If SOLO Taxonomy were a superhero, what would its superpower be?
SOLO Taxonomy’s superpower is that of the wayfinder.
I like to think of SOLO Taxonomy as a vegvisir or magical stave for learning. The vegvisir helped Viking explorers find their way in bad weather or unknown places.
And much like the vegvisir, SOLO Taxonomy is not limited to simply giving directions to those who are lost. Certainly it tells us the Where to next?, acting as the stars and currents to guide learning voyages.
But more than that, SOLO Taxonomy provides guidance in choosing the strategies and behaviours that will best help learners navigate the learning process. It moves us from surface to deep understanding and beyond: to the how, the why and the wow! To the effort and strategies.
If students have access to SOLO Taxonomy, they have a wayfinder that gives them the superpower to control their own learning journey.
What is one thing you love about how teachers use SOLO Taxonomy in the classroom?
Sharing SOLO Taxonomy is a wonderful way of onboarding or welcoming students to learning.
I love the ease with which teachers share SOLO Taxonomy in the classroom. They create a shared language of learning by using SOLO-coded language of command verbs, learning strategies, symbols and hand signs to welcome students to learning. In this way, students learn what is surface and deep understanding, and what they need to do to shift learning from surface to deep.
What is your favourite SOLO strategy to help students move from surface to deep understanding?
That is a tricky question.
In my experience, having favourites is seldom smart. They are all favourites in the right context. Perhaps I can have two?
- I am fond of building student understanding of the academic language of school – all that involves, like describe, compare, justify. Making the academic language of learning accessible to students matters. The SOLO maps and rubrics are a strategy that do this well. Academic language is very transferable, so you can think of it as lifelong learning. If students do not gain access to academic language, that is an equity issue.
- However, I cannot deny the great jumps in student thinking and writing that happen with SOLO hexagons. Playing with the hexagons makes for great student discussion and is lots of fun.
And then there is:
- the visual play in reverse hexagons
- the simplicity of the rough-and-ready because, but so strategy for shifting to relational thinking
- the versatility of the SOLO toolkit and …
How do you encourage students to take ownership of their learning using SOLO?
Students being bothered about learning is never a given at school, and in this, early success can be a great motivator – the “I can do this” of learning.
As a teacher using SOLO, you can more easily design tasks at a level that will provide opportunities for success and encourage student motivation or “botheredness” about learning. Then you can use SOLO-based self-assessment rubrics to make learning progress visible to students.
With SOLO they understand the cognitive complexity of the learning goal. Is the task about bringing in ideas, connecting ideas or extending ideas? Students can self-monitor their learning progress. “Can I because, but, so this?”
They can self-talk about their learning progress using the SOLO rubrics – the where? and why? – and reflect on their progress and possible next steps.
What is a memorable moment from your time teaching educators how to use SOLO Taxonomy?
I am an Easter egg of a woman. I just need several rolls of aluminium foil and a decorative ribbon! As a woman of “plumptitude” – a “plumptious” educator – I live in black T-shirts (often bearing a cunning pedagogical quote) and elastic waist trousers.
My most memorable moment was in demonstrating the SOLO hand sign for extended abstract to a large audience of teachers in the South Island of New Zealand.
In raising my arms above my head to sign conceptual thinking – that creative and critical insight we all talk about – my T-shirt moved up and I inadvertently exposed large swathes of personal tummy space. I only sensed something was wrong when all the teachers averted their eyes and avoided looking at me.
No one forgot the hand sign.
About Pam Hook
Pam Hook is an educational consultant who advises schools and institutions in New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and the Pacific Islands on developing curricula and pedagogies for learning to learn based on SOLO Taxonomy. She is a popular keynote speaker at conferences. Pam is author of more than 25 books on SOLO Taxonomy, including titles translated into Danish, and has developed a series of SOLO web-based apps, Apple iPad apps and YouTube videos. She hosts collaborative online communities for SOLO practitioners on Twitter @arti_choke @globalsolo and Pinterest www.pinterest.nz/solotaxonomy.
