LEARNING INTENTION and SUCCESS CRITERIA

James Nottingham is creator of “The Learning Pit” and author of many books to support teachers in their pursuit to challenge the learning.

One of the understandings that James promotes and that we are working on at the moment is the development of learning intentions and success criteria.  This understanding enables us to work towards actioning our goals;

 All students make measurable progress in literacy and numeracy.

 All students access quality learning to meet individual needs.

A learning intention is exactly that, the intention of the learning that is about to take place. If I asked you to hit a target and didn’t tell you, or show you where the target is, it would be very difficult for you to reach it. The same applies to students and their learning. If we don’t tell them what the goal or intent of the learning is how will they know if and when they reach it?

A success criteria is a little more complex; a well written success criteria relies on the teacher knowing the curriculum, knowing best practise in teaching, knowing the students and being able to break the curriculum into manageable steps for students. For example, a learning intention for a Maths lesson could be:

Learning intention-To multiply two digit numbers using partitioning

Success Criteria-

Make 35

Partition 35

Make 3 (3 is the multiple)

Multiple (and make) each part of the partition by the multiple.

Add the results.

Prove your answer to your partner.

Choose another multiple, work out the answer by doing the same.

Record what you have done in words.

Record what you have done in mathematical symbols and numbers.

As you can see the list is quite long and would not be achieved in one lesson. The list also demonstrates how students move through deeper understanding. Firstly making the algorithm, then using their words to explain, then finally recording.

Yours in Number

Caz Perryman