Teacher Clarity: Setting Objectives

Effect Size: 0.75

Making Learning Visible to communicate and empower students!

Definition

When teachers are clear in the expectations and instruction, students learn more. Fendick (1990) defined teacher clarity as " a measure of the clarity of communication between teachers and students in both directions."

A major part of teacher clarity is understanding what students need to learn (standards) and identifying how they will know that they learned it. This requires the teacher to develop clearly articulated learning intentions and success criteria.

Students should be able to answer and ask these questions of each lesson:

  • What am I learning today?

  • Why am I learning this?

  • How will I know that I have learned it?

(Fisher, Frey & Hattie (2016) Visible Learning for Literacy. Corwin.

Equity issue: "Students deserve to know what they need to be learning!"

~Doug Fisher

Aspects of Clarity

  • Clarity of organization

  • Clarity of explanation

  • Clarity of examples and guided practice

  • Clarity of assessment of student learning

Steps to Gain Clarity

  • Analyze standards to develop learning intentions and success criteria (Effect size= 0.54)

  • Learning intentions should be communicated in ways that are developmentally appropriate.

  • Plan meaningful instruction and assessments focused on the impact

  • Plan to clarify your expectations which impacts student learning.

  • Be selective in discerning publisher and teacher-created curricula - they are not the standards themselves, but rather, just materials. Not all will be worthy of your work!

  • Teacher collaboration is vital for improving teacher clarity.


Dr. Dylan Wiliam discusses the proper role of learning intentions.


Grade 4 ELA Example:

(Partial example)

Standard RI4.2 : Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.

Learning Intentions:

1. I am learning how to define the concept of main idea.

2. I am learning how to locate several ideas and details presented in a text.

Success Criteria:

1. I can list the characteristics of a main idea.

2. I can independently read an informational text and underline key ideas and details.


What are Learning Intentions?

  • They are more than a standard. They are based on the standard, but are chunked into learning bites.

  • They must be understood and accepted by students to be efffective.

  • The learning intentions should drive the lesson and student expectations. The teacher references it throughout as the lesson transitions.

  • It should lead to the success criteria.

What is Success Criteria?

  • Directly links to the learning intentions.

  • It describes how students will be expected to demonstrate their learning, based on the learning intention.

  • Clarity is important! This allows for errors to become more obvious. Can celebrate errors with feedback to promote clarity.

  • Involves the use of rubrics and checklists so students can be involved in assessing their own success.

When to Use

  • Anytime and everytime you plan to engage students in learning!

  • It begins with your learning objectives for each lesson.



Benefits

  • When teachers are clear with standard expectations, the evidence is effectiveness of learning intentions and success criteria.

  • When students know what success looks like, they are more likely to plan and predict, set goals, and acquire a stronger sense of how to judge their own progress.

  • Success criteria lets students in on the secret that has been kept from them- what the destination looks like and provides a map on how to get there.

DOK Level: 2 understanding

Questions for TBT Conversations:

  • Do any of our learning intentions focus more on tasks than expectations for learning?

  • What language should we use so our students understand the learning intentions?

  • How do we define success and the appropriate level of learning for this grade level?

  • How will we respond if students meet the success criteria in advance of our teaching?

  • What assessments and checks for understanding are we already using that we can continue to use? What new tools do we need to explore?

  • How can we ensure that our assessments provide feedback to us about the impact of our teaching?

  • What will we do if students do not master the standards?






Grade 5 Math Success Criteria Examples:

  • I can draw & model to explain how a digit’s position affects its value. (Place Value)

  • I can represent each problem using models (manipulatives). ( word problems)

  • I can explain how I arrived at my answer. (word problems)

Resources

  • The Teacher Clarity Playbook by Fisher and Frey