Newsletter – 13 November 2020

This week I will provide an overview of the High impact Teaching Strategy –  Setting Goals.

Effective teachers create and communicate clear lesson goals or learning intentions. This helps learners understand what they are learning. Success Criteria show learners what they need to do in order to be successful. Lesson goals or learning intentions should explain what the student needs to understand and be able to do. By clearly explaining the learning intention and success criteria at the start of each lesson, the learner can focus their learning. This also serves as an means to anchor knowledge and skills as they are stored in our memory.

Learning Intentions must provide a level of challenge and also be achievable for students of varied abilities and characteristics. During planning, teachers map out learning intentions for each lesson within a developmental sequence of learning. At the outset of each lesson, teachers explain the learning intention, which helps students use the goals to monitor their own learning and progress. Assessment tasks are then designed so students can demonstrate knowledge and skills related to these goals.

Some ways that you can support your child/ren to use Setting Goals in the home include:

*Make goals and success criteria clear when students do jobs or chores around the home. This can be as simple ‘I can clean and tidy my bedroom’ with success criteria including things like putting all Lego pieces in the Lego storage containers; toys in the toy-box; books on the shelves and; clothes in the wardrobe or drawers.

* Help your child to create stretch goals such as ‘I will read 20 pages of my home reading book’. (Be careful however that the goal isn’t too difficult – it still needs to be achievable so the child doesn’t lose confidence.)

* Ask your child to reflect on how they went with their goal and the success criteria after they finish a task. Are there any criteria they need to focus more strongly on in future.