Sharing Learning Intentions

Assessment criteria or learning outcomes are often defined in formal language that pupils may not understand. To involve pupils fully in their learning teachers should:

• Explain clearly the reasons for the lesson or activity in terms of the learning intentions
• Share the specific assessment criteria with pupils
• Help pupils to understand what they have done well and what they need to develop.

Learning Intentions

Tips when putting learning intentions into practice

• Start small - You don't need to have a learning intention for every lesson. You could start with one aspect of the curriculum,
• Separate the learning from the task/activity -This helps pupils (and you) to focus not on the activity, but on what they will have learned by doing it.
• Tell them why they are learning something - When possible, give a real-life rationale for the learning.
• Use appropriate language - It's better to say 'we are learning to' rather than 'we are doing'.
• Display the learning intention.
• Discuss the learning intention with pupils.

Sharing and Negotiating Success Criteria

By referring to the success criteria, pupils know if they have achieved the learning intention.
In AfL, success criteria:

• Are linked to the learning intention;
• Are specific to an activity;
• Are discussed and agreed with the pupils prior to beginning the learning activity;
• Scaffold and focus pupils while they are engaged in the activity
• Are used as the basis for feedback and peer and self-assessment.

Creating Success Criteria
When creating the success criteria, it is important to focus on process and characteristics rather than the final effect. A good example of success criteria is shown below;

Learning Intention: We are learning to write a narrative.

I will be successful if I:

• Set the scene in the opening paragraph;
• Build up tension/suspense;
• Use spooky adjectives and powerful verbs;
• End with a cliff hanger.

How to Share Success Criteria Model the process for them - help pupils understand the value and purpose of success criteria. You may initially want to create success criteria yourself and then simply discuss them with your pupils. By taking a piece of work (perhaps from another class), you and your pupils can use it to draw out essential features, qualities and aspects that meet its success criteria.

Putting the criteria into child-friendly language - however, success criteria needn’t always be in written form. You can use images (for example digital pictures or different stages of an experiment/practical activity) to illustrate the process.

Allow time to discuss the criteria - Plan time to discuss and negotiate success criteria with your pupils. This will provide them with a clear understanding of what is required prior to undertaking the activity.

Letting the pupils work in groups to practise creating and using the criteria - Allowing pupils to work in groups to prioritise and agree success criteria will give them an opportunity to contribute and gain experience with the process while benefiting from a sense of safety in numbers.

Characteristics of effective Feedback

Feedback is more effective if it focuses on the learning intention of the task and is given regularly while still relevant. Formative feedback should take place during the learning.

• Feedback is most effective when it confirms that pupils are on the right track and when it stimulates correction or improvement of a piece of work.
• Pupils should be helped to find alternative solutions if simply repeating an explanation continues to lead to failure.
• Feedback on progress over a number of attempts is more effective than feedback on one attempt treated in isolation.
• The quality of dialogue in feedback is important and most research indicates that oral feedback is more effective than written feedback.

Strategies
Formative feedback which should provide (in comments only):

• Evidence on where the pupil is now (find 2 successes)
• A definition of the desired goal (an area which they can immediately improve)
• Practical strategies to close the gap. (prompts)
• Time to improve

Oral Feedback is just as successful.

• It is personal and specific to the pupil
• It is immediate and so allows for quick remediation and improvement
• It reinforces the relationship between teacher and pupil and allows for the pupil to respond and participate.

Ensure students are aware of the assessment taking place within your subject area.

Types of prompts include:

Effective Questioning

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Questioning

High-level questioning can be used as a tool for assessment for learning. Teachers can:

• Use questions to find out what pupils know, understand and can do
• Analyse pupils' responses and their questions in order to find out what they know, understand and can do
• Use questions to find out what pupils' specific misconceptions are in order to target teaching more effectively
• Use pupils' questions to assess understanding.

Ask better questions

• To focus attention - Have you seen? What is that?
• To force comparisons - How many? How long? How often? How much?
• To get clarification - What do you mean by? Can you show me? Can you explain further? Give me an example?
• To stimulate enquiry - What would happen if? What do we need to know?
• To get reasons - How do you know? Why do you think that?

Get better answers

• Provide thinking time

A longer wait time (e.g. 3 seconds):

• produces more and better answers,
• allows the learner to think things through,
• shows that responsibility for thinking is with them, not you,
• shows that trying takes time and effort and you believe they can do it.

Make Questions a habit for learners

• Create a questioning climate in class
• Be a role model: ask yourself questions aloud in class - share curiosity and doubts,
• Use books, objects and other items to stimulate questions,
• Encourage learners to bring you objects or issues that interest them,
• Use provocative open-ended questions to stimulate other questions.

Questioning strategies

• Think Pair share

This approach involves everyone and allows pupils to think about their answer, discuss it with a partner and then share it with a group. This can take the focus off the individual, improve self-esteem and give shy pupils a voice.

• No hands up

When you ask a question and one pupil in a class puts his or her hand up, often everyone else in the class stops thinking or trying to work out the answer. By asking for 'no hands up', you can encourage all pupils to stay engaged with the question for longer.

KWL grids

How pupils reflect on their Learning

Peer Assessment and Self Assessment

Before pupils can conduct peer or self-assessment, they must understand what is meant by assessment. You must also help them to understand the difference between assessment and correction.

Peer and self-assessment are about more than correction. They are about:

• Getting pupils actively involved in the work;
• Providing them with information about what they need to learn and how they will know if they have been successful
• Helping them to advise each other on how to improve, not just what they got correct.

You can also prepare your pupils by:

• Sharing the lesson's learning intentions and success criteria;
• Modelling the assessment and feedback processes
• Building the right climate

Peer Assessment strategies

Tickled Pink and Green for Go

Self-assessment Strategies

Traffic Lights (Whole Class Display)
Traffic Lights (Handheld Display)
Thumbs up
Thinking prompts
Two stars and a wish
Numerical scale to show understanding (1-5)

Additional Strategies to Make Reflection Work

To realise the benefits, you must not only prepare the pupils for how to assess and evaluate properly, and give them opportunities to put what they've observed into practice, but you should also do the following:

• Make it routine;
• Give learners the information they need;
• Keep it varied;
• Build it in;
• Focus on strengths;
• Make it lead somewhere; and
• Explain it to parents.