “stick” onto things?
• Why do we use carbon powder to find fingerprints?
• How does the forensic tape lift up the fingerprints?
• Do identical twins have identical fingerprints?
• Does everybody have fingerprints?
• Can you graft fingerprints from one person to another?
• Do fingerprints change as we get older?
• Why do we have fingerprints at all?
• Can fingerprints tell us what a person is like?

Pretty impressive eh? This was the very first step of our QFT (Question Formulation Technique). The complete technique is shown below. (Scroll down to the bottom to see more of our QTF sessions)

Question Formulation Technique © The Right Question Institute.

Produce Your Questions
Four essential rules for producing your own questions:

• Ask as many questions as you can.
• Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer the questions.
• Write down every question exactly as it is stated.
• Change any statement into a question.

Improve Your Questions
• Categorise the questions as closed or open-ended.
• Name the advantages and disadvantages of each type of question.
• Change questions from one type to another.

Prioritise the Questions
• Choose your three most important questions.
• Why did you choose these three as the most important?

Next Steps
• How are you going to use your questions?

I’ve adapted this slightly and placed a final step, where students reflect on the technique – discussing what they learnt from QTF, how they learnt from QTF and how they could apply what they have learnt to other situations.

I have created a pretty simple display in my room to show students the five steps of a successful QTF.

Click here to download it

Just heard today that the brilliant @pauldavidmac used QFT in his Year 13 class! Check this out….

“Used question formulation technique @Totallywired77 today with my Yr 13 #exphys students. Step 6 set as homework task”

“Step 5 of QFT in action with #exphys #rossett students. Worked v well & taught each other! @SamByrne94 @Totallywired77″

“Question formulation technique worked well today with Yr 13 #exphys students.#flippedclassroom”

Also check out this Lino.it canvass where Paul asked his students to reflect on the QTF session – amazing!

Some further reading on QFT

“Teaching Students to ask their own questions” By DAN ROTHSTEIN and LUZ SANTANA

“Question Formulation Technique” By Facing History and Ourselves

Some images from another successful QTF session – this time the students were learning about Particle Theory.

Step 1 Produce our own questions (notice the “C” and “O” annotations)

Step 2 Improve our questions

Step 3 Prioritise our questions

What’s the plan? Well, (after I have received permission from SLT – obviously!) I will choose a specific group to trial, investigate what devices they own – possibly setting up a collaborative form in GoogleDocs, work with the Network Manager about using the school’s wireless network, write home to parents, plan engaging and inspiring lessons and then…ask my students to BYOD!!

Big thanks to @pauldavidmac and @JamiePortman for helping me along with this learning journey – and obviuosly this is only the beginning! All resources and thoughts along the way will appear on the blog – watch this space!

The PDF of this poster can be downloaded here – byod

Some useful reading around BYOD

BYOD Empowers Educators to Facilitate Learning by @convergemag

ADL Mobile Learning Handbook 

How could you use a Mobile Phone for Learning?

Interesting ways to use a Mobile Phone… from @tombarrett

..and a wonderful blog post on how to actually plan for a BYOD class

How would I prepare to teach a BYOD class? by Darren Kuropatwa @dkuropatwa

……and a fantastic article to help persuade non believers about the impact of mobile learning

Tool for Learning or Distraction?   thanks to @pauldavidmac for pointing this out.

………….and a fantastic article on the power of mobile learning

The Case for teaching texting by David Didau AKA @LearningSpy

A PDF of this poster can be downladed and used by clicking here CONSTRUCTIVISM POSTER

This was the original poster that I adapted

More constructivism inspired posters can be found here Website

There is even fonts that can be downloaded in a constructivist style Fonts

I’ll tell you what I’m doing this new academic year……I’m doing some PUNK LEARNING!

It is Year Zero, it is time for the D.I.Y Learner, we’re going to bring constructivism back into the classroom, we’re going to do some Punk Learning.

In my role as a consultant this year I have been inspired by students, teachers, leaders, schools and colleagues. My philosophy on “Learning” has been crystallised – I have considered, shared and adapted my thinking…and have created Punk Learning.

Although constructivism has been around for decades and the idea of independent learning is not a new one – I feel that wrapping it up and publicising it as a “Youth/Social Culture” package it may hit the message home with both teachers and students alike.

So why did I come up with it? Well, like many teachers I am constantly frustrated with the lack of independent learning and constructivism that occurs in my classroom on a day-to-day basis……now please don’t misunderstand me here, I am not frustrated with my students* but with myself. I need the confidence, time and support from the class to create effective passages of “student led learning”, as a class we need to work together to become D.I.Y learners, as a class we need to become Punk Learners.

*OK, so I guess I do get a little frustrated with students not having the resilience, confidence and training to attempt and persevere with independent learning – but this new concept will surely help.

How and why did I create it?

I have spent all of this year telling teachers that they are teaching too much and not giving their students the creativity and independence that they need for outstanding learning. I have spent around five years teaching in a constructivism learning model (most of it without knowing it!). I have spent more than twenty years listening, watching and reading about Punk  – seemed obvious really!

The school I will be part of this September need to implement and drive independent learning throughout the school (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?) – in fact it has been acknowledged and mentioned in the last two Ofsted reports. I am taking this concept into my classroom in September – I will trial it with two KS3 classes at first and then….well who knows? Every peak, trough and plateaux of our Punk Learning adventure will be shared through my blog and through twitter.

If you fancy joining me in bringing constructivism back into classroom, developing a new tribe of D.I.Y learners in your school and being part of a Punk Learning revolution then please, be my guest! Just  let me know if you are doing a bit of Punk Learning in your classroom, faculty or school – it would be fantastic to keep track and record people using Punk Learning. I’ll set up a collaborative Google doc’ for people to input information in the near future.

The ten page booklet can be found in the Punk Learning page of my blog. A PDF format can also be found here. P Learning Please feel free to comment or contact me via twitter @Totallywired77

Without the following people Punk Learning would have still been a fluttering thought in my brain….

A HUGE thank you to @JamiePortman @57mason and @Textilesteacher – thanks for the support, advice and guidance.

Thanks to @chickensaltash @davidErogers and @chrismayoh – your presentations at bMoble 2011 were a real eye opener and encouraged me to develop Punk Learning.

Kind acknowledgements and respect go to Jim Groom and Stephen Downes – creators of Edupunk.

The following people have been and will continue to be a true inspiration to me Paul Ginnis, Alastair Smith, @billybragg and the late great Joe Strummer RIP.