1. Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

2. Learning Intentions Participants will:
Understand the benefits of using Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
Explore how to design learning intentions and success criteria suitable for your classes

3. Success Criteria
have an increased knowledge on how to design Learning Intention and Success Criteria to suit your context
have an increased confidence in creating and using your own Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
have an increased knowledge of the relationship between Learning Intention, Success Criteria and assessing evidence

4. BTC 5
Assessment needs to be planned as part of learning and teaching activities. In planning activities and experiences with young people, staff need to:
consider and share the outcomes towards which young people are working
agree success criteria through discussion with each other and with learners
design learning experiences and activities that are likely to challenge and motivate and give opportunities to children and young people to provide evidence that demonstrates their knowledge and understanding, skills, attributes and capabilities
Building the Curriculum 5

5. Planning: Curriculum, Learning and Teaching and Assessment
Experiences and Outcomes
Skills
Learning Intentions
Success Criteria
Evidence to support Learning and Teaching
SAY WRITE MAKE DO
Moderation 5

6. 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 Unlimited, 2004)
Learning Intentions
Identify new learning
Focus on transferable skills 6

7. Why Are Learning Intentions and Success Criteria Important?
‘If learners are to take more responsibility for their own learning, then they need to know what they are going to learn, how they will recognise when they have succeeded and why they should learn it in the first place.’
- (An Intro to AfL, Learning Unlimited, 2004)
Despite building learning intentions into our planners, we are not good at sharing learning intentions and success criteria with our pupils.
But at the same time, we want our pupils to be self-motivated, have a sense of purpose, etc.
To give our pupils the tools they need to take more responsibility for their own learning and achieve greater learning independence, we need to communicate to them:
what they are going to learn;
why they should learn it in the first place; and
how they will recognise when they have succeeded.
Research shows that pupils who regularly receive this information in the classroom are:
more focused for longer periods of time;
more motivated; and
better able to take responsibility for their own learning.
Assessment for Learning, and particularly these first two steps in the process, immediately involves pupils with their own learning and offers opportunities for key interactions between pupils and teachers.
These two elements of AfL are also important because if learners do not know what they are expected to learn and how to recognise their own success, then we cannot promote peer-/self-assessment, which are two other elements of AfL (to be covered in a later unit) as well as being important life skills.
Learning Intentions
‘What’ and ‘Why’
Success Criteria
‘How to recognise success’

8. Good Learning Intentions are:
Expressed in simple language that every pupil can understand.
Focused in nature.
Composed using words that are closely related to learning e.g. Understand that, know how to etc.
Directly linked to the Success Criteria.

9. Learning Intention – Key Vocabulary
The pupil will (be)
extend/extending
broaden/broadening
develop/developing
strengthen/strengthening
consolidate/consolidating
reinforce/reinforcing
revise/revising
examine/examining
explore/exploring
consider/considering
investigate/investigating
apply/applying
expand/expanding
Knowledge and Understanding, Skills, Attributes and Capabilities

10. Learning Intentions may be written as follows:
We are learning to … or about...
To know that …
To understand and explain...
To share and discuss...
Today we will be able to …

11. Defining the Learning Intention
Activity: What are we doing?
- Playing a game of snap.
Learning Intention: What are we learning?
- To take turns.
Context: Vehicle for the learning
- The Game

12. Early Level – Examples Activity Learning Intention Context
Painting a snowy picture using white paint
To develop fine motor skills and mark making
What snow looks and feels like
Making repeat patterns with coloured cubes
To be able to recognise and continue a sequential pattern
Number Patterns
Give a talk about my favourite toy.
To give information in a clear and interesting way.
Personal opinions

13. Learning Intentions Strong Learning Intentions Not linked to context
Not simply a description of the activity
Often describe transferable skills

14. Activity 1 – Learning Intentions
20 Questions
From the given Learning Intentions identify which learning intentions are strong, weak and unsure

15. Success criteria Success Criteria Learning Intentions
‘How to recognise
success’
Learning Intentions
‘What’ and ‘Why’
The next element in the Assessment for Learning process is the development of success criteria.
If learning intentions spell out what the students will learn and why, the success criteria show pupils how to recognise success.
© PMB 2007

16. What are success criteria?
‘… success criteria summarise the key steps or ingredients the student needs in order to fulfil the learning intention – the main things to do, include or focus on.’
- Shirley Clarke
So what are success criteria? What does success look like?
Success criteria let pupils know if they have achieved the learning intention.
They summarise the main teaching points (key ingredients) or processes (key steps) which link directly to the learning intention.
© PMB 2007

17. Effective Success Criteria
are linked to the learning intention (avoid repetition of same language)
are specific to an activity
are discussed and agreed with pupils prior to undertaking the activity
provide a scaffold and focus for pupils while engaged in the activity
are used as the basis for feedback, peer-/self-assessment and teacher judgements
Evidence should clearly link to Success Criteria
Quality success criteria are characterised by these features:
They are closely linked to the learning intention.
They are specific to the activity and will vary with each activity, even if the activities share a common learning intention.
They are agreed with the pupils in advance. This discussion aspect is particularly important in the classroom.
First, it helps foster a positive classroom environment.
It also gets pupils involved in the learning and upcoming activity even before it’s begun.
It can also help build pupil self-esteem by offering them opportunities to contribute.
And it is a useful tool to strengthen the pupil-teacher relationship.
They encourage responsibility and independence by scaffolding peer- and self-assessment.
They are revisited and used to provide pupils with feedback on their learning. This feedback can be provided by both you and the pupils themselves.
Remember to follow through, though, and only assess the pupils on what has been agreed.
© PMB 2007

18. Process stronger than Product
Learning Intention:
To be able to identify odd and even numbers
Product Success Criteria:
Your answers will be correct
Process Success Criteria:
Look at the last digit in the number to check the pattern
Divide the number in two to check

19. Modelling Success Criteria
Learners need to know what a good piece of work looks like.
Share the standard by using examples
e.g. ‘This is a good piece of work because…’
You may use your own work as examples.
Involve the children in the process of identifying success criteria.

20. Planning: Curriculum, Learning and Teaching and Assessment
Experiences and Outcomes
Skills
Learning Intentions
Success Criteria
Evidence to support Learning and Teaching
SAY WRITE MAKE DO
Moderation 20 20

21. Possible ways of gathering evidence
Experience and Outcome
Learning Intention
Context
Activity
Success Criteria
Evidence
I have the freedom to discover and choose ways to create images and objects using a variety of materials
EXA 0-02a
To develop fine motor skills and mark making
What snow looks and feels like
Painting a snowy picture using white paint
Hold my brush between thumb and forefinger
Move my brush in lots of ways to make different marks
Use paint and water to create different shades of white
Painting, teacher observation & recording of pupil speech during painting 21

22. Possible ways of gathering evidence
Experience and Outcome
Learning Intention
Context
Activity
Success Criteria
Evidence
I have the freedom to discover & choose ways to create images & objects using a variety of materials
EXA 0-02a
Within real & imaginary situations, I share experiences & feelings, ideas & information in a way that communicates my message.
LIT 0-09a
To develop knowledge and understanding of the qualities of snow
To develop the use of descriptive language
What snow looks and feels like
Painting a snowy picture using white paint
Self and peer assessment at plenary session
Use the paints and brush to show what lying and falling snow look like
Use a range of naming & describing words during painting
Describe what is good about my own and others’ paintings
Painting, video of pupils at work, teacher recording of self and peer assessment 22

23. Further information www.dylanwiliam.net
Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment
 By Paul Black, Dylan Wiliam
Assessment for learning: putting it into practice
By Paul Black, Chris Harrison, Clara Lee, Bethan Marshall, Dylan Wiliam