Reflection: Learning Intentions and Sucess Criteria

     

I know I haven't been posting often. It has been a busy year.  I have been working on a microdential (mentor teacher, instructional coaching) and writing curriculum.  In our last session our facilitator made the statement," I love walking in classrooms with learning intentions and success criteria posted for students to see." To be honest I was focused on putting in my artifacts.  I heard him summarize the purpose of posting learning intentions and success criteria. I wrote this in my notebook to remind myself to research this when I get home. Once at home, sat at my desk, and typed learning intentions and success criteria in search engine.  Several articles popped up, I selected the article published in Edutopia and another one in Corwin Connect. After reading both articles and reflecting, is made sense.  Then I asked myself, "Is it important for students to understand our expectations for unit and why its important?"  Yes it is.

    Edutopia states that learning intentions, "focuses on the goal of learning-the thing we want our students to learn and do." It helps students stay focused and involved in their learning. It is a way to focus lesson planning and it used in all subject areas. Here is the sequence that Edutopia suggest to use when creating learning intentions and success criteria:

• Create your learning intention first.
• Determine the success criteria that students can use to assess their understanding.
• Create the activity.
• Create open ended questions that help students learn.

Eductopia also suggest that you ask yourself the following questions when planning instruction:

• What do you want your students to know?  Why is it important?
• Can they learn the information another way and how?

    I teach freshmen and often I hear them say, "Why we got to learn this?" "What does this have to do with ______________?"  As educators, we know for students to master performance expectations we have to create multiple lessons that are scaffolded and differientated ( I also look my evidence statements as well) for our student population.  If you teach in Louisiana, especially science DOE provides a sample scope and sequence. Within the scope and sequence they provide DCIs and a partial unpacking of DCIs. 

    I decided to try this for my periodic table unit.  We were almost finished with the unit and I can see the puzzled look on their faces. This would be a way to answer their questions. I created a google doc with the learning intention and success criteria for the unit.  As a matter of fact it was checklist.  Here are my learning intentions and success criteria:

I provided copies of this document for my students in class. I reviewed this in class.  I even seen students following along and checking items on the list. I asked them to circle or highlight what they didn't understand.  After reviewing the list students realized that we almost finished with the unit and they would be testing soon.  I also explaiined to them that mastering the periodic table would determine how successful they would be in the second half of physical science and in high school chemistry.  The periodic table is the foundation for learning multiple science concepts especially chemical bonding and reactions. I posted this in google classroom and review it at the beginning of a new objective.  I will continue this practice and I am even considering putting in their interactive notebook.