Accelerated Learning Cycle

Stage 2 - Agree learning Outcomes

Key Features:

• Make the content, skills and thinking explicit
• State clearly what the learners will have learned by the end of the lesson
• Share the criteria against which performance will be assessed
• Go one step further and encourage the learners to generate the learning outcomes.

Agree The Learning Outcomes - This is where effective lesson planning should begin. What will the students be able to do at the end of a lesson that they were not able to do at the beginning? At the heart of Assessment for Learning (one of the principles on which this model is based) is the need for clear and unambiguous Learning Outcomes. The word "Agree" in this stage implies there is a dialogue with the students in terms of unpacking or clarifying the learning outcomes and how to be successful in them. Learning outcomes should not be confused with activities i.e. they should be about what will be learnt in a lesson NOT about what you will be doing in a lesson. Learning outcomes should be audited, for example, against Bloom's Taxonomy.

'By the end of this lesson you will be able to give me 3 examples of sedimentary rock" - is clearly asking for recall - Knowledge. Whereas "By the end of this lesson you will be able to explain how Metamorphic rocks are formed" is asking for comprehension. And, "By the end of this lesson you will be able to compare and contrast the rock cycle to the water cycle" is asking for some analysis. Finally, learning outcomes should be displayed in a prominent part of the classroom and referred to throughout the lesson.

Source: http://www.teep.info/

At this stage it is also useful to agree what success will look, feel and sound like. Make the success criteria clear and where possible involve the learners in forumlating their own success criteria. This could be recorded on flip charts.