In the past two blogs I have discussed Standards Mastery and what that looks like in a rubric when paired with components of a Thinking Classroom. Today, let’s look at learning intentions and success criteria and how they work with my rubric for regrouping.

First, let’s start with some definitions. A learning intention is the same as a learning goal, learning outcomes or objectives. It is not a learning experience. The learning intention is based on the core curriculum standards and objects, and it is the content that can be taught in a few lessons. The language used to describe the learning intention is student friendly language. Success criteria define proficiency in clear and explicit, student friendly language, sometimes with examples and nonexamples of what students need to demonstrate for proficiency. It is the description of what the final product produced by students needs to look like to be considered proficient. The success criteria provide the framework for the learning experience for students.

Why is this important? Well, for a few reasons. The most important reason is that learning intentions and success criteria make learning visible for both the students and the teacher. Students and teachers can compare students’ work to the success criteria for immediate feedback on how they are progressing in their learning. Another reason is that learning intentions and success criteria can make learning accessible for all students. When levels of proficiency are created, for example, basic, intermediate, advanced, and students are provided with examples of what that looks like, students are able to better gauge their level of understanding. From there, students can make adjustments to their learning to meet a specific success criterial level, and teachers can see which students require more support and in what specific context. This applies to students at all levels, including those with learning disabilities to those who need more of a challenge.

Now, there is a lot of overlap between Standards Mastery, Thinking Classroom, learning intentions and success criteria. I try to think of this as the learning intention is the information provided at the beginning of a lesson to tell students what they are working on, and the success criteria are provided as examples of the expectations for students’ work. Standards Mastery and components of the Thinking Classroom define what standards, objectives, and skills students are working on and what proficiency looks like at different levels (basic, intermediate, advanced). However, the problems used in the rubric to describe proficiency at each level (Thinking Classroom) are also success criteria because they set the expectation for students’ proficiency at each level.

The math rubric describes five different skills or objectives students need to learn. It also describes three different levels of proficiency students can achieve, and it provides a problem that students must solve to demonstrate proficiency.

So why is this important for tutoring (and teaching)? It is important for students to know what they are working towards, what the goal is and what it looks like. Learning intentions and success criteria clarify this for them. When learning intentions and success criteria are paired with an informative rubric, students and teachers receive meaningful feedback on progress towards students’ proficiency.

Let’s take a look at how learning intentions and success criteria work with my regrouping rubric.

This section of the rubric focuses on foundational skills. It has elements of Standards Mastery in the list on the left of standards and objectives in student friendly language. It has elements of the Thinking Classroom in the three levels of proficiency and the expected problems students need to solve to demonstrate proficiency for a particular skill at a particular level. (See image below.) As I mentioned above, these problems that define proficiency for each core curriculum standard and objective, are also success criteria.

In order to add learning intentions and further define success criteria, I would add another layer at the beginning of each lesson that would include what the goal of the lesson is and what that looks like. If students are working on understanding that a number can be identified in different ways as defined by the core curriculum in the rubric, then the learning intention I share with my students will include understanding how to represent numbers in different ways: by their 100s, 10s, and 1s, and by the sum of two or more numbers. I would also use “I” statements to define both the learning intention and the success criteria and provide examples of what that looks like.

Learning Intention, Basic: I understand that a number is composed of 100s, 10s and 1s.
Success Criteria, Basic: I can represent a number by its place value by breaking down a number into its expanded form of 100s, 10s and 1s.
Examples:
- 132 is the same as or equal to 100 + 30 + 2 (possible verbal response)
- 132 = 100 + 30 + 2
- 132 = 10 tens + 3 tens + 2 ones

Learning Intention, Intermediate and Advanced: I understand that a number can be represented in different ways. This includes by place value, by the sum of two numbers or by its relationship to other numbers.
Success Criteria, Intermediate: I can represent a number by its place value and the sum of two numbers.
Examples:
- 132 = 100 + 30 + 2
- 132 = 13 tens + 2 ones
- 132 = 80 + 52
Success Criteria, Advanced: I can represent a number by its place value, the sum of two numbers and its relationship to other numbers.
Examples:
- 132 = 100 + 32 or 13 tens and 2 ones
- 132 = 80 + 52
- 132 is 50 more than 82 but 68 less than 200

As you can see, the rubric defines the skill and the expectation of what students can do at different levels. The learning intentions and success criteria define the lesson expectations for the students.

Example:

In this lesson, we are going to work on representing numbers in different, unique ways to develop flexible thinking around breaking down numbers into parts (learning intention).
Some example problems may include

100 + 20 + 7 = 127
15 tens + 6 ones = 156

Some problems I may solve with students to further demonstrate what proficiency is

233 = _______ tens + _____ ones
What are two numbers when added make the sum of 233
What number is 50 more than 233
233 and 100 more are what number

Learning intentions and success criteria provide the practical applications of the standards, objectives and specific skills that are in the rubric. Skills students need to learn. They are just another layer of providing more meaningful feedback for students and teachers on their progress.

If you have questions or comments, please share.

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