Research Project with SOLO -- "So Easy!"

"Three times this week I grabbed someone to show them what my students are doing with SOLO 6! I was so proud of what my students could accomplish."

Kristin, at AJ McLellan Elementary in Surrey BC writes about her experiences teaching research writing with SOLO 6.  SOLO includes a supported e-text reader (Read:Outloud), a text and research organizer (Draft:Builder) word prediction (Co:Writer) and talking word processor (Write:Outloud).  AJ McLellan Elementary is part of SET-BC’s Universal Design for Learning project. Kristin is one of many educators involved blogging about her experiences.  (Read more about it in a previous blog entry.) Kristin summarizes her past struggles with student research projects:

"…they show up to my room with their half-project, a week overdue, with their piles of printed, plagiarized or random information, looking confused as ever. And we have 45 minutes to get 3 weeks of work up to speed."  

Sound familiar?  The classic research paper panic. Kristin contrasts that all-to familiar experience with working with SOLO.  These were her four easy steps to creating a research paper with her SOLO students:

"1. Created a Draft:Builder file (took me all of 5 minutes)…  2. I saved the file onto all of their computers.  3. They completed the research in two 45 minute sessions- SO EASY when it was guided and framed like that!  4. They converted the research into paragraphs- two more 45 minute sessions. Done."

Kristin even shared her templates on the public blog.  Her experiences aren’t unique.  Many other teachers have shared great stories about using SOLO unlimited in their schools as part of the UDL project.  (Read the full post.) To read more front-line classroom dispatches of using SOLO in the classroom, check out all the blogs here.