Success Criteria

Bill Blynt
Mar 29, 2010

Much has been written about the importance of high quality Lesson Essential Questions. We know that these questions are used to frame the lesson and serve as a means to gather evidence of learning. You need to design activities that will lead the student to an understanding of the content reflected in the answer to the essential question. At the conclusion of the lesson it is the student, not you, who must be able to answer the Lesson Essential Question.

In order to maximize learning, create an environment where students are active participants in the learning process. The series of activities developed must provide the student an opportunity to accumulate the necessary knowledge and experiences to be able to answer the Essential Question. It is your role to get students to actively engage in the learning experience that will enable them to move from a surface level of understanding to a deeper understanding of the new content. This deeper understanding will enable students to make connections to other key ideas or relevant prior knowledge. It is only when students can transfer this new knowledge and make quality connections that we can claim they truly understand. Only then will their answer to the Essential Question will reflect a deep understanding of the content.

Your goal should be to have all students actively engaged in learning activities that have been designed to assist them as they work to understand new material. We know that students differ in many ways. We understand that they require multiple opportunities and different experiences in order to learn. Critical to developing high quality activities is knowing what will be accepted as evidence of learning. In order to adequately monitor and influence learning, you must know the criteria they will accept as evidence of learning. The evidence should reside in the answer to the Lesson Essential Question. When planning a lesson, develop an answer to the lesson question that is clear, concise and establishes the criteria that will be acceptable for success. Although the type of response may differ, the critical components of the criteria must remain consistent for all students.

Once the criteria for success have been established, develop a series of activities that will engage all learners as they move toward understanding the new content. These activities will provide the student with the experiences and multiple exposures necessary that enables them to construct and reconstruct meaning. When you have a clear understanding of what you will accept as successful mastery of the content, you can more easily monitor student growth, provide quality and targeted feedback, and adjust your lessons as needed.

Although the Lesson Essential Question focuses the lesson, it is the activities you design and your ability to successfully engage your students in the activities that leads to successful learning. Developing the answer to the Lesson Essential Question prior to the lesson provides you with an anchor to compare individual student progress. Numerous research studies (Crooks, 1988: Wilburn & Felps, 1983) have shown that timely, targeted feedback can have a tremendous impact on student engagement and achievement. Feedback for individual students can then be based on the gap between current performance and the success criteria.

The aim of all schools is to make students active participants in the learning process. Your role is to assist students as they work to move their understanding of new material from a surface level to a deeper level of understanding connected to previously learned knowledge. What you get students to do in the classroom emerges as the strongest component leading to learning (Hattie, 2009). Lesson Essential Questions and the pre-established acceptable responses to these questions (success criteria) can assist you as you attempt to move your students through the learning process.