5/6P SOLE Project Experience
Class context:
Teacher: Miss Pulbrook
5/6P is a stage 3 extension class consisting of 32 stage 3 students. Students within this class have previous experience with a range of SOLE tasks (both literacy and numeracy).
Students thoroughly enjoy such investigative tasks as these tasks require students to take ownership of their learning and engage them in higher order thinking.
Teacher: Miss Pulbrook
5/6P is a stage 3 extension class consisting of 32 stage 3 students. Students within this class have previous experience with a range of SOLE tasks (both literacy and numeracy).
Students thoroughly enjoy such investigative tasks as these tasks require students to take ownership of their learning and engage them in higher order thinking.
Recent News: Miss Pulbrook featured in an article on SOLE in the Australian Teacher Magazine. Click on the link below to read.
What is SOLE?
SOLE refers to a Self Organised Learning Environment. It is the product of Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University in the UK. Through SOLE, students direct the learning process and follow pathways that many of the traditional educational approaches do not make room for. SOLE relies on the use of technology, collaboration and encouragement as the basis for encouraging learning. Provided you're able to connect to the internet at school, SOLE can be used as an exciting way of learning for your class. Through independent and creative learning practices, students can become efficient to carry out various research tasks related to real world issues. SOLE encourages REAL WORLD learning and hopes to encourage changes within your school community.
This term 5/6P will work on an independent SOLE maths project. The aim of this project will be to hopefully make some exciting changes within Fairfield West Public School and establish & strengthen links with various community stakeholders. To get students ready for this major project, the students in 5/6P will participate in a creative SOLE challenge. The students in 5/6P are going to need to be creative next week as this task involves a lot of abstract and divergent thinking.
Make sure you visit next week to find out what happened!
This term 5/6P will work on an independent SOLE maths project. The aim of this project will be to hopefully make some exciting changes within Fairfield West Public School and establish & strengthen links with various community stakeholders. To get students ready for this major project, the students in 5/6P will participate in a creative SOLE challenge. The students in 5/6P are going to need to be creative next week as this task involves a lot of abstract and divergent thinking.
Make sure you visit next week to find out what happened!
Session 1: Our first SOLE experience for the year!
Students were given the task of finding out 'Can you kill a goat by staring at it?'. Students were instantly filled with excitement as the topic was quite abstract and would require a lot of creative and divergent thinking. Students weren't specifically told about the 'roles' within SOLE sessions yet, as this first session was to see how the students operate as a collective group and how well they collaborate as a team. Interestingly enough, majority of the students were on task as they were VERY engaged in finding out the answers to such an absurd question. Although the students fell short of time, students thoroughly enjoyed their first SOLE task for the year and shared their interesting findings with the class. Some responses related to: US army intelligence experiments, hypnosis, superhero powers, and research relating to head aches.
Session 2: Continuation of 'Can you kill a goat by staring at it?'
Students were given another 40 minute session to complete their group's research as we ran out of time in the previous session. The only difference in this session was that specific roles were explicitly explained to the students. Roles such as: the materials manager (in charge of collecting material and resources), the scribe (in charge of writing all the team's ideas down) and the police officer (who is in charge of monitoring behaviour, ensuring everyone is on task and giving encouragement to all team members). This session ran quite smoothly as students readily took on their chosen roles and were keen to complete the task.
Session 3: Experimental SOLE task involving 4 classes
This was an exciting session for our four SOLE project teachers and their classes. Today all four classes met to collaborate in a joint SOLE project task. The task was to research and devise a plan on 'How can we protect ourselves from sharks at the beach?'. The only difference with this task was that different groups had to address the question from a different perspective. For example, students were required to address the issue from the perspective of: tourists, swimmers, surfers, residents, environmentalists, fisherman, and lifeguards. Each group was required to come up with some creative solutions, supported by research.The school hall was set up with a variety of different learning stations where students could roam between groups and discuss various issues and problems concerning their viewpoints on the issue. Each learning station had a variety of resources; including laptops, iPads, paper, textas and Post Its. It was great to see students collaborating with various students from different years! Some students did struggle with addressing the issue from their chosen perspective. However as a collective, the teachers thought this session was a great 'trial and error' session to see what worked well and what didn't.
What didn't work well:
- Assigning some of our students their roles and responsibilities prior to the SOLE task
What worked well:
- Mixed groupings (ability and grades)
- Approximately 100 students working together in the school hall
- Setting up ICT connected to WI-FI connections
So enthused and excited to see our students working well together in mixed teams, we have decided to set another collaborative SOLE task in Week 11. After much discussion, we have decided that in the next session we will give students more responsibility and let them decide their own groupings and who within those groupings takes on the specific roles.
What didn't work well:
- Assigning some of our students their roles and responsibilities prior to the SOLE task
What worked well:
- Mixed groupings (ability and grades)
- Approximately 100 students working together in the school hall
- Setting up ICT connected to WI-FI connections
So enthused and excited to see our students working well together in mixed teams, we have decided to set another collaborative SOLE task in Week 11. After much discussion, we have decided that in the next session we will give students more responsibility and let them decide their own groupings and who within those groupings takes on the specific roles.
Mathematics SOLE Project - How can we enhance the learning environment at FWPS? (Linking in the new syllabus)
Currently students are investigating what makes a school environment engaging and fun. From various brainstorming sessions, students are now organising their ideas and hoping to enhance the learning environment at Fairfield West Public School. Here are some ideas so far:
Andrew & Jonathon: We would like to set up game rooms, where students can
bond and play a variety of games on their lunch breaks. We also would like to
see reading nooks made out of recycled materials around the
school.
Amy & Jessy: We want to paint murals around the school with
inspirational quotes that reflect our school values. We want to see bright
colours and classes involved in competitions to decorate and make our
environment engaging. We like the idea of a bin competition, where classes can
design and decorate a garbage bin. We hope this will encourage students to not
litter and keep FWPS clean.
Andrew & Jonathon: We would like to set up game rooms, where students can
bond and play a variety of games on their lunch breaks. We also would like to
see reading nooks made out of recycled materials around the
school.
Amy & Jessy: We want to paint murals around the school with
inspirational quotes that reflect our school values. We want to see bright
colours and classes involved in competitions to decorate and make our
environment engaging. We like the idea of a bin competition, where classes can
design and decorate a garbage bin. We hope this will encourage students to not
litter and keep FWPS clean.
We love using the TASC Wheel when organising our ideas!
Dr June Maker's TASC wheel is a great scaffold that we love using to help organise our creative ideas for SOLE tasks.
What is it? TASC stands for Thinking Actively in a Social Context.
How does it work? TASC runs alongside BLOOMS taxonomy and scientific method. It gives children a really clear process to follow when investigating or problem
solving.
What is it? TASC stands for Thinking Actively in a Social Context.
How does it work? TASC runs alongside BLOOMS taxonomy and scientific method. It gives children a really clear process to follow when investigating or problem
solving.
How cool is this?! We have been using Apple Air Play to share our project groups ideas.