Sample Learning Activities from Our Course
Formative Assessment Insights is a 5-month digital learning experience designed to deepen teachers’ capacity to actively use formative assessment practices in their instruction. This course offers convenient, relevant and engaging content and peer interactions over a long-enough period of time to allow for new instructional practices to be applied and refined. Teacher participants will develop a foundational understanding of formative assessment and gain deeper learning from applied experiences in their classrooms and the sharing those experiences with colleagues. For more information, see the Course Overview.
The following three examples of learning activities from an early module in the course convey some of what to expect: a narrated presentation, an interactive video and a small group discussion. Feel free to try them out!
1. View Narrated Presentation
Watch this short explanation to better understand the role of Learning Goals and Success Criteria in the Feedback Loop.
2. Watch & Interact with Video: Zaption Tour
Let’s take a look at this foundational practice in formative assessment – creating and sharing Learning Goals and Success Criteria. During this edited clip, a middle school English teacher is working with students as they develop their persuasive essay. During this clip the teacher conducts a whole-class lesson that is designed to help students understand:
- that they are building on their foundational structure to strengthen a persuasive essay (the Learning Goal); and
- how they will know that they are successful in strengthening their writing (the Success Criteria).
Teaching Students to Examine Craft Moves
3. Share Your Insights
In the previous video the Success Criteria were developed by students through their analysis of an exemplar text, peer discussion, and finally, creation of their list of criteria that would be used to demonstrate their learning. Through this process students come to understand and internalize the Success Criteria, and apply these criteria to their reading. The process of co-constructing Success Criteria is help students to understand how they will demonstrate what they are learning.
Writing clear Learning Goals and Success Criteria is a foundational skill for crafting effective formative assessment lessons. As teachers begin this work they often wonder what the difference is between Learning Goals and Success Criteria or, how to differentiate between Success Criteria and learning tasks. As these terms will be used throughout the online course, it’s important to establish a common definition of each of these terms and to clarify when each is used.
To understand our definitions of Learning Goals and Success Criteria, and see examples of each, please launch NowComment and read/discuss Writing Tips for Learning Goals and Success Criteria.
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