Making sense of Learning Intentions and Success Criteria Read title!

What makes good Learning Intentions and Success Criteria? So what makes good LI’s and SC’s. If we think about the example of successfully riding a bike: If a learner states: I can ride a bike – what does that actually mean and what would that look like?? Does it mean that they can ride their bike independently for a sustained period of time? That they can ride their bike with stabilisers? Or That they need a bit of help to push off from the kerb before riding? This is why need to ensure that when we set LI’s and SC’s that they are clear and purposeful.

Learning Intentions + Success Criteria This diagram illustrates how the Learning Intention sits at the heart of planning. If we get that bit wrong, it means that the entire learning journey can go awry. There needs to be a clear link between the skills, knowledge and attributes we have identified, linked to the LI’s linked to the SC, linked to the learning activities, linked to the assessment evidence.

What is a Learning Intention? A learning intention describes what pupils should know, understand or be able to do by the end of the lesson or series of lessons. Learning Intentions: Identify and define new learning Focus on transferable skills Read slide!

What is the Learning? Learning Intentions can be written for: ‘knowledge and understanding’ or ‘skills’ or ‘attributes and capabilities’ or any combination of these. In this photograph, you can clearly see a great deal of learning taking place, through the simple context of a playground game of Noughts and Crosses. They are all waiting patiently to take a turn. Perhaps planning and strategising their next move. Some of the group are observing the play. The boy taking his turn could be taking on leadership skills and indicating whose turn is next? It is the annotation of evidence, such as photographs which can be useful in capturing learning.

Defining the Learning Intention Activity: What are we doing? - Playing a game of Snakes and Ladders. Learning Intention: What are we learning? - To take turns fairly. Context: Vehicle for the learning - The Game Using something simple; such as a Game of Snakes and Ladders can help us to exemplify the difference between the Activity, the LI and the Context. Read example!

What does a good learning intention look like? Linked to the actual learning, not the context. Not simply a description of the activity. Often describe transferable skills. Reflect the language of the experience and outcome and the skills and knowledge within it. Focused, straightforward and easy to understand. Agreed in discussion with the learners. What does a good LI look like? Linked to the actual learning, not the context.- think carefully about what skills and knowledge we want them to learn! Not simply a description of the activity; the activity is how we engage learners in the learning itself, not what they are actually learning. Often describe transferable skills. Reflect the language of the experience and outcome and the skills and knowledge within it Focused, straightforward and easy to understand; we need to develop a shared language around skills and knowledge that learners can relate to and comprehend. It is helpful to consider the type of language that they might use to describe what they are learning. Agreed in discussion with the learners – this is crucial, we need to encourage learners to take ownership of their learning and to understand where they are in their learning journey and how they will further progress their learning.

What do good Success Criteria look like? Linked to the learning intention. Emphasise the process, rather than end product: knowing, thinking or using skills. Reflect the skills and knowledge that you will see the children and young people employing. Avoid repetition of the learning intention. Not a general description of the end product or the skill (neat writing, four out of five right). Agreed in discussion with the learners. What do good Success Criteria look like? Linked to the learning intention – you should be able to see a clear links between these, colour coding can be helpful in assisting with this. Emphasise the process, rather than end product: knowing, thinking or using skills; we need to be creative around ways that we can capture learning as it is happening. Reflect the skills and knowledge that you will see the children and young people employing. Avoid repetition of the learning intention; they should break down the learning into manageable chunks so that learners can understand what they are expected to achieve. Not a general description of the end product or the skill (neat writing, four out of five right). Agreed in discussion with the learners.

Success Criteria How do we know we have met the learning intention? What has been the impact of the learning experiences? How can we measure how much and how well children and young people have learned? The most important thing about the SC is that this is how we will measure the impact of the learning experiences on how much and how well learners are learning!! If there is no Impact, why are we doing it?

Giving feedback through Learning Conversations Are quality interactions which deepen understanding of learning Should be ongoing throughout the learning experience as well as at the end. Can be peer / class or teacher to learner. Use open questions to encourage reflection on learning Should reflect on learning and inform next steps in the learning journey A really important part of reporting is Learning Conversations. Reporting is not just about an end of term report that goes home to parents. Reporting back on learning should happen at regular intervals. So what do we mean by learning conversations? They: Are quality interactions which deepen understanding of learning Should be ongoing throughout the learning experience as well as at the end. Can be peer / class or teacher to learner. Use open questions to encourage reflection on learning Should reflect on learning and inform next steps in the learning journey If we do this successfully learners will have a clear understanding of where they are at in their learning. Building confidence, learning from prior experiences and progressing their skills and knowledge as they revisit these in different contexts.

Discussion Activity Within this experience and outcome, which skills and knowledge might you and the learners choose to focus on? How can you ensure that learning builds on what has gone before? How might it look and feel different at different levels? What learning experiences might you set up to engage and motivate learners? Now it is your turn to have a go and explore how can you can best support learners in developing their understanding of their own and others learning? Pose Questions!