This document discusses effective use of learning objectives and success criteria when planning lessons. It defines learning objectives as what students will learn and success criteria as how students will demonstrate their learning. It provides tips for writing clear, specific objectives and criteria, such as separating the learning from the context, using verbs that describe the learning rather than just the task, and avoiding simply repeating the objective in the criteria. The document also discusses common pitfalls to avoid and gives examples of well-written objectives and criteria for both literacy and maths lessons.

1. Effective use of learning
objectives and success criteria
Planning for learning

2. Aims of the morning
• To identify effective ways of planning and
sharing learning objectives with children.
• To determine success criteria and consider how
these might to be used to strengthen learning.

3. Definitions
Learning objective
What students will learn
(lesson aim, lesson objective, learning goal,
teaching objective, learning intentions, WALT)
Success Criteria
How students will demonstrate their learning
(learning outcome, evidence, expected learning
outcomes, criteria for achievement, lesson
outcomes, WILF)

4. Effective use of learning objectives
and success criteria
Tip 1: Be clear about the distinction between
learning objectives and success criteria
• Learning objective: the ‘end’ or the ‘goal’
• Success criteria:
• 1) The learning strategies or the ‘means’
• 2) The evidence of the success, or the ‘product’

5. Task
• With a partner categorise the
statements into learning objectives or
success criteria
Learning objectives:
1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11,12
Success criteria:
2, 6, 8,10

6. A word of warning...
A common pitfall in the sharing of
learning objectives is to identify what
students are going to do, rather than
what they are going to learn.

7. What makes a good learning objective?
Tip 2: Make sure that the objective describes the
learning and not the task
For example:
• We are learning to analyse... (knowledge)
• We are learning to describe... (knowledge)
• We are learning to assemble … (skills)
• We are learning to challenge… (attitudes)
• We are learning to characterise…(attitudes)

8. Review of planning
• Review a selection of objectives below and sort
into two columns: maintain and change
• Compare with other groups.

9. Effective use of learning objectives
and success criteria
Tip 3: Separate the learning objective from the context
• Examples:
▫ We are learning to recognise how our lungs work
becomes:
 LO: We are learning to recognise how the body takes in
oxygen and removes carbon dioxide
 Context: How the lungs work
▫ We are learning to paint the sea becomes:
 LO: We are learning to employ colours to create an
effective painting
 Context: The sea

10. Break

11. Stems for writing success criteria
What is the evidence that will demonstrate that the
students have achieved the objectives? This can be
accomplished by using stems such as:
 What I am looking for is ……
 What I expect from every one is……
 To be successful you ………
 Remember to……
Or by clarifying what is expected through the use of
questioning:
 To produce a good …….what do you need to
do?
 How will you make sure that….?
 What do we already know that would help
….?

12. Differences in literacy and maths
success criteria
Recipe analogy - “making a cake”
• Literacy – the ingredients that need to go into
the cake
• Maths – the method used to make the cake

13. Literacy = Ingredients
Learning
objective
We are learning to …
Write a story starter
What will you need to do to achieve this?
Success
criteria
Remember to :
 describe the setting
 describe the characters
 explain the problem
 use powerful adjectives

14. Maths = method
Learning
objective
We are learning to …
use a number line to divide (whole numbers without
remainders)
What will you need to do to achieve this?
Success
criteria
Remember to:
Draw a number line
 Start from 0 and jump in steps of the number
you are dividing by
 Stop jumping when you reach the target
number
 Count how many jumps you did

15. Effective use of learning objectives
and success criteria
Tip 5...but avoid simply repeating the learning
objective in the success criteria
• Poor example:
▫ LO: To know what an angle is
▫ SC: We can recognise an angle
▫ Task: re-write this success criteria

16. Golden Rules
 WALTs: few in number / not too long
 WALTs: Precise and be about what is being
learnt!
 Both: Written from a pupil’s perspective in
language that pupils can understand
 Differentiated where possible: Bloom’s
taxonomy
 used to plan learning activities
 Referred to explicitly in the plenary

17. • Focuses on a specific aspect of learning and does
not just describe an activity
• Includes an specific verb other than ‘to know….’
or ‘to understand….’
• Is accessible and understood by the learners
• Is precise and concise
• It is measurable – this is really important!