SOLO Taxonomy helped me teach writing to a deeper level. From that I have come to the conclusion that ‘is‘ is an important word. I place it in the same level as ‘because‘ when I work with writing. 

‘Is’ defines something just as much as ‘because’ allows you to link and connect your ideas.

When I wander around classes and sometimes pick up my students books I think… Where is ‘is’ hiding? or,  If this introduction had ‘is’ this would be such a stronger piece of writing.

If children are writing a narrative or a story then I also look for was or were.

At extended abstract level, I look for personal voice. EG: ‘I really like sharks because….’

or ‘I believe sharks are important because…..’

Currently I am looking at our writing data and again I see ideas and sentence structure pulling the overall data down. Using SOLO Taxonomy would help as the learner would begin with a map of ideas and then identify the vocabulary to support the concept of sentence structure. 

If you want to know more I have curated some downloadable resources here.