“It helps us to learn. It helps you to think and do a few things that you want to do. Because it helps you connect ideas and learn to think in your head.” Year 1 student, Halsey Drive School, New Zealand.
Is fabulous to see the latest SOLO book – SOLO Taxonomy in the Early Years – published in time for the start of the new school year in New Zealand. Teaching young learners is skilled and nuanced work.
Starting school marks a transition in the life of a young learner. The learning ecosystem changes from a place predicated on a developmental approach and “learning through play” to one that introduces achievement objectives and assesses learning outcomes. Hook and Cassé 2013 p4
Bridget and I are pretty chuffed to have created a resource that will help students, teachers and families address the opportunities and challenges that mark the early years. Learning to “think in your head” is easy when you have SOLO Taxonomy as a mental model for learning.
Whether you are involved in the “before” or “after” of a child’s transition to school, SOLO Taxonomy in the Early Years will help you to meet the challenges and make the most of the opportunities it entails. This empowering resource shows how, using SOLO Taxonomy as a model, young learners become active participants in their own learning as they can see a clear, manageable progression of steps they can follow to create new learning. It gives practical examples of how the SOLO model can be used in both play based and intentional learning across the curriculum to create the connections young children need to experience “belonging” at school, “being” a learner and “becoming” or changing through their engagement in learning. Young learners are quick to grasp this simple, flexible model of learning and readily apply it to transform into young teachers, decision makers and knowledge producers in their own right.
Hook, P. and Cassé, B. (2013). SOLO Taxonomy in the Early Years. Making connections for belonging, being and becoming. Essential Resources Educational Publishers Limited. New Zealand.
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