For students to make academic progress, and to increase the likelihood of this happening more effectively, strategy and effort x 2 must collide. In terms of strategies, these are the tools, pedagogies and instructional methods used by teachers, but they are also strategies that students can actively use in their own work.

Students need to understand that consciously applying these strategies to their own work, rather than treating them as something the teacher does, can greatly improve their work quality and achievement, especially when combined with some plain old ‘hard graft’…preferably to the power of two, or three, or more!

Across Christchurch Boys’ curriculum areas, many strategies are utilised to support and enhance learning. In Business/Commerce, the P.A.N.E.L. strategy is used as one tool to structure student thinking and writing. In English, the P.E.E.R. structure is used as one tool for single paragraph writing, along with others such as a Think Three or S.O.L.O. Taxonomy. History and Social Studies might ask their students to analyse historical perspectives by applying layers of questioning from Bloom’s Taxonomy.

However, the key for students is to be aware of the potential strategies that apply to their subject areas and deliberately use them. To make a conscious effort x 2 to apply those strategies. To make a conscious effort x 2 to review their work against those strategies. To make a conscious effort x 2 to use those strategies to improve their thinking and work.

For example, a student might deliberately use S.O.L.O. Taxonomy during an internal assessment as a tool to plan and then check their work before they hit ‘Submit’ or hand it in. They might ask themselves:

• Have I shown in my work multiple pieces of subject specific knowledge, terminologies or processes? This is the MULTI-STRUCTURAL level of SOLO.
  
• Have I communicated in my work the relationship between these pieces of knowledge, terminologies or processes? This is the RELATIONAL level of SOLO.
  
• Have I communicated in my work any evaluations, justifications or reflections about the relationships between these pieces of knowledge, terminologies or processes? This is the EXTENDED ABSTRACT level of SOLO and is where Excellence lives.
  

Please challenge your son. Ask them what strategies they have used in their latest piece of work. But remember, using that strategy will take effort x 2.