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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Contents Page

Title / Page
Setting the context / 1
Activity 1 / 2
Sharing existing practice activity
Activity 2 / 4
What makes for good learning intentions and success criteria?
Carousel activity

Examples from groups working on learning intentions and success criteria

Generating intentions and success criteria: why and how on a page

Juggling case study

Advice & generating success criteria

Activity 3 12

Generating intentions and success criteria from selected national outcomes

Quality Check

Further reading 20

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Setting the Context

Sharing outcomes and success criteria with students is one of the four practical areas of assessment for learning:

·  Sharing learning intentions and success criteria with students

·  Asking better questions: using questions that cause thinking and giving students more support to answer them

·  Making feedback count: improving the quality of verbal and written feedback you give to students

·  Promoting assessment by students: developing peer and self assessment to help students to give each other feedback as they are learning

The diagram below shows the close link between sharing learning intentions and success criteria and promoting assessment by students. If students don’t know what they are trying to achieve and how they cannot take responsibility for their own and each other’s learning.

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Setting the context

Sharing outcomes and success criteria with students is one of the four practical areas of assessment for learning:

·  Sharing learning intentions and success criteria with students

·  Asking better questions: using questions that cause thinking and giving students more support to answer them

·  Making feedback count: improving the quality of verbal and written feedback you give to students

·  Promoting assessment by students: developing peer and self assessment to help students to give each other feedback as they are learning

The diagram below shows the close link between sharing learning intentions and success criteria and promoting assessment by students. If students don’t know what they are trying to achieve and how they cannot take responsibility for their own and each other’s learning.

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Activity 1

Sharing existing practice: Write, pair and share

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

What makes good learning intentions and success criteria?

A good learning intention:

1.  Is well-expressed in child-speak.

2.  Is not too broad or too narrowly focused, not too short or too long term.

3.  Is at the right level for the learners (just beyond what they do on their own).

4.  Contains words associated with learning (e.g. know that, understand, know how).

5.  Is closely linked to the success criteria that help the learner to achieve it.

Good success criteria…

1.  Are well linked to the learning intention.

2.  But avoid using the same words as the learning intention.

3.  Emphasize the process of learning where possible –what learners specifically need to do to know or to think about to produce the end product.

4.  Where they do describe an end product or a performance, give details about what will make that product or performance effective or successful.

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Activity 2

Learning intentions and success criteria carousel

Station 1

Write down as many learning outcomes as you can on the topic you have been given. Go for quantity not quality: the pen-holder does not have the power of the pen: they just write down what they hear, no critiquing at this station.

Station 2

Same again. Read the question and the existing outcomes and add as many more as you can.

Station 3

You do now have the power of the pen. We are going to peer assess and look out for quality. Check if the learning intentions are:

·  well expressed in child-speak

·  not too broad or too specific

and if not, change them.

Station 4

You should now have at least one good learning intention. Take one of the good ones and develop success criteria for it that:

·  are well linked to the learning intention

·  but avoid using the same words as the learning intention

Stop there and debrief: say “How is this going?”

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Examples from groups working on learning intentions and success criteria

Generating learning intentions and success criteria - why and

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

how on a page

If you want students to be motivated, responsible and successful learners then here is what they need to know and when…

What they need to know / How they get to know / When they get to know
Why are we doing this?
What can we expect to learn or are expected to learn by the end of the lesson or series of lessons - to know, understand, be able to do? / By the teacher telling the class or drawing out from the class what can be thought of as the learning intention, aim, objective, target or goal – or the reason why they are doing a specific task or undertaking a particular piece of work. / Usually at the start of a lesson or a topic or a lesson.
But also being given reminders during the lesson and topic, either verbally in discussion or visually by intentions or objectives being displayed on the wall.
But sometimes what is to be learned can emerge as students work on the task and in some circumstances this is what you might want to happen.
How will I know if I have been successful? How much do I know, how deep is my understanding, how good is my performance not simply how fast did I do it? / By the teacher helping the class to be clear about what success will look like if they meet their aim: the evidence of success, the outcome, product or performance that will show they have been successful in learning what they set out to learn. / This will come at the start or during the learning process so that they “begin with the end in mind.”
By the teacher showing end products, demonstrations of performances, perhaps of variable quality and students generating success criteria by talking together about what makes these good bad or indifferent.
What do I need to do to succeed?
What help/resources will I need? I will I go about it? / By teachers and students discussing what they will need to do to be successful, the means to the end, the strategies for success how will they come to know, understand, be able to do? / Before, during and after an activity. By discussing how the task might be tackled, by reviewing how it’s being tackled and looking back on what worked and what did not work. All the time linking the strategies to the evidence of success.

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Juggling case study

The juggling activity begins with a demonstration (the evidence of success) and some instructions e.g. “start with the hand with two scarves in it” (the strategies for success).

Participants are asked to work in pairs to help each other juggle. Most people are being asked to help a partner juggle, when they cannot juggle themselves. So the strategies for success discussed in the demonstration are made available to them as a “menu” (what they need to do in no particular order).

If you have a partner who succeeds you shouldn’t need to use the strategies for success. If your partner is struggling (despite the fact you can’t juggle yourself) you may be able to help your partner succeed by pointing out one thing they are getting wrong (e.g. “start with the hand with two scarves in it”).

Of course some people continue to struggle, particularly because they ignore the instruction, which the teacher pointed out as crucial, namely “don’t think about it”.

These learners need coaching from the teacher. This may involve the teacher breaking the task down and asking the learner to begin with one scarf and consciously focusing on the part of the technique they are getting wrong (e.g. not throwing across).

Evidence of success:

·  we can juggle three scarves cross-throwing

·  we can do this for at least ten seconds

·  we can still do it after a period of time has elapsed

Strategies for success:

·  I held the scarves palms down

·  I imagined the “Juggler’s Box”

·  I started with the hand with two scarves in it

·  I didn’t think consciously what to do

·  I kept time to the music

·  I threw across and flicked them high

·  With three scarves, I forgot about the catching and concentrated on the throwing

·  With three scarves, I used the mantra, “Throw, throw, throw…”

·  I caught the scarves palms down

·  I picked up the scarves I dropped and kept going

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Success criteria can be the “products” or “performances” which show that the learner has learned successfully. They can also be the “means” or strategies by which learners have reached this end or have produced the products or performances. Making these strategies or means clear is the most important factor in helping students with difficulties in learning. By doing this, you force students to make their learning explicit, and also gain access to their strategies.

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Advice on developing success criteria for skills development

Think in terms of “whole-part-whole”

Learning to juggle with scarves (see page 7) is a classic example of whole-part-whole in action. This strategy is commonly used by performers who already have some experience of an activity. It works best when you can perform a version of the whole skill already. From an overall analysis of the performance any technical weaknesses can be isolated and practised as parts. Once the specific weakness has been improved the whole skill can be performed again. This works best for skills which allow parts of the performance to be isolated. As the hockey example below shows, having clear strategies for success firmly in mind can help teachers isolate parts of skill which can be practised in isolation and help them to give more effective verbal feedback to learners on that aspect of their whole performance.

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Learning intention:

We are learning how to “drag on the move.”

Success criteria:

We will try to:

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

·  keep stick and ball in contact

·  move towards left handmarker

·  shift body weight and step left

·  rotate wrist anti-clockwise

·  turn the toe of stick

·  step right and

·  drag ball to right round markers

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Think in terms of strategies for success and evidence of success:

LI: We are learning how to use a chisel safely and effectively.

SC:

·  I chisel small sections in a controlled manner (strategy).

·  I stop short of the final line (strategy).

·  The finished surface is fairly flat (evidence).

·  The two sections fit well together (evidence).

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Sharing Learning Outcomes and Success Criteria

Advice on generating success criteria for problem solving

Avoid broad statements that simply tell students what level they are aiming to work at or the number of right answers you want, for example:

LI: I can round numbers to the nearest 10 or 100 and estimate a sum or difference.

SC: I make notes about how I solved this problem.

I can describe to my learning partner or my teacher how I solved the problem.

I can use my notes to do this.

I decide if there is a better way of doing it.

LI: We are learning how to calculate the area of different triangles.

SC: I remember to:

·  Identify and measure the base and height

·  Multiply the base by the height and divide by two

·  Record the units in squares

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Advice on generating success criteria for knowledge and understanding

Go beyond words like “state” “know” or “understand” in success criteria. Instead use the action verb “I can” to show how students will use their knowledge and demonstrate their understanding and by so doing come to know and understand.

Example 1 gives no indication of how students will come to know:

LI: We are learning to know what the seven characteristics of life are.

SC: I can state the six characteristics of life as being movement, respiration, growth, reproduction, excretion, nutrition.