Sutton
Teachers had already established learning intentions and sometimes co-constructed success criteria with the children, agreeing that it was more meaningful for them. One teacher took very long learning intentions and co-constructed a shorter one together for them to write in their books. This saved time and the children felt they had ownership over the lesson. It also made it easier to reference back to.
Sharing and analysing examples of good ones helped show the success criteria and show children it’s achievable as the example is form a child in a previous year.
Focusing on the priority success criteria reduced anxiety and helped children to focus.
English Y6: In lesson one we look at a previous example, analyse and dissect as a class and create a list of all the features that text type requires. We then discuss the Y6 SAT requirements, such as colons, semi-colons etc. Where before children were given all the Y6 skills and text features, this often led to cognitive overload. Children now pick 3 text type features and 3 Y6 skills and write these as personalised success criteria. This has helped them overcome ‘fear of blank page’, encouraging them to focus on manageable chunks. They then underline examples in their text creating self-assessment opportunities. Children are now confident to write and have made incredible progress, especially those with SEMH needs.
Kim