Separate Intention from Task
The learning intention is what to learn, not what to do. Finishing the task is not the same as achieving the learning. Keep them distinct in your planning and in what you say to students at every stage of the lesson.
The strategy, as published
Exactly as it appears on the card
Part of Clarify Learning Intentions in 02 Formative Assessment, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.
Why you might use it
The problem it may help with
A class can finish every task you set and still miss the learning the tasks were built to serve. The intention is what to learn; the task is the vehicle. When the two blur, pupils judge success by completion, and in the rush of a lesson, so can the teacher.
Keeping them distinct changes small, practical things: how you introduce the work, what you praise while pupils are doing it, and what you actually check at the end.
What it might look like
One version of it, in a classroom
In history, the task is a paragraph on the causes of the First World War; the intention is to understand how long term tensions and short term triggers interact. The teacher frames the paragraph as one way of showing that understanding, and the end-of-lesson check asks about the interaction, not whether the paragraph got finished.
Try it
A way to begin
In your next plan, write the intention and the task on separate lines. If you cannot state the intention without describing the task, that is worth a second look before the lesson.
What to notice
Reading what happens
- What pupils say when asked what they are learning. 'A poster' is a task answer; the idea behind the poster is the learning answer.
- Whether your own checks at the end of the lesson assess the learning or the completion.
Things to think about
Before and while you use it
- The card asks for the separation at every stage, in planning and in what you say to pupils. It is easiest to hold at the start of a lesson and easiest to lose in the middle of a busy one.
The wider thinking
Where the evidence sits
Clarifying learning intentions is the first of Wiliam's formative assessment strands: the answer to where the learner is going has to be about the learning, not the activity. The card’s attribution stands as published: Wiliam.
The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Formative Assessment.
Keep exploring
Where next?
Back to this strategy in 02 Formative Assessment, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.
Want to take this further?
Support is available
Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.