Intermediate Learning Goals and Success Criteria

Sharon decided to put her new learning about Learning Goals and Success Criteria into play with the last strand she was covering in this school year.  She made specific goals for each grade, but the Success Criteria remained the same.  The strand she was covering is Measurement.

Thank you so much for sharing, Sharon!

Learning Goals and Success Criteria - Lots of Samples

Over the last few weeks, many schools have been planning their math expectations for September.  Once they were in place, the teams then created their Learning Goals and Success Criteria for their first strand.  Here are some of the charts they came up with.

Primary Grade

Intermediate Grade

Grade 2

After seeing the Grade 2's Success Criteria, the Grade 3's wanted to add some key pieces to their chart.

Junior Example

Thanks to the teachers at Regent Heights and Wexford for letting me share their work.

Kindergarten Planning

The Kindergarten Team at Wexford had a planning day where they spent the morning working on Math and the afternoon working on Language.  It was the full team - Teachers and ECE's - which was great because everyone had some great ideas and suggestions as to what they wanted to see done in their next school year.

The team decided to follow the long range plans that they received at the last Kindergarten PLC.  They also wanted to plan their unit using the template that was shared with them for the Patterning and Algebra expectations.  They focused on planning around the Number Sense and Numeration expectations that "go along" with the specific Patterning expectations.

They started by creating their Learning Goals for the unit.  In this case they ended up being:  

* The number of things I count, is the number of things I say;
* I can choose where I want to start counting;
* When I count I always start at the number 1.

They then created a diagnostic/ending  assessment (which will be done orally) for the children to do.  But they didn't want it to seem out of context so they pulled in the book "Good Night Gorilla" to help them make the diagnostic a bit more "fun".  The discussion they had around it was really rich as it allowed them to predict what answers the children might give, but also discuss about what they would expect to see the children say and do at the end of the unit.  They also discussed what the prompt would be for students who need one (you can see it in the picture labelled with a "P").

Now that they had the beginning and the ending figured out, they then planned what they were going to do "in the middle" to help their children be successful at the end.  They discussed, debated, and deliberated possible activities - all keeping the expectations in mind to make sure they were not going too far off the rails.  They were able to pull in some more literature connections (Ten Black Dots, Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom,) and also discuss what they would do in both the large group and the small group settings.



Overall, it was a great morning - and the best part is, they are pretty well planned (math wise) until November!  Super work team!

Updating - Blogs I'm Following

Recently, I've been becoming a little more interested in the role of technology in our classrooms.  There is so much out there on the "information highway" that I feel like I don't know where to begin to get on.

A friend of mine shared with me a website that I've added to the "Blog's I'm Following" section of this blog.  It's called "Free Technology for Teachers" and has a ton of good websites and different types of technology that you can use with the students in your classroom. 

Well worth checking it out :)

Inspiring Post

A friend of mine shared this blog with me and I thought that the author's words were really inspiring.  Take a look at it and see if you feel the same way

http://plpnetwork.com/2011/06/13/this-summer-i-wont-be-learning-how-to-be-a-better-teacher/

Planning For The Next School Year - Primary

At Wexford they've just begun to do some planning for the 2011 and 2012 school year.  They took a very manageable and "do able" approach to planning.  Here is what they did:

1.  First, they had a discussion on which expectations to cover as a division and when.  They made sure to look for similarities between expectations, and also to look for expectations that can be enhanced if there is a specific expectation taught prior to the teaching of that one.

2.  Then they created a list of their Learning Goals and their Success Criteria for their first strand - Patterning and Algebra, Overall Expectation #1.

Grade 1 Learning Goals

Grade 1 - Success Criteria

Grade 2 - Learning Goals and Success Criteria

Grade 3 - Learning Goals and Success Criteria

3.  Once they had identified their Learning Goals and Success criteria, they turned to the achievement chart and their specific expectations to see what expectations lent themselves to each area of the achievement chart.  What was noticed is that some expectations show learning in both areas.  For example, "Making a pattern" demonstrates both knowledge of what a pattern is, but also shows application when being asked to make a pattern in a specific context (e.g., Josh looked at sea shells on the beach and noticed they made a repeating pattern.  What could the shell pattern have looked like?)

More Learning Goals and Success Criteria

Here is another way to get creative in how to display success criteria in your classroom. 

In Adrienne and Jennifer's Grade 2/3 and Grade 3 classes, they've decided to use a pocket chart to help them add and remove items they are looking for in an answer depending on the strand.