Abstract
In the chapter How To Establish Success Criteria Effectively, from our book How To Teach Writing, we delve into the critical instructional strategy of establishing success criteria to enhance the quality of children’s writing. At The Writing For Pleasure Centre, we challenge the notion that writing talent is an innate gift and instead advocate for making writing skills accessible to all children through clear, collaborative, and practical guidance. Success criteria, also known as product goals or craft moves, are vital tools in this endeavour, helping to demystify the writing process and set students up for success.
Effective success criteria are developed through joint efforts between teachers and students, grounded in the study and discussion of quality mentor texts [LINK]. This approach ensures that criteria are not merely imposed but are meaningful and contextually relevant, fostering a deeper understanding and engagement among students. Poorly constructed criteria can hinder children’s progress, often being too narrow, teacher-centric, or else disconnected from the actual writing process.
The chapter outlines best practices for establishing robust success criteria, emphasising the importance of specificity, inclusivity, and relevance. It illustrates the pitfalls of ineffective criteria and offers concrete examples and strategies for crafting useful and inspiring goals. By adopting these practices, teachers can significantly boost students’ writing confidence, independence, motivation, and sense of community, ultimately leading to improved writing outcomes.
Research and case studies highlight the substantial positive impact of well-implemented success criteria, underscoring their role in fostering an empowering and productive writing environment.
To find out more, download our book How To Teach Writing here.
