Strand: Energy and Control

Element: 

Design and innovation

Communicating

From the learning outcome above we devised the following learning intention:

• We will be able to design, make and test a functional electrical circuit

The following success criteria are shared or co-created with students:

The following success criteria were shared with the students:

• Conduct research in the school/home on where an LED lighting system is in place.

• Conduct secondary research online to consider possible solutions

• Design and draw a circuit diagram, labelling all elements. 

• Test using https://www.circuitlab.com/ 

• Produce a non-soldered prototype and test prior to assembly

Formative Feedback

Dylan Wiliam says of formative feedback, ‘‘What we need to do is to give students feedback that helps them move forward. Give them feedback that makes it clear that ability is incremental rather than fixed.’

What does quality feedback look like? 

Feedback includes telling students what they have done well and what they need to do to improve. It also includes reminding students of what they were aiming to achieve (the learning intentions). Finally, high quality feedback is always given against explicit and agreed criteria for success. (https://ncca.ie/media/1925/assessment-booklet-3_en.pdf)

Feedback in this example

In the example below, the teacher shares the learning intentions and success criteria with the students along with the design task. 

The teacher decides to use rubrics, as part of the learning management system in the school, in order to share these learning intentions. This gives students the opportunity to reflect easily and ongoing as they work through the design task. 

The student completes their first version of the solution and submits it to the teacher. The teacher, using the LMS, gives feedback and outlines where the student can improve on their work and returns this to the student. The student can now use this feedback to improve their response and submit an improved version. 

The feedback type used here is a ‘scaffold prompt’ (A scaffold prompt scaffolds the learning for students who need more support than a simple reminder). 

Other types of feedback would include: 

• A reminder prompt is most suitable for able students  eg ‘Say more about how the actions of this leader influenced future events’.

• An example prompt can be extremely successful with all students, but especially with less able students eg ‘Choose one of these or your own: “He is a good friend because he never says unkind things”, “He is a friend because he never tells lies.” https://ncca.ie/media/1925/assessment-booklet-3_en.pdf