The Power of Success Criteria

Image - with thanks to http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/caldiesschool/tl-success-criteria

Assessing student learning, in theory, sounds like quite a simple thing to do; agree what is being learnt, find out who can do it, offer support to those who need it and agree on next steps when everyone is confident it has been learnt. In reality, each of these different steps requires the highest skill set that a teacher can possess to ensure success.

When discussing learning with teachers, I often ask three basic questions:
1)What do you want them to learn?
2) How do you want them to learn it?
3) How will you know they have learnt it?

Would it surprise you to know that many teachers I work with start at question two when they go about planning the learning? Now, sometimes I see some magnificent activities that I want to try in my own class but we all need to be aware that we shouldn't put the activity first before knowing that it suits what needs to be learnt.

So often, with the learning intention clearly established, and with excellent activities to support the learning, I still find teachers working hard to remind students of the process of learning that they run out of time, or are just unable to answer that third, crucial question.

I'm my experience, by sharing, or even better, constructing success criteria with the students, where they know it because they own it, the teacher doesn't need to work so hard butterflying around the classroom and can instead take a step back, really see who is 'getting it', ask questions that will dig deeper and make students think harder and actually be able to answer the third question with confidence.  Making this success criteria visible gives the students a real reminder of the process, what they need to remember to include, use, think about, read as they learn.

When this success criteria is in place, teachers become more confident about where every child is in their learning and so, when it comes to the Exit Pass, there is, on the whole, no surprises.

To finish, I want to share some success criteria with you to aid in writing success criteria.

Remember to:
- use words that students understand, not shying away from technical words
- generate the success criteria with the students, where appropriate
- focus on the process of learning, not the product
- display it in the room as a visual reminder
- refer to it throughout the lesson (if they follow the process, they should be successful)
- provide a demonstration that shows the criteria being successful

The power of using success criteria that focuses on learning might just change the dynamic in your classroom. Go on, give it a go!