Sharing criteria in Helensburgh and Lomond Pre-school Group
Focus and context
Assessment FOR Learning
- Our classroom assessment involves high quality interactions, based on thoughtful questions, careful listening and reflective responses.
- Our pupils, staff and parents are clear about what is to be learned and what success would be like.
Project summary
The group consisted of five pre-school centres in Argyll and Bute (local authority, independent, voluntary and private) in the Helensburgh co-operative area (Kilcreggan Primary Pre-5 Unit, Lomond School Nursery, Cardross Church Playgroup, Kidlywinks Nursery, John Logie Baird Primary pre-5 Unit).
The group wanted to build on previous developments in assessment practice in the authority. The aims were to identify and use appropriate formative assessment strategies to develop staff interaction with children and support the personal learning planning process. They also wanted to establish a shared language of assessment across the authority.
Case study extract
The main aspects we felt needed to be developed were:
- the sharing of learning intentions and success criteria with children
- encouraging children to self-assess and reflect on their own learning
- enabling children to be more involved in the planning and direction of their learning and setting goals or targets for learning.
The main element of this strategy was the development of a daily routine that allowed time to include aspects of assessment that we wanted to embed in daily practice. The day was split into approximately four sections: the welcome, planning/small-group time, doing time and review time.
- The planning time of the day was to give staff time to share the learning intentions and success criteria for the day or specific activities and involve the children in making their own ‘visual plan’ for the day.
- The doing time was child-initiated play with adult support and scaffolding of learning.
- The review time was time for the children to come together as a group and reflect on the day’s events and learning, and plan for future activities.
As much of pre-school education is delivered through the medium of self-directed play with adult support to scaffold the learning, staff have had to translate their learning outcomes as stated on their forward plans into child-friendly versions. The Group identified that this was difficult and put together examples of learning intentions to share with the children for each aspect of the curriculum.
We also discovered that to ensure really focused skills development and learning, it was often more effective to have a set of weekly or fortnightly learning intentions to reinforce continually and share with the children at planning time. This also supported the planning of appropriate play experiences within the playroom and helped to target adult interaction, support and observation.
Some of the Group members developed visual methods of displaying the learning intentions. Others used special characters, puppets or props to support the planning process. Some centres have found that as the children are becoming more involved in planning their learning they are beginning to take control and there are better examples of concentration and sustained interest. They are naturally extending themselves and are thinking more about what they are doing. The children have been really motivated by seeing their ideas put into action or set up in the playroom. In many cases the play is more meaningful and the learning deeper.
In the small group review situation the staff have found it easier, in the first instance, to focus on ‘what we have been doing and learning about today’ and encouraging children to take part in a group conversation. During the personal learning planning process we found it easier to use the children’s likes and dislikes as a starting point to initiate self-reflection and again depending on their experience some children have found this quite difficult. With the very young children staff have concentrated on ensuring that the children feel comfortable and secure in a one-to-one situation. They have focused on highlighting achievement and getting the children to talk about themselves, avoiding focus on the setting of targets or goals until the children are developmentally ready.
Staff member’s comment
‘It focuses the children’s play, allowing them to make and express choices and decisions. It also gives them the opportunity to reflect on what they have done and talk about it with others, which supports good language development.’
Points to consider
Learning intentions were shared with the children in a variety of ways appropriate for this age group, such as visual displays, using puppets and using props. What strategies would best suit you, your children and your circumstances?
This group translated learning outcomes on their own forward plans into child-friendly versions. Could you select an outcome from your own forward plan and try to put it into child-friendly language suitable for your children?
Group reviews with the children encouraged them to take part in a conversation about learning. Do you think this would work well with your group of children? How could you prompt them into talking about their learning?
The group did not talk with the children about setting targets or goals before they were developmentally ready. How would you introduce this to young children?
Date posted October 2006
Contact details
If you would like further information on this case study, please contact the local authority assessment co-ordinator. You can find contact details for each authority area on our local authority co-ordinators' contacts page.