SOLO lesson outcomes and formative assessmnet

On Twitter, I recently received sort of valid point about the ability of SOLO taxonomy to provide useful "feed forward".

I sort of agree with this, a bit. And, only if you don't plan out the content that is to be learned.

One of the inherently beautiful things about SOLO Taxonomy is the incorporation of content knowledge. Unlike the pillars of baroque villas, the columns that give SOLO its recognisable facade have structural integrity. The taxonomy is not a bolt accessory to learning, it structures it in a clear and purposeful way.

However, the linear route learning takes appears to be considered axiomatic. Learning is messy, and therefore sometimes takes a linear path, some time not. Hoorah!. That said planning learning and being able to see ( or measure) learning in a linear way certainly helps teachers.  This is why SOLO taxonomy is such a useful tool in the design of lessons. I hope this simple example will allow me to illustrate this.

Take these examples from the new year 8 Science module currently being planned.

1. define an element
2. define a compound
3. define a mixture

Each one appears to be unistructural until each definition is dissected. 

1. An element is  made from one type of atom. 

can and should be considered unistructural but 

2. A compound is made from two types of atoms that are joined together.

is clearly multistructural, and now has a clear progression for students to follow. The feedback is already in place for those that give only one part to this answer. 

The final one is probably best considered multistructual too, but again their is scope for the development of knowledge here this time to a relational level. 

3. A mixture is made from two or more elements or compounds that are easily separated.

Since, you need to know what the previous two outcomes, the linear nature of this content becomes apparent. Although, the response above is clearly multistructural their is potential for relational. The situation bellows for the use of a hinge question, to explore the relational links at hand.

Something along the lines of "How are the atoms arranged in a mixture? " , could give the ideas that

"mixtures have atoms that may be on their own in elements while in compounds they are joined. The atoms in the compounds of a mixture are separate to each other."

This response gives a contrast and a chance to apply previous learning and is potentially relational.. Most importantly it gives a knowledge base on which to decide the order of introducing these concepts. Mixtures are on some levels the easiest to get your head around, but to have a real understanding of them requires knowledge of elements and compounds and their atoms first. 

SOLO taxonomy reveals that to truly to understand these outcomes, relational thinking is necessary. The linear nature of a taxonomy and the centrality of content knowledge in SOLO allows the hidden concepts in what is to be taught. The analysis of these outcomes has already improved these as yet unwritten lessons, with clearer more reasonable outcomes. Simply by  aiming for

Distinguish between compounds and mixtures

will lead the learner to consider the nature of atoms in both.

It appears that we have reached the end of the linear progression through SOLO without reaching Extended Abstract.  I'm sure some content will end here quite contentedly, although, there is more to this particular content.

To get to extend abstract, on this occasion will allow students to deepen their understanding of not only these outcomes but also in future study.It is therefore worthwhile doing. To get there a parallel bit of content knowledge is required, again reinforcing the usefulness of the SOLO visuals. At first the new knowledge appears excessive and bolted on. It being

4. define a molecule. 




On the surface, this is benign but this is the start of what Victorian Essential Learnings (VELS) website  called Critical Teaching Ideas. The concepts that allow a deeper understanding to be developed.

Again, an unistructural  response could be " two or more atoms joined together." Although this is a difficult concept to grasp , as it hinges on the importance of an omission. It does not say two types of atoms as used in defining compounds, but simply two atoms.a vital distinction. It is now relational, as it requires distinctions to be made. Again, this leads to a hinge question.

"Which of the following form one kind of molecule: elements, compounds or mixtures?"

Since molecules can be made from two (or more) atoms joined together, they may be the same type and therefore an element, they may also  be made from two (or more) different atoms joined together and therefore a compound. However a mixture may have different  molecules (as either elements and/or compounds) but the different ones remain separate,

The underline parts are generalisations and therefore Extended Abstract. The parallel content has now converged to lead to a greater understanding. The VELS website also has some excellent concept maps showing the messiness of these concepts and also some logical routes through it for teacher planning.

Finally this is where I see the point originally made , that the jumps made in this final jump appear large, albeit they are now visible, and planned for. Firstly by changing the outcome to

4. Distinguish between the molecules in  elements, compounds and  mixtures

and secondly by now planning the lesson that will allow the development of these concepts, letting the content determine the task.  

The structure of SOLO taxonomy allows for meaningful and coordinated  lesson outcomes, with planned formative assessment points. Some of the leaps may be big, but are clear and the critical teaching ideas made distinct. Imagine trying to do this with SOLO taxonomy.

Now to plan the lessons.....

Get Inspired. Getting ideas for project based learning.

In " Yes Minister" speak this is a brave post, maybe that is why I've found it so difficult to find advice an guidance on getting initial ideas for projects. So, I thought it might be useful to compile a list of strategies and sources of inspiration, it may all be egg sucking, but, as I have just began a Professional Enquiry Group on "project based learning" I thought it might be time well spent. These will not appear in order of importance.


A very useful start point may be this article "Where do projects come from?" by Angela Guerrero in High Tech Highs fabulous unboxed.


1. Time. Probably a no brainer, but sometimes ideas are hard to come by, be aware of this and start thinking about projects early and informally. Serendipty, can be a wonderful thing so plant a seed, revisit it and wait.


2. Be a hoarder of ideas. Some ideas seem great straight away and when you start to work through their implications they become unfeasible, or, not what you want. Don't discard them but shelve them. Around four years ago I had an idea for a small task to summarise and revise a module. It involved taking key ideas and then turning them into a Dr Seuss style image and ditty, inspired by the hours I had spent reading with my son. I tried a few and felt that that the points the students would take from this task would not suffiiciently focus on the content. Recently, searching for an idea, I remembered these and found the scan I had taken and I am now about to start drafting examples for a year 7 Space science module. I think the fact that they will be describing processes as opposed to recalling facts might help.

3. Mimic and modify. Plagiarism is an ugly word, but emulation is a different ball game all together. If you see a great set of student work or some highly engaging project then use it. There's no shame in that, after all there will still be a lot of work to be done to the project to modify for your context. the content will change, the students, the timescale etc.This is why the work of High Tech High , Expeditionary Learning, Calgary Science School and the Buck institute are so important for us mortals.


4. Consider the content to be taught. Remember, that not everything you want your students to learn will appear in the project. Some of parts of a module, even a Project led one, will have a structured teacher taught part. Focus in on what what would benefit from being taught through a project.


5. Consider the audience the product is for. This again is something that you will want to revisit at a later stage of development, but, considering what may appeal to your audience may help narrow down what the product could be. 


6. Critical skills product list. I was fortunate enough to be trained in the Critical Skills approach many moons ago, and one of the most regularly used tools is a list of around 100 products. Some of which I still don't understand what they are but the list is a frequent start point. Start a list of potential ways students can show learning.


7. Use your interests and passions. I have touched on this in a previous post but if you're enthused and excited by what  is coming up then your students are more likely to be too. Your hobbies and interest may give you another angle to approach your subject from. The line "That's why we want you to teach here because this is what you ..." sums it up nicely. I wish I could capture that more often in my classroom. 



8. DTPF.  (Defined)I know this should happen later, but an initial play around will help a basic idea develop into a more substantial idea. Just setting a side an hour to have ago at roughing out the project and attempting a small part will help clarify your thinking, help you make connections and reflect on what you really want the project to be like.


9. Think of themes. If you want to do a book project, or a podcast or a movie, your thoughts might be refined by tagging on a "in the style of ...." may give your idea wings.


10. Consider the skills you wish to develop. This could be part of your subjects content, but it could easily be a literacy focus, a particular way of thinking, collaborating or communicating.



11. Visit galleries and museums. Doing this will help with two aspects of coming up with ideas. Firstly, the content of what's on show may be grist to the mill, but on a more generic level HOW the information is communicated might give you the required inspiration. The wonderful museum box demonstrates this nicely.


12. Consider which external partners your students would benefit from working with. An informal visit and chat might be the trigger for some wonderful student work, and add an authenticity to the project. 


13. Consider what parts of the real world you want to expose your students to. A David thing this. Partly, David Perkins notion of finding a junior version of a real "game" and partly a David Price "work should be like learning, and learning should be more like the world of work" thing. Thinking about this and your subject discipline may lead you to an authentic project for your students. What parts of your subject is being applied in the workplace? Take inspiration from Jay Vavra at High Tech High, and his Bush meat project.


14. Revisit old projects or tasks and rebuild them. You may have a great project under your nose that just requires a little care and development.


15. Take a systematic approach. Using a structure like SOLO taxonomy may help breakdown or indeed build up the elements of a project. This Youtube clip of Naomi Hart outlines her early attempts at doing this. Inspiring.


16. Ask how you can engage art or design and construction element. I have quoted this before from High Tech High's Jeff Robin " Art and artist communicate." So, looking for some artistic angle for the project work may at the very least bring part of the critique, drafting high qualityculture that art does by tradition. Indeed, High Tech Highs philosophy of head and hands leads to one of the most engaging curriculums around.


17. Realise that projects can come from anywhere. Obviously, having planted a few thoughts to mull over helps but a simple anecdote may illustrate a wider point. The project I am currently developing on Space Science for our Year 7's almost became a mug decorating project, with diagrams of celestial movements to help explain seasons etc. The reason for this was my son asking for a drinking and picking out his favourite "Pedriodic table" mug when the idea came. I even got as far as Googling ceramic pens and thinking about creating mugs for the staff room (an authentic audience if there ever was one for a mug) before my requirement for some literacy work in this project rendered it "shelved". I may well return.


18. Multiple steps may be necessary to get an idea you're happy  with and "do the project first" with.


19. Use the team. An invaluable resource, to share your initial thoughts, the conversations do not have to be commital such as " I'm doing ..." but will benefit from a speculative approach  " I'm thinking about...." Seems a little thing but a lot safer for both parties. I would also seek colleagues outside your department, they help see things from a students perspective (or at least one with a less subject specific lens). Colleagues from within your discipline are probably best deployed when your planning in detail.


So, they you have it, sorry I couldn't make it twenty but that would just have been arbitrary and we have plenty of that in education. Obviously, if anyone has hints and tips on getting ideas fro projects I'll be glad to add them. Even ones that apparently suggest how to suck eggs.  

Students talking about the benefits of Critiques and Drafting

As part of creating a learning an agenda in my classroom  I like to keep the pedagogical purposes of the strategies used clear and open. So it is easy to imagine how pleased I was when a student turned up today with two drafts of their work! These year 7 students are redrafting a Scientific write up. They have experienced one full critique before this one. It's nice to see how accepting of challenge and hard work they are. The quality of their work matters to them and they feel as though they are learning by doing this.

The most interesting thing for me in this how they see the benefit of the Feedback Norms as lead to to something helpful, and not just being told to do it again. Again this is indicative of the need for a classroom culture that allows and nutures high quality student work. Another small step towards this I think......

SOLO taxonomy, planning and progress..

Today, a group of year students have been completing an extended writing task based around the wonderful PEEL strategy "fact in fiction". Since we had not seen each other for a week I structured a few tasks to remind them of the content ( and resources) and to facilitate the connection of concepts.

First, was a group task that had them as a list key ideas about the Immune system, a chance familiarise themselves with the content once again. A pure multistructural task.

Next  they were to define and distinguish between some key vocabulary. Words I knew they had struggled with in the previous lesson. The distinguish element to this was to ensure a relational understanding.

Another relational task followed, but this time choice was given  either comparing two ideas using a comparison alley or using an analogy map to create mental models for how these two ideas work. I was pleased to introduce choice as some of the analogies were very revealing. I particularly enjoyed the students likening lymphocytes to a bottle of  bleach as they release a chemical against pathogens.


All of these tasks were designed to be about five minutes in length and very much focused on the content. The next one was more complex but I'm hoping will lead to a detailed sequence. Again a relational task but required several pieces of complex information being used. The keywords here are the conceptual parts of this content.

The final task was to complete the fact in fiction task. This involves writing a fictional story inserting relevant facts along the way, but the clever bit is the insistence that the facts are underlined along the way. This encourages the use of key vocabulary and regular reflection. It is obvious when work is lacking in the content, this visual nature makes it easy for the students to see omissions and flaws in their work. There are opportunities for students to work in an extended abstractt way here and at the very least it encourages relational thinking. (See below for an example) 


SOLO taxonomy has helped the planning by making it easier to see the increase in the demand of each task and focus on the key connections important for understanding this topic. It is in this way that knowledge and understanding can be built, and teachable moments found and then focus upon what matters, in understanding and for the students at that time. Simple everyday tasks are easily sequenced to plan for (more) complex responses in student work. 


 An example of Fact in Fiction task

A weary travellers tale.

 (A fact in fiction writing task)

 Bob and Billy are twins. Identical twins the same in every way. They have just returned from holiday in China. Bob is jet lagged but is generally just dandy! Billy is not. He is feeling unwell. He has a fever, diarrhoea, and a rose coloured rash. Five weeks before they went, they had an appointment to be vaccinated for Typhoid and Malaria. Unfortunately, Billy had double booked with a hair appointment. His hair look superb on the plane, even the air hostess said so! 


 Your task is to complete the story of Bob and Billy outlining how Billy gets better with the help of his immune system. You must use as many scientific facts as possible. Underline them as you go. Make sure you include the following

•  How the white blood cells in Bobs body are working to protect him. 
•  Name the two types of white blood cell
•  How they immune system will fight the disease
•  What its means to be immune 
• What a vaccination is and how it works. 
• Which disease Billy has, why you think this and what type of microbe is causing it

 Good luck.

Student work using fact in fiction 

A video example of a critique

This is not a perfect example of a critique session, but many of the features of one are present.

Critique of E- Safety Games


Firstly the use of the Feedback norms, about being kind, specific and helpful are present. The session starts  with a look at strengths of each piece of work. Although difficult, every example has a positive. I intentionally went through every piece of work for this reason, giving value to their work so far.

The whole class ethos of this is emphasised with the question " what will you steal? what idea will you to take to use in your own work?" This is a key point to critiques, its not about getting feedback to one student but away of all students understanding what high quality is like. If I wanted to give one student feedback I'd do that one to one myself. What I want here was to emphasise that we are all in this together.

The specific nature of the questioning, always seeking clarification and specificity, whilst reserving judgement. This allows a frank discussion of what is needs to be done.

Possibly the weakest area of this critique is the focus on the content, although the issues around the topic do surface, as they always do. Critiques are great way to teach content.

Establishing Pedagogical purposes

Pedagogy should at its best be about what teachers do that not only helps students to learn but actively strengthens their capacity to learn David Hargreaves, Learning for life, 2004.

This in a sentence is what pedagogical purposes are all about. The benefits are clear, greater teacher clarity, improved student teacher relationships and improved metacognitive thinking by students. These feature prominently on Hattie's table of effect sizes in positions eighth, eleventh and thirteenth respectively. The following quote from Ruth Deakin Crick bears this out and eloquently highlights the benefit with having a clear learning agenda and the sharing of pedagogical purposes.

there is evidence that the key themes which form the necessary conditions for building learning power in classrooms include the quality of the relationships between teaches and learners, the quality of dialogue in which listening to the ‘other’ is central to questioning and debate, the development of a locally owned language for naming these processes, student choice and voice, and resequencing the content of the curriculum, which involves problematizing’ and ‘contextualizing’ the content so as to create  challenge and meaningfulness  Deakin- Crick et al 2002.

 For me there are three ways of quickly establishing a culture of sharing pedagogical purposes in our classrooms. I think the enquiry based and Project based learning may be a more comprehensive way of doing this. However, the three strategies can be categorised as,

1. Using specific tasks to stimulate a discussion around the act of learning.
2. Stating and debriefing the pedagogical purpose of each "task"
3. Increasing the number of metacognitive strategies used.

A splendid example of a task being used to stimulate discussion is the PEEL projects "Dirty trick" strategy (a full description of the strategy can be found on their website). Whereby students are asked to copy a set of notes, which are filled with errors and general nonsense.I like to distract them form this by titling them "Everything you need to know about..." and the like. Here's an example with living rocks that they never notice!

An example of Dirty Trick

Responses can be quite emotive- so use sparingly

I only use this sparingly as students could feel cheated, I love this example as it shows this student cares about what they learn. . If like me you spend a long time building up trusting relationships you wouldn't want to use it inappropriately, so a brief task of no more than 5 minutes is best. However, it does open up discussion about active and passive learning and responsibility. The students tend check and question information before they make notes and some even start to challenge the information I present. I always throw in a few silly ideas into the following lesson to check that they are questioning the information.


Increasingly, my lesson plans that I write that others use  highlight the strategy being used and how to debrief it. This helps turn a complete this task/ worksheet style of approach to developing student knowledge of possible strategies they could choose to use when working on a project or in a more independent way. The debrief of each of these tasks is vital. I normally ask the following questions.

1. How did you go about using this tool?
2. What was difficult about using it?
3. What does it allow you to do? or Why would you use it again?
4. Where would you use it again?

Question 3 and 4 are obviously there to facilitate transfer of the tool or way of thinking.

This AudioBoo highlights how readily students take to this, I love how they try to persuade doubters to the value, and is a chance for them to show how much they enjoy and care for learning. These students had just used a Whole Part Map for the first time. I think it also shows how it is necessary for the teaching of learning strategies to have a content/ real learning basis.



I always find this table useful in analysing the tools I use during my teaching.


Developed by Jill Flack.(PEEL)

 The final way of establishing pedagogical purpose with students is to increase metacognition. This can be inextricably linked to the debrief above. Although, I find that specific tasks as render positive results too. A favourite are the metacognitive wrapper tasks asked at the start of a session to prime the kind of thinking wanted (including content) and at the end to see how that metacognition had changed or improved their thinking. Again spending a small quantity of time discussing these often brings out generic strategies that some students use, allowing others to mimic their style of working.

A lot of these strategies can be framed through the use of SOLO taxonomy. It has a clear pedagogical purpose, to highlight what high quality learning woudl look like and providing structure and guidance to get there. The shared language mentioned in the quaote from Ruth Deakin Crick, is clear and unambiguous and readily picked up by students. And, through the clever linking of specific tools to the levels will add another dimension to the student debrief on the tool by asking "Where on SOLO taxonomy does this tool help you think at?".

So why should we share pedagogical purposes with students? This is succinctly summarised in the closing quotation.

‘Effective teaching … should aim to help individuals and groups to develop the
intellectual, personal and social resources that will enable them to … flourish … in a
diverse and changing world.’ ESRC TLRP Evidence-informed principles for teaching
and learning: No 1, March 2006

Critiquing culture takes off!

I sat down recently to mark some Year 8 practical write ups, which had been critiqued by students in pairs, during a teacher led session. So I expected to see some peer feedback and a second draft.  At first it didn't register that this student had done something different. I did notice that she had done three drafts but the significance didn't register. I was just impressed, by the work ethic and by how the drafting culture had quickly been accepted as the norm by the majority of this class. I did notice that one draft had been highlighted with different colours and thought "Great they have been thorough". But something didn't sit right. I looked again at the student work and saw draft one, followed by a critique followed by draft two which had also been critiqued and finally draft three. It then dawned. They have done an extra critique, but when did they do this? I then realised that the second draft had been critiqued independently of me! These students had not previously critiqued work, but have instantly seen the value and invested in it. The culture of critique and draft had taken off! I love the quote from this student after draft one. 

I am well aware that this is only two students who have completely taken to this, but I now have exemplar critiquing and drafted work to inspire and cajole others. Let the archiving commence. I must confess that I was slightly taken a back by the quality of the critiquing by the students on the second draft. It was so much better than what they had done when I had led the session. It was kind, helpful and specific, and contain real learning conversations and lots of subject content references.  I am becoming increasingly convinced that critiques are the best opportunity for teaching that we have, with ready made context and personal investment. What bothered me was how much better they were without me! In reality they had used the same success criteria we had established and had applied the feedback norms that were shared. But, the important thing is that they have made these there own, they can do it at anytime and with any topic or task and with great skill.  I have annotated the slides below showing the student work, but it really isn't necessary when you look at the work and comments. Drafting example

View more presentations from DKMead.

Obviously intrigued by the motivation to go to such lengths, I asked the two students involved. They had critiqued each others work and both had made huge improvements. I will photograph the other piece of work and add it to this blog post. The thing that strikes me about this AudioBoo is how matter of fact, they are about critiquing, drafting and hard work! They see it as part of learning, they see it as worthwhile, they see it as normal. Thank you Josie and Emily.