Learning Intentions & Success Criteria...and 6 weeks to go

Perhaps, it's a little too late for this but Learning Intentions & Success Criteria are the new buzz words in my school. Not that it wasn't there before. Teachers have different approaches to when it comes to conveying Learning Intentions to students.

I remember my first year teaching in Australia, I was introduced to the WALT, WILF and TIB. It was the first time I had heard of it and I had been teaching for about 9 years! I loved the WALT, WILF and TIB and when I found these signs by the delightful Mrs Pancake, I made sure I used it in the classroom.

Aren't they cute? Last year, I came across this post on Jen's blog, Runde's Room. (Runde's Room was one of the first blogs that I chanced upon whilst surfing and I have to say she is such an inspiration. I'm just in awe of her...but I digress) Anyway, I really liked the idea of displaying Learning Goals and I really LOVED how she had created posters for all of the learning goals based on the curriculum. So before the 2014 school year began in Australia, I set about creating a set of posters based on the Australian Curriculum.

I got as far as doing the Numeracy, Science and History posters for Year 3 and 4. The intention was to create more as the curriculum year progressed. I was also meant to set up a display board...and I tried...and then I got side-tracked and I never got to creating the board...until about 2 weeks ago with about 8 weeks of school left. (Yes, I know but better late than never, right?)

In a Thursday afternoon PD, my principal was talking about Learning Intentions and Success Criteria and set us a task to try it out in our own classrooms. We had been using I CAN statements in the classroom, but I probably didn't really talk a lot about success criteria with my students. With the help of my Canadian sub-teacher/friend, I finally set up a Learning Intentions board. I used half of my whiteboard and this is what it looks like.

The board is titled OUR LEARNING GOALS & SUCCESS CRITERIA

This is still a 'prototype'. I only have space for Numeracy, Reading & Writing.
I would have to think about smaller signage I think.

The students and I developed the success criteria and I quite liked the idea of how I didn't
have to come up with the success criteria. By asking the students, what they think they would need to show to achieve success, it got them thinking as well and that way they are taking responsibility for their learning.

I'm quite happy with my first attempt at this board. I'm not sure if I would create more posters to display the learning goals, it just seems a lot easier at the moment to write up the goals and criteria but I might change my mind for next year.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions as to how I can make this better? I would like feedback, especially if you have something similar in your classroom.

5 weeks to go, I'm in the process of testing and doing reports at the moment. Not long to go now.