SOLO taxonomy/Evaluative Writing

I had the opportunity to observe my colleague James Theobald, an English teacher, using SOLO (Structure of Observed Learning Outcome) to develop his Year 10s' evaluative writing. I have been working with him in order to improve the quality of my Year 10 boys' review writing. I had 2 aims for our joint project, firstly to make sure the boys were actually reviewing their work and evaluating their products, not just describing what they had done. The second was to look in to SOLO and possibly implement it in some way.


SOLO

Image from Taitcoles

SOLO taxonomy is about (in basic terms) getting pupils from not knowing anything about a particular skill/task, to being able to identify key terms often used when carrying out the task and how they are used. It moves on to applying the skills learnt to a completely different scenario/topic. 
(Apologies for my poor explanation - I'm still trying to get to grips with it..)


Observation
James' lesson had SOLO stations. Each station was a different stage of SOLO and pupils had to decide which stage they were currently at. They had had 2 previous lessons on this and so were able to identify an example of each stage. Pupils decided when they were ready to progress to the next table. James could monitor progress by keeping an eye on pupils' movement around the room. (Ofsted tick!)


For the topic of evaluation, the stations started with what is evaluating then moved on to identifying evaluative terms and beginning to recognise connections between the terms used. Next it moved on to understanding how to evaluate and applying those skills by evaluating some thing. In James' case, he asked pupils to make something out of an arts and crafts kit then evaluate their creation. Pupils' knew they would be evaluating these and so some specifically tried to make the creations in a manner that was easy to evaluate.


My attempt
Having observed James, I feel confident enough to attempt a similar lesson with my Year 10 boys but would go through the stages as a whole class rather than using the stations. I think knowing that class, the boys would be too easily distracted and so would not necessarily move on on their own. The boys are really in to football (surprise, surprise) and so the Euros are a convenient topic to provide example reviews. James suggested finding a clip of something like MOTD where the commentators review the game rather than getting the boys to read an article. This would definitely suit them better. I am also planning to use previous years' reviews as these are on a slightly different topic and so can be useful without being something the boys can copy.


James and I also discussed the school's whole school literacy plan which is trying to ensure that departments are tackling literacy with a consistent approach. We talked about how many other subjects must do evaluative writing and just assume pupils are taught it in English and so expect them to just get on with it.  

RQTs, CoRT and CAF

During today's CPD sessions we had a visit from some RQTs. They fed back on the projects they have each been working on this year.


Project 1 - Questioning
This project originally looked at Bloom's taxonomy but ended looking at different styles of questions.

• Fat/Skinny Questions - Using the words Fat and Skinny to distinguish between answering a question with several sentences (fat) or with very few words (Skinny).
• Hot seating  - Where a pupil is chosen to answer other pupils' questions on a particular subject. (I can see this working really well in Business particularly as a revision technique.)
• Pair rehearsal - Allowing pupils to do Hot Seating but in pairs and allowing them time to discuss the topic first so they can back each other up. (This is something my colleague Pam and I did before our AfG interview. I think it helps with confidence as well as developing team work skills.)

Project 2 - CoRT
The second project looked at Edward de Bono's CoRT Thinking Tools. Pupils are introduced and familiarised with the symbols below and then carry out the appropriate action when ever they see them in class work. The purpose of CoRT is to develop pupils ways of thinking and the way they approach answering questions or solving problems. 

The example shown to us was:
"a bank manager has reported seeing a man steal £5000 in £1 coins from the bank and walking out the branch with it. Is the bank manager lying?"


This at first appeared impossible to me but when encouraged to think about it and how much space those coins actually take up (roughly a shoe box) and how much they would weigh (roughly 8 stone) it seems much more possible.


Project 3 - CAF 
CAF stands for Consider All Factors. Again from Edward de Bono, it involves exhausting every avenue. The example we heard was using the phrase "Really? How?" The drama teacher who carried out the project, used it with his Year 11 pupils when he told them their final assessment was coming up and that they needed to start rehearsing. They responded with the phrase "really? How?" and so the teacher created a detailed mind map with the class that explained every way they could approach rehearsing. It exhausted all avenues.


This one seemed to me the hardest to approach. I'm not sure how I would fit it in to either Business or ICT but can see the benefits of using it. May be for revision sessions?


Conclusion
Although I can see benefits to all of these approaches, the CoRT Thinking Tools are the most interesting to me. I would like to look in to them more and possibly trial some of them in the class room. This, I think, would work especially well in Computer Science next year where pupils will be doing a lot of problem solving.

E-Safety - How safe is your school?

360 Degree Safe  tool 

Use the tool to rate your school's e-safety looking at 4 key elements:

1. Policy and Leadership
2. Infrastructure
3. Education
4. Standards and Inspection

This involves not only staff and pupils but any one on site as well as the governors and parents.

Literacy Hour

This is an entry I will have to proof read and spell check several times over before posting!


Love this statement:

AfG Train the Trainer - Day 2

Today was very interesting. First we were taken through a Business Canvas model. A way of trying to explain all aspects of the App including cost, customer, value and key partners. This is something I feel would be better practised with a Business class before approaching with a non-business group. 

I loved the idea of developing it as an interactive display board that pupils can alter as their idea evolves. Particularly as I have been involved in a Creativity SIG (School Improvement Group) that focused on trying to understand what makes teachers and pupils creative and how to promote creativity across the school.

For my project, I looked in to allowing pupils to be creative with their surroundings via interactive display boards. I thought that pupils could use the display board not only as Business Canvas model but as a form of mood board of developing ideas. This is something that is done often in "real-life" offices and so is good practice for the pupils.

Step 4 introduced us to Balsamiq. This is a tool for creating wire frames (mock-ups) of the App to show how the APP will look on each screen. It is a drag and drop piece of software that produces image such as the one shown below. 

To Do list from today:

• Introduction to Apps for Good for Year 8 pupils' Activities Week.
• Stack Exchange task.
• Work out pupil recruitment plan.

Overall, a really enjoyable and worthwhile course. Lots of ideas to take back to Wildern. Especially as we are going to introduce this to our Key Stage 3 during Activities week next week. The recruitment drive has started!

Apps for Good Train the Trainer Course

Today my colleague Pam and I attended the first day of the Apps for Good Train the Trainer course. We are here to learn how to teach the course to pupils from September. Wildern currently run it as an after school extra-curricular course that pupils were invited to join from Year 8. Even though this was our first year as a school running the programme, we managed to get 2 out of our 3 groups (Smart Revise and MApp Your Way) in to next week's final in London. Not bad for a first attempt!

Aims
My main aim of coming on the course was to see how I could link business in. Having gone through the course overview today I found that there is quite a lot of Business already part of the course: 

• The aim of the project is to find a solution to a problem, something we promote in business through entrepreneurship.
• Pupils have to carry out market research and create a user profile for their problem/app idea.
• Pupils have to create a Business Canvas model -Taking in to account the Solution, Complications, Question & Answer.
• Pupils have to use a 5 step development model as shown in the diagram below.

                             

We had, within the business department, considered integrating this in to our Year 9 foundation year but after seeing the time needed for the course, do not think this will be possible. Another of my aims, however, is to get more Business pupils involved and if possible to set up a competition between myself with some Biz kids and Pam with some IT kids just to add a bit more competitiveness to the course. (Not that they'll need it!)

Fame at last

During our lunch break, Pam and I were approached and asked to be interviewed for a film to be shown at the finals. Mass hair and make-up panic ensued but we agreed and shall appear (if we're not edited out for giggling too much) in the video in next week's final. We, of course, made sure to mention Wildern in every other sentence but failed miserably in mentioning Sharon who led the course to success this year! However, Debbie the COO of Apps for Good did that for us, thank goodness.

A question I sometimes ask myself..

What if life were more like theatre?

NQT Career Progression Advice

Had a talk this week from a member of senior management about being an RQT and career progression. The entire talk was incredibly helpful. Speed dating with senior members of staff who explained how they got to where they are now. Most of them saying it was down to luck but knowing these people I believe it was more through extremely hard work!


Two things that were said have really stuck with me though: 
Firstly, when thinking about the direction you want to head in i.e. pastoral or curricular, talk to the people around you as they will know which route would tend to suit you better even if you don't. 
Secondly, don't apply for all and any roles that come up. To get to where you want to go, only apply to those jobs that are relevant to that, otherwise the leadership team will not know what it is you really want for you career.


I am very lucky to work at a school where there are so many opportunities. It is now up to me to decide to apply for the right ones. Personally, I think I prefer the curricular route. A pastoral role came up recently and as I was discussing it with my NQT mentor, I realised I am not the sort of person who can stand up in assembly, in front of 300+ kids every week and deal with pupils with severe behaviour issues every day but that's just me.

Practising my Control like Year 7

Followed the instructions.. and voila!
Slightly dodgy looking stars.

School Meals Blogger banned

So a young girl decides to publicise the poor quality of her school dinners and just when the world starts to take notice and listen - Someone stops her in her tracks.

Why ban a child from voicing their concerns about their own health as well as others?
Surely we should be listening and taking action, not silencing those few brave enough to stand up for others.

Real Miracle Workers - GOSH

The world of medicine continues to surprise us.

Could you make a life or death decision? I couldn't..

Great Ormond Street

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