Teacher Clarity: Setting Objectives

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.

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?