Learning intentions and success criteria
Enter a topic and year level. Get a learning intention and "I can" success criteria to copy. Free, no sign-in.
The difference in one line
The learning intention (LI) is the learning. The success criteria (SC) are the evidence. If your LI describes what students will do rather than what they will learn, it is an activity. If your SC can't be checked by a student looking at their own work, they are too vague.
WALT, WILF, TIB and ‘I can’
Many NZ schools use these prompts. Check which your school uses and stay consistent so students recognise them.
| Prompt | Stands for | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| WALT | We Are Learning To | States the learning intention | WALT add two-digit numbers by partitioning |
| WILF | What I'm Looking For | Lists the success criteria | You split each number into tens and ones, add the tens, add the ones, then combine |
| TIB | This Is Because | Gives the reason for the learning | TIB it helps us add in our heads quickly and check calculator answers |
| I can | Student-voiced criteria | Lets students self-assess | I can split 47 into 40 and 7 |
‘I can’ statements work well for self-assessment and for older students who find WALT childish. At secondary level, many teachers just write ‘Learning intention’ and ‘Success criteria’ on the board.
How to write a learning intention
- Start from the curriculum outcome or NCEA standard you are working towards.
- Pick the one thing this lesson will move forward. A unit has several LIs; a lesson usually has one.
- Use a verb that describes thinking or skill: explain, compare, use, identify, justify, describe, solve.
- Remove the context if you can. ‘Use evidence to support an opinion’ transfers to any text; ‘write about Hatchet’ doesn't.
- Read it aloud to check a student would understand it. Swap jargon for plain words.
How to write success criteria
- Make each criterion something a student can see in their work or hear in their talk.
- Keep to two to four for a lesson.
- Write in student language. ‘I use a capital letter at the start of each sentence’ beats ‘Demonstrates correct sentence-level punctuation’.
- Order them from basic to more complex, so students can see where to go next.
Process and product criteria
Process criteria describe the steps or strategies: ‘I find the key words in the question’. Product criteria describe features of the finished work: ‘My paragraph has a topic sentence, two pieces of evidence and a link back to my opinion’. Use process criteria when teaching a new skill and product criteria when students are producing something to be judged. Many lessons use a mix.
Examples by year level
| Level | Learning intention | Success criteria |
|---|---|---|
| Years 1–2 literacy | WALT write a sentence that makes sense | I start with a capital letter. I leave finger spaces. I end with a full stop. I read it back to check. |
| Years 4–6 maths | WALT find fractions of a set | I can share a set into equal groups. I can explain what the bottom number tells me. I can find 3/4 of 20 and show how. |
| Years 7–8 science | We are learning to plan a fair test | I change one variable. I keep the others the same. I say what I will measure and how. |
| Years 9–10 social studies | Explain how a decision affected different groups of people | I name at least two groups. I describe an effect on each. I use evidence from a source. |
| NCEA English | Analyse how a writer uses language features to create meaning | I identify a feature with a quote. I explain its effect. I link it to the writer's purpose. |
Co-constructing success criteria
Co-construction means students help build the criteria. It takes 10–15 minutes and works best for skills you will return to.
- Show two examples: one strong, one weaker. Use anonymous work or your own.
- Ask: what makes this one better? Record students' words on the board.
- Group similar ideas and turn them into ‘I can’ statements.
- Check them against your planned criteria and add anything essential they missed.
- Display them where students work and refer to them during feedback.
Using LIs and SC in the lesson
- Share them at the start, and come back to them partway through, not just at the end.
- Frame feedback with them: ‘You've done criteria one and two; show me where you've done three’.
- Ask students to self-assess or peer-assess against them before handing in.
- Use them in your reflection: which criteria did most students meet?
Common mistakes
- Describing the activity. ‘WALT make a poster about volcanoes’ names a task. Ask what the poster is meant to teach.
- Too many criteria. Six criteria on the board usually means the lesson is trying to teach too much.
- Criteria students can't check. ‘Write well’ or ‘use good vocabulary’ needs to be specific.
- Writing them and never mentioning them again. If they don't come up in feedback, students stop reading them.
- Same LI for a whole unit. Break the unit goal into lesson-sized steps.
Stuck for wording? The free learning intentions and success criteria tool gives you a draft LI and SC to edit for your class. To see how they sit inside a full plan, read how to write a practicum lesson plan.