3c: Engaging Students in Learning

2019-2020 School Year: SOLE (Self Organized Learning Environment as an instructional strategy)

At an October PIIC meeting, I became acquainted with a new instructional strategy called SOLE. Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLE) are a simple educational approach designed to promote inquiry and foster self-empowerment. The educator introduces the Big Question and shares some background or a short story around the question. It’s important to remember not to lead students to an answer or in any way reveal what they should learn. Big questions should lead to more questions, and don’t have a single right answer. Students organize into groups. From this moment, the educator simply let’s the adventure begin! Students begin exploring the big question, jumping on computers and searching for answers. Each group then presents their discoveries. This is one of the most important elements of the session as it gives them a chance to think more deeply about what they’ve found out, and how they discovered it. Ask the groups how they found their answers and what they think went well - as well as what they could do differently next time.

This strategy gives our present day learners a focus on finding answers rather than remembering answers. It asks them to use higher order thinking skills such as evaluation and creation.

I implemented this strategy for the first time with a group of forth graders learning about media balance in their lives. A copy of my lesson plan is attached. I was pleased with this first attempt. As students used their iPads to research the big question, I was able to circulate and facilitate productive cooperation skills and proper research etiquette. In moving forward, I plan to add some additional direct instruction for how to cite and reference sources from internet research.