A Second SOLE Session

This week, my 4th grade class held our second SOLE session.  SOLE stands for student organized learning environment and we used the resources found on The School in The Cloud website.  If you have not done so, I invite you to read my earlier post regarding our first attempt at a SOLE session.

After studying volcanoes for the past month, we began by discussing the different rocks that are formed by volcanoes. Then looking at some rocks that were found in our area, we asked the question: what other ways are rocks formed?  The students were given a half hour to complete their task.  When the students were asked to chose groups, I noticed that the previous groups that had trouble working effectively chose to work in different groups.  Having had a previous experience with this type of independent task, the students quickly got to work.  All of the participants were focused throughout the allotted time.  There was one group that finished early, but when evaluating their presentation, it was apparent that they did not have enough information to fully answer the question.  One group in particular was fascinating to watch.  Each time they found something useful, they cheered for themselves.  As they found more information, their excitement grew.  At the end, this was the group that had the most thorough answer to the big question. 

After the students completed their quest, and created their presentation, they had the chance to share with the whole class what they were able to find out.  Part of this sharing process is taking time to analyze how they worked in their groups and the effectiveness of their presentation.  One group in particular seemed disappointed when then realized that what they thought was a complete answer to the question really did not answer it at all.

 

For the most part, the groups worked well together.  The students were much more focused on the question this time than the first session and did not venture to see what other groups were doing.  If seemed as if the shorter time gave them more urgency to stay focus at their own station. Perhaps extending the time during our next session would eliminate the pressure and allow them more ease in collaboration.

I am planning another session for next week. I am considering eliminating the computer presentation that is part of  The School in The Cloud website.  This would eliminate the time the students want to take finding pictures rather than information on the given topic. Students can take notes and create a poster presentation after the session is over.

I would love to hear from anyone who might have tried a SOLE session in their class.