Making My Solo Taxonomy Debut

Students working at the unistructural stage

Two weeks ago I started to use solo taxonomy for the first time. I had read several posts about the taxonomy on Twitter and felt it could work well with GCSE history source analysis. I liked the way that students could build up their answers working through the different levels of the mark scheme.


Below is a video blog recording my thoughts:

Since making this video I have been observed using solo taxonomy in this way and the following aspects of solo taxonomy contributed to a successful lesson in that instance.

A student working at the relational stage

• By its nature it is student led.
• All of the students in my class were engaged and active in their learning.
• It allowed for some natural differentiation as students worked at their own pace. That said I feel that the observer would not have been satisfied if this had been the only differentiation in the lesson.
• Progress was easy to see as students visibly moved around the room.
• It was simple for students to explain the progress that they had made (both for their benefit, my benefit and the observers benefit).
• As they worked through the stages solo taxonomy allowed students to see how to build up their source analysis answers through the levels in the mark scheme.

I would definitely recommend this approach to teachers especially those working through past papers / exam questions with their classes.