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![]() Teachers want our students to learn at high levels and don't want to waste our time with Professional Learning unless we know that we can "implement it tomorrow" and it will really work.
In "Visible Learning: The Sequel: A Synthesis of Over 2,100 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement," John Hattie defines "teacher clarity" as the ability of teachers to clearly communicate the learning intentions and success criteria to students. It is more complicated, however. This involves making sure that students understand what they are supposed to learn, why they are learning it, and what successful performance looks like. Teacher clarity includes the articulation of learning goals, the use of clear instructions, and providing feedback that helps students understand their progress and how to improve. This process has the potential to have an effect size of 85. This means that students can gain almost 2 years growth in one year's time. These are amazing results and I wanted to replicate this success in my classroom! The resources on these pages will help you get started.>>>>>>>>>> There are many layers to ensuring teacher clarity. Based on the research I conducted around 2 seminal authors, John Hattie and Robert Marzano, I chose to focus on Learning Intentions and Success Criteria. To get started, here are some considerations: 1. Define Learning Goals Together: Step: Start by clearly articulating the learning objectives for the lesson or unit. Discuss these goals with the students to ensure they understand what they are expected to learn. Implementation: Engage students in a discussion about the purpose of the lesson and its relevance to their overall learning. Encourage them to ask questions and express their understanding of the goals. 2. Develop Success Criteria Collaboratively: Step: Work with students to develop specific, measurable criteria that will indicate successful achievement of the learning goals. Implementation: Use examples of high-quality work (exemplars) to illustrate what success looks like. Have students identify key elements that make the work successful and use these elements to co-create a checklist or rubric. 3. Use Visuals and Tools to Support Understanding: Step: Utilize visual aids, graphic organizers, and digital tools to help students visualize the learning intentions and success criteria. Implementation: Display the learning intentions and success criteria prominently in the classroom. Use tools like Eduaide.ai, DiffIt or MagicSchool.ai to create rubrics, speaking and writing frames and charts that students can refer to throughout the lesson for scaffolding and support. 4. Assess and Adjust: Step: Continuously monitor students’ progress towards the learning goals and adjust the success criteria as needed based on student feedback and performance. Implementation: Regularly check in with students to assess their understanding and progress. Utilize peer assessment. Use formative assessments and student reflections to make necessary adjustments to the learning intentions and success criteria, ensuring they remain relevant and attainable. Standards In order to test my action research, I focused on writing standards in Social Studies as writing is an easy to measure, productive process. Click here for more details on standards addressed in my lessons. |