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Teacher clarity is one of the high yield practices for building assessment-capable learners (Frey, Hattie, Fisher 2018). Included in teacher clarity is communicating learning intentions and success criteria, which is also a focus of one of NCTM's eight effective mathematics teaching practices: Establish mathematics goals to focus learning (NCTM, 2014).

Although the importance of establishing and using learning goals is widely accepted, teachers across the nation share with me the need to improve their implementation of this practice. The following three guidelines are designed to support implementation:

1) Create lesson level learning goals with a balanced set of success criteria

A Learning Intention can be defined as the core mathematical concept students will understand by the end of the lesson. Success criteria are statements that allow the students and teachers to know what they will use as evidence for meeting the learning intention. Together, the learning intention and success criteria are often referred to as the learning goal or target.

Success criteria should include a balance of procedural and higher-level process skills that would provide evidence that a student is on track to meeting the learning intention.

Sample sentence starters for developing

procedural success criteria include:

I can identify . . .

I can solve . . .

I can distinguish between ___ and ___

I can define . . .

I can use ____ to . . .

Sample sentence starters for developing higher-level process success criteria include:

I can use a model to . . .

I can explain why . . .

I can design a . . .

I can construct an argument about . . .

I can provide evidence for . . .

Teachers indicate their learning goals too often focus only on procedural skills. As you develop and refine a learning intention and success criteria, the following questions can guide your process for creating a balanced learning goal.

Is the learning intention focused on the important mathematics concepts in the lesson rather than referring to activities or tasks students will complete?

Does at least one of the success criteria describe something students can do or explain how to do (procedural success criteria)?

Does at least one of the success criteria describe something students can justify, model or explain at a higher conceptual level? (higher-level process success criteria)?

Samples of Learning Goals with a balanced set of success criteria.
2) Establish and use routines to focus students' attention on the criteria while learning is underway.

Since success criteria are what both the teacher and students will use to determine the extent to which students are meeting the goal, pausing at key points mid-lesson provides a much-needed opportunity for students to summarize their learning to that point.

Routines can provide structure and purpose to revisiting the goal. Below is a list of examples of such routines:

Take Stock is used after the completion of a task or activity. Engage students in a discussion using the following series of questions.

1) "Who can describe for me what we've done so far with (this math

task)?"

2) "So in our success criteria, we said we would (read criteria to students). Can someone else describe what this means in their own

words?"

3) "In what way did this task help us work toward meeting the success

criteria?"

A Picture Tells a Thousand Words is used to highlight the difference between doing and learning. Post a picture of students engaged in a task with manipulative or other materials. Ask:

1) What were we doing?

2) What were we learning?

Feedback Focused Group Discourse is a way for teachers to provide whole-group feedback or feedback on selected student responses.

Create a feedback poster or anchor chart displayed in a place visible

to students with the following sentence prompts:

You are on track for meeting the learning goal because _________.

You haven't yet met the learning goal because _________.

A hint to revise your thinking is _________.

Showcase a student worked example and have students respond to the prompts in partners or small groups. Lead a whole group discussion to debrief. Close the feedback loop by having students revisit their own work.

3) Take appropriate responsive action based on evidence collected.

At any time in a lesson when you elicit and interpret evidence, there are a number of possible responsive actions, whether for an individual or for the whole class. The four most common are:

a. Provide formative feedback. When students show enough understanding or skill that some slight adjustments will allow them to meet the current goal, then provide formative feedback. One method for doing this might be to use the Feedback-Focused Group Discourse routine described above.

b. Provide further instruction. If the evidence suggests that there is a significant gap between a student's current learning status and the learning goal, the student is unlikely to make progress after receiving formative feedback. This may be because there is a significant barrier or misconception or because there are enough smaller issues that they collectively prevent students from moving on. In such a case, taking a step back to address the issues through further instruction is often an appropriate responsive action.

c. Gather more evidence. In many cases, when a student gives you a response, the information gathered may be inconclusive. You might have gained some insight into student thinking but not enough for you to determine which of the other responsive actions is most appropriate. In this case, you simply need to gather more evidence.

d. Move on. Most often, this is appropriate when your students are on track with where you expected them to be, with regard to meeting the goal. This may be after a task has been completed and you check in to see where students are with a particular success criterion; even if they haven't met the criterion completely, they might be far enough along that they are ready to continue to the next task in your lesson plan. This also may be at the end of a lesson, when you review the evidence of the entire lesson against the whole set of success criteria.

Following these guidelines can greatly improve student learning. Creating a balanced set of criteria focusing on important higher-level processes supports conceptual understanding of the core mathematics idea. Revisiting of the learning goal helps solidify its meaning for students, and can serve different purposes in moving students' learning forward. Asking "to what extent are my students meeting the learning target", helps determine an appropriate responsive action and differentiation needs.

References

Creighton, S.J., Rose Tobey, C., Karnowski, E., Fagan, E. (2015). Bringing Students into the Formative Assessment Equation: Tools and Resources for Math in the Middle Grades. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Frey, N., Hattie, J., Fisher, D., (2018). Developing Assessment- Capable Visible Learners, K-12. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Hattie, J., Fisher, D., Frey, N. (2017). Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Keeley, P. and Rose Tobey, C. (2011). Mathematics Formative Assessment Volume 1: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Keeley, P. and Rose Tobey, C. (2016). Mathematics Formative Assessment Volume 2: 50 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 2014. Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

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3 Guidelines for Mathematics Learning Goals | Corwin Connect

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Teacher clarity is one of the high yield practices for building assessment-capable learners (Frey, Hattie, Fisher 2018). Included in teacher clarity is communicating learning intentions and success criteria, which is also a focus of one of NCTM's eight effective mathematics teaching practices: Establish mathematics goals ...

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Posting Samples

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Teacher Clarity

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John Hattie Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

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Sharing Learning Intention and Success Criteria

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Strategy 1: Clarifying, Sharing, and Understanding Learning Intentions

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Early Childhood

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When learners can articulate what they are learning, why they are learning it, and how they know they will be successful, they possess clarity about their learning (see, Almarode & Vandas, 2018; Fisher, Frey, Amador, & Assof, 2018). Clarity in teaching and learning makes a significant impact on the learning growth for students in any classroom and also serves as a foundation for further learning. Based on Hattie's Visible Learning research (2009, 2012) and his quantification of the influences on learning, an effect size of 0.40 equates to one year's learning growth in one year's time. With an average effect size of 0.75, teacher clarity results in almost twice the average effect size of one year of formal schooling. What better place to have this high impact on our learners than the early childhood mathematics classroom.

What Is Clarity?

Hattie (2009) describes clarity as communicating the learning intentions and success criteria so that students can identify where they are going, how they are progressing, and where they will go next, thus providing students enough clarity to own their own learning. A learning intention describes what it is that we want our students to learn (effect size = 0.68). Success criteria specify the necessary evidence students will produce to show their progress toward the learning intention (effect size = 1.13).

But how do we effectively communicate clarity to our youngest learners when they cannot yet read and when they are working on a complex network of learning outcomes (e.g., social-emotional, psychomotor, behavioral, etc.)? This can be navigated by adapting the way teachers communicate clarity:

1. Use visuals alongside academic vocabulary in the context of learning. Have students articulate what they are learning and connect multiple representations with academic vocabulary.

2. Demonstrate the high-order thinking skills and processes by modeling (i.e., thinking aloud) the connections between what they are learning and why.

3. Explicitly teach meta-cognitive skills through questioning so that learners are guided to think about their own learning.

4. Finally, provide visual rubrics, checklists, exemplars, and models to support learners as they begin to monitor their learning progress and know what success looks like.

What This Looks Like

In Alisha Demchak's kindergarten class, students are learning to investigate and describe part-whole relationships for numbers up to 10 using multiple representations. As she introduces the learning intention and success criteria, Mrs. Demchak uses visuals alongside academic vocabulary, modelling of high-order thinking skills, questioning to teach meta-cognitive skills, and exemplars to support self-regulation.

Learning Intention: I am learning part-whole relationships with numbers.

Success Criteria:

1. I can identify the parts that make a number.

2. I can use the terms compose and decompose.

3. I can represent the parts of a number in different ways.

To support her young mathematicians, Mrs. Demchak provides visuals to accompany the success criterion:

Mrs. Demchak engages her students in high-order thinking to make sense of the learning intention and success criteria by facilitating their analysis of the anchor chart. "Looking at our work about the number 5, where do you see evidence that we can identify the parts that make a number?" (the first criterion). Students share their noticings of the ways 5 is broken into two parts on the rekenrek, ten-frame, cubes, domino, table, and equation. Students wonder if a number can be broken into more than two parts, posing their own mathematically rigorous and rich question.

Next, she thinks aloud to model ways to demonstrate the second criterion, "I remember from this example (pointing to the vocabulary terms and image) that compose means put together and decompose means break apart. In the table, we show a lot of ways to decompose 5 into two parts, like 2 and 3 or 1 and 4. On the ten-frame, we show both decomposing 5 into 3 and 2 and also composing by putting the 3 and 2 dots together to make one row of 5. We're wondering if 5 can be decomposed into more than two parts. What's another way you could describe our work using the terms compose and decompose?" Students practice using the academic vocabulary as they share their thinking.

Finally, Mrs. Demchak asks, "Were we successful representing parts of the number 5 in different ways? What evidence do you see?" (the third criterion). Students turn and talk with a partner to explain their thinking, pointing to the chart examples frequently. They extend the possibilities by sharing other manipulatives that could represent part-whole relationships. Mrs. Demchak's questions teach meta-cognitive skills while the anchor chart provides students with an example of what success looks like in order to support their self-monitoring.

Closing Remarks

Clarity about learning is not an opportunity to increase student learning only accessible to "older grade-levels." Instead, ensuring that we clearly organize instruction, explain content, provide examples and guided practice, and assess learning is paramount in our young learners. A key characteristic of a high-impact early childhood mathematics classroom is clarity that leads to learners taking ownership of their learning journey. What differs for our youngest learners is the way in which this clarity is communicated.

Interested in seeing more examples of effectively communicating clarity in early childhood classrooms? Check out Teaching Mathematics in the Visible Learning Classroom, K-2.
References
Almarode, J., & Vandas, K. (2018). Clarity for learning: Five essential practices that empower students and teachers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Fendick, F. (1990). The correlation between teacher clarity of communication and student achievement gain: A meta-analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Florida, Gainesville.

Fisher, D., Frey, N., Amador, O., & Assof, J. (2018). The teacher clarity playbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Hattie, J. A. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge.

Hattie, J. A. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on teachers. New York: Routledge.

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author: John Almarode and Kateri Thunder

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Creating Clarity in the Early Childhood Mathematics Classroom | Corwin Connect

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When learners can articulate what they are learning, why they are learning it, and how they know they will be successful, they possess clarity about their learning (see, Almarode & Vandas, 2018; Fisher, Frey, Amador, & Assof, 2018). Clarity in teaching and learning makes a ...

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Teacher-Teacher Visits

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What is a learning target and why is it important?

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What is a learning target and why is it important?

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Google Forms - create and analyze surveys, for free.

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From the lesson level

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From the standard level

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Learning Targets-The Power of Meaningful Sharing (1)

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Putting Next Steps in Action!

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Resources for Writing Learning Targets: from standard level