Stepping Stones – or how More became Less
How you can create ‘stepping stones’ to make your literacy planning more focussed and your assessment smarter.
What are Stepping Stones?
They are a visual reference for a unit of work that clearly states in I Can statements or Can I questions the different processes involved in that unit of work. These statements provide a whole picture of the 2 or 3 week unit, as well as the detail of the lessons.
Many schools use these visually in the form of actual stepping stones across a river with the far bank as the final step and a frog that hops from each step to show the class’s progress. Visually there is no limit to how you display the stepping stones I have seen penguins cross the Artic, tigers leap from stone to stone and the Maths Monkey swing through the vines of maths. The important thing is the process of using the stepping stones and how they inform your teaching. Making the match between the Learning Intention and activity more direct and ongoing formative assessment more powerful.
Why use them?
Teachers often look puzzled when I suggest that by adding a stage to their planning they will ease their workload. Truthfully it does seem unlikely but being a mother of three I am very keen to work as ‘smart’ as possible! And be warned this approach may change your teaching as one teacher said, “Once I started planning by creating the stepping stones first what I had to teach became blindingly obvious. It has definitely changed how I teach.”
For children the stepping stones are very empowering they can tell us where they are on the journey, what they have learnt along the way and look forward to the next steps. Teachers say that different learners react well to the stepping stones because they fulfil the needs of some learners to see the big picture and for others they give the support of the whole picture broken down into easily understood chunks. More importantly children gain ownership of their learning (and your teaching) as they can self assess against each stepping stone which directly affects the pace and content of your teaching.
The New Framework Units causes us all a certain amount of anxiety when first approached. There seem to be so many bits and pieces. You ask yourself which should I prioritise, how do I cover them all? This article hopes to uncover a system to help you plan quickly using good Assessment for Learning techniques, which ensures that each child in your class is engaged in the process of learning throughout the Unit.
Outcome versus Process
The idea of Stepping Stones came from Shirley Clarke’s description of success criteria. She suggested that if we focus our success criteria on outcomes then children will focus on the outcome too, judging themselves by the finished piece and not by the skills and concepts they have mastered in the process. She suggests that process based success criteria create a focus throughout the learning and therefore allows success at different stages.
For example an outcome based success criteria may look like this
Learning Intention
We are learning to spell cvc words.
Success criteria
I can spell cvc words.
Whereas process based success criteria rely on a clarification of the process
Learning Intention
We are learning to spell cvc words.
Success criteria
I can listen carefully to the word.
I can hear the phonemes in the word.
I can say the phonemes in the word in the right order.
I can use a phoneme frame and write the 3 phonemes in the right order.
I can read back my word and check it makes sense.
As you can see using these process based success criteria each child, teacher or visitor to the class knows exactly what to do to spell a cvc word. If a child can only get to the second success criteria they know exactly what they need to work on next. Equally if a child has written the word but it doesn‘t make sense they can use the success criteria as a way to backtrack and see where they need to think carefully and try again. In this way the success criteria are not just a measure of success but as an outline of the learning journey.
Now think of your planning, this was my moment of revelation! Looking at the first success criteria I may have planned a lesson involving a test as the assessment as that is what the success criteria really requires. The process based criteria tell me what I am going to teach. Each step is clearly a teaching point that I can find different ways of exploring. Therefore my planning comes directly from the success criteria.
In one lesson I may end up only teaching the first three stages but I can show the children where they are going and where they have come from. It may be that we find out that all of us can hear the words and even hear the phonemes but we need to work saying the phonemes in the right order. My lesson has a clear focus we all can say what we can do and what we want to do next.
Success Criteria over a longer timescale
Although this works very well for focussed teaching and indeed I found that I developed a bank of generic process based success criteria that I then made specific to the teaching point. Imagine the same process for ccvc words. You would be right in thinking that this would be impossible to do for every lesson and indeed your teaching could become in danger of being all bits and no overview.
So the next logical step was to apply the process to a whole unit. I am going to be brave an attempt to do this for a unit I was familiar with in its old guise and try to show you how to make a 3-4 week unit into something manageable and friendly!
How to make Stepping Stones using the New Framework planning
Year 3 Unit 2 Non Fiction 3-4 weeks (http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframeworks/literacy/planning/Year3/Nonfiction/ )
1. Use the phases to direct your focus
I have colour coded the phases as I will use these to pull out the Framework Objectives and align them with a phase as much as possible.
Phase 1
Analyse varied instructional texts,
revise key organisational features
identify language conventions. ( It is here, as a class, we will generate the success criteria to be used later)
Phase 2
Children plan and orally rehearse instructional sequences.
They record a process and use this to draft instructional texts (exploration and oral modeling) contextualisation of instruction through cross curricular links.
Phase 3
The teacher demonstrates how to write (this is where the specific success previously generated become the self evaluation) an instructional text.
Children revise and finalise draft texts, evaluating their effectiveness as instructional sequences.
2. Link the framework objectives to the phases so you are sure of coverage.
6. Word structure and spelling
Spell unfamiliar words using known conventions including grapheme/phoneme correspondences and morphological rules. (This should be taught as part of the Unit e.g. connective language as well explicitly throughout and therefore may have own generic success criteria)
7. Understanding and interpreting texts
Identify how different texts are organised, including reference texts, magazines and leaflets, on paper and on screen.
9. Creating and shaping texts
Make decisions about form and purpose, identify success criteria and use them to evaluate their writing.
1. Speaking
Explain process or present information, ensuring that items are clearly sequenced, relevant details are included and accounts are ended effectively.
3. Group discussion and interaction
Use talk to organise roles and action.
Actively include and respond to all members of the group.
9. Creating and shaping texts
Select and use a range of technical and descriptive vocabulary.
Use layout, format, graphics, illustrations for different purposes.
10. Text structure and organisation
Signal sequence, place and time to give coherence.
11. Sentence structure and punctuation
Show relationships of time, reason and cause, through subordination and connectives.
Compose sentences using adjectives, verbs and nouns for precision, clarity and impact.
12. Presentation
Write with consistency in the size and proportion of letters and spacing within and between words, using the correct formation of handwriting joins.
Develop accuracy and speed when using keyboard skills to type, edit and re-draft.
3. Use the framework objectives and the phases together to create each step using I Can statements or Can I questions to start each step.
o Can I read a text and decide if it is fiction or non-fiction?
o Can I explore a non fiction text and understand what its purpose is – to explain, to instruct, to inform?
o Can I identify temporal connectives and understand what their job is?
o Can I identify imperative verbs and understand that they tell the reader what to do?
o Can I look closely at instructional texts and think about they way the information is orgainsed and how this helps the reader?
o Can I explore a variety of instructional texts and generate a class list of their key features?
Whilst I am doing this I hone down my steps and make sure I don’t repeat myself! I always use the correct grammatical terms where possible. Even Key Stage One children enjoy the experience of being language experts, who can identify key features of texts using the correct words.
o Can we organise our group so that everyone is involved and is listened to?
o Can we work in a group and decide which instructions to work on?
o Can we sequence the instructions orally using temporal language to help the listener know the order of the instructions?
o Can we practise our demonstration and check we are including the key features of an instruction?
o Can we demonstrate our instructions to the class? Can they follow them? How can we improve them?
In this case the speaking and listening will provide the context for the final written work. The Framework suggests that it be cross curricular. I do not mention the context of the instructions e.g. making a volcanoe, in my stepping stones.This is because we are focussing on the key features of instructions, group work, the adaption of the ‘text’ to its audience and the presentations effectiveness. We are not assessing the science involved in the volcanoe so it is not included. Generic statements make most sense because the children and you are then directed to focus on the skill or knowledge being explored.
o Can I create a title for my instruction that tells the reader clearly what they are going to do?
o Can I decide which information I will need to write my instructions?
o Can I choose how I am going to layout my instructions so they are easy to follow?
o Can I create a list of materials needed to carry out my instructions?
o Can I compose each instruction – remembering to: write in the present tense, use precise imperative verbs, carefully chosen adverbs and adjectives when more detail is needed, temporal connectives and clear direct language. (These are the success criteria created in Phase 1)
o Can I share my work with my critical buddy and check that we have written clear instructions that can be followed and have the key features written on our checklist?
o Can I respond to my critical buddy’s ideas and make a change to my instructions that will make it easier to follow?
o Can I present my final instructions in a form I think is suitable and say why I choose to present it that way?
The more explicit teaching at word level in the reading and writing phases comes from the Framework Objectives which I then match through to the progression document to make sure that each textual key feature is included (see the progressions document in the framework at: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframeworks/literacy/planning/Year3/Nonfiction/resources/)
Linking to planning and assessment
Now is the fun part you have your 3 or four weeks of work planned in that each stepping stone leads you firmly to an activity or series of activities. You should be aware that one stepping stone is not necessarily one lesson. Sometimes you really have to trash out the learning exploring it from many angles for the children to get it! That is where your Tiger, Penguin, Frog or Monkey comes in the children need to assess when they feel they have jumped to the next stepping stone and until they feel they have the symbolic marker of their progression stays put.
It can happen that some children want to make the leap and others are teetering at the edge or have just only got their toes onto a stepping stone. In many plenary or mid lesson breaks we have class discussions where we use exactly this type of language. It is amazing how exact children can be with their description of their learning when given a concrete way of describing it. This is where as a teacher you have to react and think about how to enable the less sure to become confident and allow the near leapers to explore this stepping stone at a deeper level.
This can mean a step such as ‘Can I identify temporal connectives and understand what their job is?’ will involve for some children the simple identification of temporal connectives and the understanding that they lead the reader through the sequences of an activity. Those children who feel they understand this can look further and collect temporal connectives from a range of instructions and then classify them by their precision, or the stage they represent, or by the exact job they do in the text. They can share this deeper understanding with the class and may actually help those children who have found this concept tricky.
How to Display them!
I am a great believer in living displays. I like final presentations of work to be celebrated but either as books, presentations or in the corridor wher everyone can enjoy them. My display boards in the classroom represent our journey.
The stepping stones are all shown from the beginning of the unit of work and discussed in depth right from the start. Any technical language is explored and added to the board as is any prior knowledge. The initial discussion often throws up where wobbles might occur, where confidences are, how children see the journey and how they might apply the stepping stones in other areas of the curriculum. We also discuss the context, the curriculumlink or texts we are using. I ask the children to identify what they hope to learn and what they are excited about.
As we progress we hop or leap from step to step and annotated lists, word banks, modelled writing, maps, collections of artifacts and other aide memoire litter our board.
And another thing…
Stepping Stones are great for literacy but I have seen teachers use them in history, maths, art and science with great effect. They are rather addictive.
Stepping Stones some key points
o Less is more - make sure that they are generic and do not repeat themselves.
o Be adventurous and precise with your language technical language can be accesed by all learners if explained and used correctly.
o Ask the children to choose the context for their stepping stones and make them visually exciting.
o Put your time and effort in at the beginning getting the stepping stones right and your planning will be simplified.
o Generic stepping stones have the advantage of being reuseable – they are there for next year too.
Bibliography
Enriching Feedback in the Primary Classroom – Shirley Clarke ISBN 0340872586
Standards Site – New Framework Planning and Progression Papers
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframeworks/?version=1
Charlotte Raby is a teacher and Educational Consultant and writer working with schools, educational institutions and the media.
