OER4Schools/Learning objectives and success criteria

Title: Introduction to OER4Schools
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The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource

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  Introduction to OER4Schools

  2.3 - More on questioning

Table of contents.

Introduction to OER4Schools >>>

Facilitator's version, Participants' version

Review of Classwork and Homework activities

Whole group discussion (11 min).

• Did you type your responses to the My Assessment Inventory on the Word document and save it in your files area on the desktop? Discuss if there were any issues as this activity will be repeated again this week.
• Did you ask your students to make Traffic Lights? Which material did you use? Were there any problems in making them?
• Did you use the Traffic Lights in your class? Share your experience by answering these questions:
  • For which topic did you ask your students to use Traffic Lights?
  • Did you try different ways of using them such as holding them up all together or putting them forward on the table while they were working?
  • How did you handle when students showed different lights?
  • Did you employ classroom assistants for helping with Traffic Lights? Will you do it again? Why?
  • From your experience, discuss any advantages or disadvantages of using them in your context.
• How did your students handle using the Traffic Lights? (e.g. ease/ difficulty of using them, indicating proper/improper light) What steps will you take so that this can be improved in future lessons?
• Did you read pages 3 to 6 of the VVOB handout called ‘Questioning the Questions’? Do you think Bloom’s Taxonomy and examples were helpful when you asked questions in class? Were there any issues about the Taxonomy? Discuss ways of solving these issues with other participants.
• Did you manage to see the video and Power Point shown in the last session together after the workshop? Share if you observed anything new about the concept of AfL or practice of AfL in classroom (i.e. share something that was not discussed in the workshop last week).

Objectives for this session

• Learning to use inventory as a self-assessment measure
• Understanding the need for two AfL strategies: Sharing Learning Objectives and Sharing Success Criteria
• Learning to form Learning Objectives and Success Criteria
• Revisiting activities learnt in previous sessions that can be adapted for AfL

Activity One: My assessment inventory

Individual work (11 min). Update the assessment inventory that you started last week File:My assessment inventory.doc. Add the date in the second row and describe your current understanding of assessment by identifying different kinds or elements of assessment. Then record the assessment measures that you have used. Please take care that you mention only the measures that you have used yourself and not the measures that you know of but have not tried.

Activity Two: Need for Sharing Learning Objectives and Success Criteria

It was mentioned in the Power Point presentation last week that sharing learning objectives and success criteria are two AfL strategies.

Individual work (11 min). Fold a plain sheet of paper into 3 equal parts. Write ‘Answer 1’ on the top of the first section, ‘Answer 2’ on the top of the second section and ‘Answer 3’ on the top of the third section. The facilitator will display and read 3 questions for you. Answer them in the respective area on the sheet.

Pair work (11 min). After answering each question, exchange your sheet with the person sitting next to you. Assess their work. Be critical. Then take your sheets back to answer the next question.

Educator note

The questions are given below. Write each question on the blackboard or flip chart sheets and display them one by one. Also read them out.

Allow 3-4 minutes to answer each question, but no longer. After answering each question, ask participants to exchange their sheets and assess their neighbour’s work. Do not allow participants to change answers or assessment once it has been done.

While reading, say the words exactly as they are given below:

• Question 1: Draw a child.
• Question 2: We are learning to name parts of the body. For this please do the activity of drawing a child and labelling parts of its body.
• Question 3: For the activity of drawing and labelling parts of the body, your success criteria are that your picture should show: (1) at least three parts of the body that are sense organs and (2) at least three parts of the body that have joints.

If participants are not sure about sense organs, mention that there are five senses: seeing, tasting, hearing, touching and smelling.

If participants are not sure about parts of the body that have joints, give examples such as elbow, knee, shoulder.

Whole Group (11 min). Discuss:

First, think as a learner who was assessed,

• Answering which question was easiest? Why?
• In which question were you most and least sure about your success? Why?
• In which question did you have most and least anxiety about the outcome? Why?

Now, think as an assessor,

• Assessing which question was most easy and least easy? Why?
• Assessing which question was most fair and least fair? Why?

Educator note

It is expected that participants’ responses will be in favour of Question 3 and Question 2. Inform them that: Question 2 is an example of sharing learning objectives with students; and Question 3 is an example of sharing success criteria with students. More discussion on this will be done during this session, but see if participants realise that learners can succeed much more easily in the classroom if they are told in advance what the criteria for success are.

Activity Three: Understanding Learning Objectives and Success Criteria

‘Learning objective’ has also been referred to as ‘Learning intention’ in AfL literature.

“A Learning Intention is simply a description of what you want your pupils to know, understand or be able to do by the end of a lesson. It tells pupils what the focus for learning is going to be.” (Afl Guidance KS 1-2 – 2007, Pg 8)

“Success Criteria are the statements that help pupils recognise if they have been successful in their learning. They summarise the main teaching points (key ingredients) or processes (key steps), and they always link directly to the learning intention. They essentially spell out the steps required to achieve the learning intention, offering explicit guidance on how to be successful. By referring to the success criteria, pupils know if they have achieved the learning intention.” (Afl Guidance KS 1-2 – 2007, Pg 12)

Whole Group (11 min). Read Question 2 and Question 3 displayed on the board or flip chart again. Discuss:

• What are the similarities between Learning Objectives and Success Criteria for AfL?
• What are the differences between Learning Objectives and Success Criteria for AfL?

Educator note

Mention these points if participants have not already mentioned them. Suggest that participants can make a note of these points on their printouts.

Learning Objectives and Success Criteria are similar because:

• success criteria spell out the specific features of the learning objective
• learning objective and success criteria can be same (constant over time) even if the activity changes, e.g. parts of the body can be learnt by drawing (as above) or it can be learnt through poems, stories, questioning and dialogue, or direct teaching; but learning objective and success criteria remain the same
• both provide guidance to students about what is expected from them

Learning Objective and Success Criteria are different because:

• Learning objective relates to a topic/lesson while success criteria relate to an activity – spell out the steps needed to achieve the learning objective
• The same learning objective can have different success criteria in different grades. e.g. success criteria for the objective of drawing parts of the body will be simple (such as, head, arms, legs) for Grade 1 but detailed (such as in Question 3) for Grade 4

Activity Four: Forming Learning Objectives and Success Criteria

Educator note

Remind the participants that one of the Learning Objectives for today’s session is to form Learning Objectives and Success Criteria.

Points to remember for forming Learning Objectives:

• Learning objectives relate to what students are expected to: know, understand and do (knowledge, understanding and skills). (You can also refer to verbs in the Bloom’s Taxonomy mentioned in the VVOB handout for this.)
  • Knowledge or factual information: e.g. (1) we are learning about ‘learning objectives and success criteria’ for AfL, and (2) we are learning names of Zambian provinces and their capitals.
  • Understanding such as concepts, reasons and processes: e.g. (1) we are learning about the relationship between learning objectives and success criteria, and (2) we are learning reasons for pollution in Zambia.
  • Skills or abilities acquired through training or experience. e.g. (1) we are learning to form learning objectives and success criteria for AfL, and (2) we are learning to draw bar graphs from raw data.
• Learning objectives specify learning. They do not specify the activity
• It is good to have generic learning objectives that can be transferred across the curriculum, e.g. (1) we are learning to download pictures from flickr, (2) we are learning to work effectively in groups, (3) we are learning to use evidence to support an opinion, and (4) we are learning to interpret data
• Learning objectives should be in simple language that students can easily understand
• Learning objectives should be broad enough to allow pupils of all capabilities to achieve them; “the differentiation is in the way the pupils achieve or demonstrate the intention, not by creating different learning intentions for pupils of different abilities.” (Afl Guidance KS 1-2 – 2007, Pg 10). So you might expect some pupils to achieve more but they will all share the same learning objective and success criteria

Note: You might want to record the Learning objective on the blackboard at the beginning of a lesson or you may already be doing this.

Points to remember for forming Success Criteria:

• Success criteria relate to the specific activity
• Success criteria focus on specific teaching points or processes, e.g. in Question 3 above, the success criteria focus on including particular parts of the body (teaching points)
• Success criteria should also have simple child-friendly language

Educator note

Display the following on the board or a flip chart sheet and read it aloud:

Your success criteria for forming Learning Objectives are:

• focus on learning
• one key aspect from knowledge, understanding or skill (understanding and skill preferred)
• simple child-friendly language

Your success criteria for forming Success Criteria are:

• specific to the activity for achieving learning objective
• detailed information about your expectation of students
• simple child-friendly language

Pair work (11 min). Read Question 2 and Question 3 displayed on the flip charts again. With a same grade buddy, think of a topic that you will be teaching this week. Form the learning objectives and success criteria for this topic. Write them on the board or flip chart so that everybody will be able to see them. Your facilitator has already displayed the success criteria for this activity. Think about differentiation – how can all pupils achieve the learning intention to some degree?

Whole Group (11 min). Display your planned activity and read out your learning objective and success criteria to all other participants. Other participants should:

• assess the learning objective and success criteria in view of the success criteria mentioned above
• comment positively about criteria that are met
• make suggestions for addressing any criteria that are not yet met

Activity Five: Activities for AfL

In the previous units you have done some activities that can be used for AfL with some adaptation. Today we will revisit these activities in the context of AfL.

Educator note

If there is time, form three groups. Ask each group to read one activity and do a role play of carrying out the activity in the class. Role play can be done by one participant acting as a teacher and other participants acting as students. Some acting students demonstrate right answers, some demonstrate wrong answers, and some demonstrate partial understanding. The acting teacher demonstrates handling of all these answers.

Alternatively, different groups can explain the activities with more examples.

• Magic microphone (Unit 2 Session 1) - Ask an open question about a topic, for example “How many ways can you think of to make 23?”. Pass around a prop. Whoever has the prop will give one answer to the question. Allow students to use mini-blackboards to work out their answers. If many students give right answers, increase the challenge by changing to a 3-digit number. If many students give the wrong answer, revise the topic again in class.

• Concept Mapping (Unit 2 Session 4) - Write the main topic for which aspects have already been covered over a period of time in different lessons, on a concept mapping software or black board. Ask students to review all that they have learned about the topic and report them as answers. Record answers but do not correct wrong answers at this time. Review all answers in the end by asking students for opinion about each answer - if they are right; wrong; and how they can be improved. Avoid naming any student who said the wrong answers. For topics for which many students think positively about the wrong answer, revise them again in class. e.g. for the topic ‘mammals’ if many students think that man is not a mammal, revise the topic.

• Talking Points (Unit 3 Session 5) - Frame some right, some wrong and some unsure statements about a topic. Try to include topics for which your students have struggled during teaching. Discuss each sentence as a whole class activity. Try the ‘No-hands up’ strategy; this supports AfL because it allows you to assess understanding of any learners that you think may not understand or may not be following. If shy pupils do not participate, use this or other non-voluntary participation strategies (Unit 2 Session 3) to select students for answering. You will come to know about common misconceptions through this activity so that you can address them.

Whole Group (11 min). Discuss:

• Which activity(ies) do you think you would like to try this week? Why?
• Do you foresee any problems in carrying out these activities based on your previous experience of doing them? Discuss solutions with your peers.

Homework

• Update the electronic version of “my assessment inventory”. Open your file from your ‘files area’ on your desktop. Fill it in and save it again. Remember to bring the paper inventory to every session and make an entry in the electronic inventory every week.

• Divide yourself into two groups. For practical reasons, choose members of these groups who can work together outside the workshop session. If this is not possible, then every member of the group should take responsibility for the group task. The group tasks are:
  • Group One: Read pages 8 to11 about Learning Intentions from the “AfL Guidance for KS 1-2 - 2007” .pdf document. You can skip sections- 'defining the learning' and 'what makes a good learning intention' as these have been covered in the session. Read everything else.
  • Group Two: Read pages 12 to 14 about Success Criteria from the “AfL Guidance for KS 1-2 - 2007” .pdf document.

Both groups: Identify points (from your group's pages) that are new (i.e. have not been discussed during the session). Prepare a presentation about these points for the benefit of the other group members.

• Share with your class the Learning Objective and Success Criteria that you have formed in the session today. Record your experiences on the dictaphone and upload onto the server.

• Form Learning Objectives and Success Criteria for as many lessons as you can during this week. Refer to verbs in the Bloom’s Taxonomy mentioned in the VVOB handout ‘Questioning the questions’ (pages 3 to 6) for this. Make a note of your Learning Objectives and Success Criteria for discussion in the next session.

• Try out one or more of the adapted activities for AfL that we discussed today in Activity Five. Record your experiences on the dictaphone and upload onto the server.

Reference

Some parts of this session have been adapted or reproduced from: CCEA: Afl Guidance KS 1-2 – 2007, with the kind permission of the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment.