The aim of today’s session is to make sure that are all consistent in our use of LO’s. Focus points for ofsted is the use of lesson objectives in all lessons. At the moment we are not consistent with how we do this, we all use objectives in our own way but we are trying to make it clear, simple and easy to use on a daily basis.
5 mintutes to discuss what you think is good, bad, useful, not useful on the examples
Lesson objectives and outcomes are nothing new, we are all doing it in lessons and have been for a long time. We have all been trained at different places, worked in many different schools and all read different articles about how and when LO’s should be used. Aim is to try and take away the confusion and develop a simple and easy way to mange the use in the classroom whille ticking the criteria for lesson observations and ofsted.
Key definitions
We need to be consistant – it makes life easier in the classroom, moves learning towards students and away from being teacher led and makes them all know what they are going to achieve in the end. Need to keep lokoing at the big picture – what do you want to get out of the pupils in the time that you have them for.
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.
Here are five steps to framing and delivering learning intentions. It is important that we: are clear and specific about learning intentions and the reasons why these are important things to learn; break down learning intentions and translate them into meaningful and manageable language; introduce and share learning intentions appropriately at beginning of the lesson; and structure lessons so the pupils can focus on and revisit the learning intention through approaches such as questioning, peer- and self-assessment, written and oral feedback and plenary sessions. But, we need to think about: How systematic have we been in doing this – particularly at the beginning of a lesson or activity? Are we writing or explaining intentions in language that pupils can understand? When we have presented learning intentions, have we tended to focus on what will be produced rather than what will be learned ?
Here are some examples of learning intentions. Look at the second example. What curricular context does it come from? (could come from any subject) Is it a useful skill to have in any context?
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.
Establishing success criteria is an important part of Assessment for Learning for a number of reasons. First of all It improves pupils’ understanding by keeping them informed about how they will be assessed. This, in turn, empowers pupils because it involves them in their own performance and learning. In time, pupils who have experience of working to success criteria and contributing to the development of success criteria are more apt to take an independent approach to learning, as they understand how the criteria apply to their learning. They then are able to use these to assess their own achievements, address their own concerns and identify areas for improvement. Success criteria also allow you and the pupils to give accurate feedback – they keep you and the pupils focused on the criteria that the work will be assessed against.
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.
Here are some pupil benefits, which were identified by teachers involved in the NI Action Research Project, 2005 What about benefits to teachers? Do you see this process as having value to us? (Pause to allow comments, then move to next slide.)
Here are some of the teacher benefits as identified by teachers involved in the NI Action Research Project, 2005
Framework to use throughout the session to help and remind you of what to put down
Given out to staff and sorted
Link back to the objectives for the session – how far have we got, what do we need to do to finish?
In closing, here are a few key points to remember about Learning Intentions and Success Criteria.