Are Literacy key skills more embedded if children formulate their own success criteria?

This study aimed to explore whether children had a greater desire to include their success criteria, in their writing, if they had constructed the ideas themselves. In order to trial its effectiveness, a focus groups were selected from Years 4, 5 and 6. These children were all working at the expected standard for their year group, in the hope that the project would support them to work at greater depth- by the end of the research period. Result showed that 20% of the children moved from working at the expected standard, to working at greater depth. However, the levels of pupil engagement and embellishment of skills showed that learners produced work of a higher quality, embedding their formulated elements into their writing independently; whether they remained working at the expected level or if they moved to working above. This impact highlighted the importance of children taking ownership over their writing and how engaging children in the planning process allows for the children to
be active learners.