Year 1 to Year 6 and Beyond;

“I Can” Writing Descriptors

Year 1 to Year 6 and beyond;

Supporting the 2014 National Curriculum

EdisonLearning’s Precision Pedagogy

Based on research into current approaches in UK schools that have had proven impact on pupil progress

How to use my targets

These targets will help you to see just how much progress you are making in Writing. It is your target book, and you will use it all the way through school from Year 1 to Year 6.

There are lots of targets in this book. Each target is something that it will be really useful for you to learn. There are two types of target. These are the Foundational Targets and the Conceptual Targets. The reason for sorting them out this way is explained below:

You do not have to achieve all the targets in order! The numbering of the targets is to help your teacher plan for your learning, and you will learn in a different order to the target numbers. This is normal.

Foundational Targets

These targets are ones that you need to be fluent in. This means you can do them accurately and quickly. When you are fluent, your learning in more difficult tasks will become a lot easier. To achieve the target you need to be able to show two things.

1.  You are accurate – which means making no mistakes

2.  You are quick - which means in answering in one or two seconds.

When you are accurate and quick, you are really fluent. Well done!

Conceptual Targets

These targets are linked to learning about slightly more complicated ideas. They might need a bit of explanation, or the idea might need you to use some of your foundational knowledge to work out an answer and show your thinking. There are three stages to showing that you can do each Conceptual Target.

1.  You need a little bit of support (from your teacher or a classmate for example) to be able to show you understand

2.  You can accurately show your understanding without any help from someone else

3.  You understand it so well that you can explain how to do it to someone else in your class, and maybe support their learning.

Frequently Asked Questions

How will I use my Target Book?

You will work with your teacher and classmates. When you are doing a piece of work that can be assessed against a target your teacher will tell you. You will decide if you have achieved the target. Your classmates, or an adult in the class, might help you decide if you have met the target. Once you have decided that you have achieved the target, you will mark it off. If you’re not sure what to do, you can ask a classmate or you can ask your teacher.

How often will I use my Target Book?

Your Target Book is for you to keep a record of your progress. You will use it regularly. As you use it more often, you will begin to decide when to use the booklet for yourself. To start with, your teacher or another adult working with you might tell you that you need to have your booklet out.

By Year 5 and Year 6 you should be able to make decisions for yourself about your learning and assessing your learning. You will most probably realise you are doing something you can assess when the learning objective is shared with you in a lesson.

Who will look at my Target Book?

The book is for you. You are the main person who will look at it. Hopefully you will look at the book and decide on things you need to do to improve your learning. Your teacher is always able to help you decide on what target you need to work towards, but all the evidence shows that when you make that decision for yourself your learning improves more quickly.

Your teacher will look at your Target Book and the books of other children in your class. This will be to help make decisions about how to teach certain lessons, and to make sure the lesson is challenging enough to help you learn, but not so challenging or so easy that you can’t make progress.

You might show this book to your parents at a Termly Learning Conference, and use it to help your parents understand how much progress you have made and what your next targets are.

Where do the targets come from?

The targets are linked to the National Curriculum. This is the document that tells schools what must be taught, and which year group it is expected to be taught in. The Government publish the National Curriculum, and most schools in England have to follow the National Curriculum.

The National Curriculum has been written by teachers, headteachers and education experts who understand learning in each subject. It helps teachers decide on the best order to teach you the skills, knowledge and understanding that you will need as you get older.

What happens if I get stuck?

First of all, don’t worry. Getting stuck is a normal part of learning. It shows that you are learning something new, and that you need to put in a bit of effort to succeed. If you are prepared to put that effort in, then you will make progress. Your teacher will help you, and will give you different ways of learning to make sure you succeed. You can also talk to other people who have already achieved a target. They might be in your class, or they might be in a different year group. Don’t be afraid to ask – help is always at hand! If you do not get stuck, the learning is probably too easy.

Curriculum Codes

You will notice that each target has a code next to it, like this example below:

Use this table to help you understand the curriculum codes.