Ready to Learn. Peg Grafwallner

a learning intention with success criteria that are interesting and engaging takes time, practice, and possibly a collaborative effort with both other teachers and students. In fact, your students can be your best gauge in determining if your success criteria are effective. As a group, do they show enthusiasm? Are they confused or lost? Are they bored?

      According to Michael McDowell (2018), “Often … success criteria [is] one set list for students to meet.” He goes on to say, “More often than not, students are unfamiliar with the material to be learned and are therefore unable to decipher the right sequence of success criteria to be met over time.” Therefore, the success criteria reflect a progression of skills that demonstrate complexity. When the student has mastered the first success criterion, that student moves on to the next one.

      In addition, while the success criteria for each learning intention apply to all student abilities, they provide a means for teachers to identify which students are struggling or excelling and for students to self-assess their own gaps in understanding or their success (Freibrun, 2019). This helps teachers differentiate instruction accordingly. Note that this is not just about checking off boxes, but a means to motivate students. Marine Freibrun (2019) cites Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Olivia Amador, and Joseph Assof (2019) on the value of success criteria on motivation: “Success criteria have been shown to increase students’ internal motivation. It provides students with clear, specific, and attainable goals that spark motivation. Even in some of the most reluctant learners (p. 20).”

      Once those gaps appear, the teacher and students can determine their next steps to help bridge that gap. Some of those next steps may include dedicated time for students to self-assess so they can “return periodically to particular rubrics to compare their work from earlier in the year to more recent efforts” (Fisher & Frey, 2018, p. 83), discussions among peers so learners can gather information about how their work compares to the work of their peers, or a conversation with the teacher to recognize the students’ missing connections or lack of understanding toward a success criterion. Therefore, scaffolded success criteria support students’ various ability levels, and valuable feedback conversations help students in their opportunity to self-assess and self-reflect.

      Using Learning Progressions

      When creating success criteria, teachers will find it worthwhile to apply learning progressions (Ainsworth & Viegut, 2015), the strategy of focusing on basic skills and then moving toward higher-order-thinking skills. According to Larry Ainsworth and Donald Viegut (2015), learning progressions are the building blocks of instruction that help students understand how to get to the goals of the larger units of study. Consider learning progressions the scaffolding techniques necessary to move from one step to another.

      As an example, if the larger unit of study in a ninth-grade ELA class is learning how to analyze, then students need to know how to break down a text. Therefore, to achieve that goal of analysis, the learning intention would be I can understand how to write an analytical essay. However, before students can write an essay, they need to learn how to write a thesis paragraph. This becomes the first step in the success criteria. The learning progressions toward this step would be the three basic skills necessary to write a thesis paragraph: (1) students brainstorm possible thesis statements, (2) students practice writing thesis statements, and (3) students share their thesis statements with their peers for feedback and revision.

      Each learning progression guides the student toward a success criterion, just as each success criterion guides the student toward the learning intention. The progressions also progressively activate higher-order-thinking skills in students. These particular English building blocks—brainstorming, writing practice, and feedback—can transfer to other content disciplines and easily transfer to real-world situations. In this example, each instructional building block is linked to the overall learning intention of students’ achieving mastery in analyzing text.

      As figure 1.1 (page 22) illustrates, success criteria help students see the learning progressions as they complete one step and move on to the next. This progression of skill demonstrates student knowledge and understanding. So if brainstorming thesis statements is the first building block of the success criteria, that basic skill is necessary to move toward the next skill.

      In this particular example, the teacher scaffolds the steps necessary for students to learn how to write an analytical paper. The teacher builds in supports to enhance learning and aid in the mastery of each task. He or she does this by systematically building on students’ experiences and knowledge as they are learning new skills.

Figure 1.1: Scaffolding success criteria—ELA example.

      Let’s consider another example—a ninth-grade physical education unit of study called lifetime sports. In this unit, students will learn about a variety of sports that people can play all through their lives with few (if any) adverse physical effects. One of those sports is badminton. Therefore, the learning intention in physical education is I can learn how to play badminton. Students will need to learn the basic skills or success criteria needed to play the game. First, students would need to learn the terms associated with badminton and what they mean. Next, students would need to learn the rules of the game and how to apply them. Finally, the students would need to stand on a badminton court, get a feel for the racket, practice their serve and swing, and eventually play the game. All these steps are the basic skills needed to play badminton. Therefore, a teacher might write the success criteria as follows.

      • Success criteria: I know I am successful because—

      1. I can define the terms of badminton

      2. I can define the rules of the game and apply them

      3. I can stand on a badminton court and practice my serve and my swing

      These learning progressions are the building blocks that make up the game of badminton, while the overall unit of study is lifetime sports. In this particular example, each building block of instruction is linked to the overall learning intention of students’ eventually achieving mastery in understanding how to play badminton (see figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2: Scaffolding success criteria—physical education example.

      When writing success criteria, list all the learning progressions, or scaffolded steps, so students see the beginning and the end. By seeing the breakdown of the guiding steps for each set of learning progressions, students can also see that their learning is a process, and, by accomplishing one step at a time, they will eventually meet and master the learning intention.