How to Turn a Content Description into Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
A content description is not ready made lesson language. It may contain several concepts, forms of thinking and possible teaching steps. Turning it into a learning intention requires choosing a manageable focus while keeping the year level achievement standard and wider sequence in view.
The goal is not to simplify the curriculum until the important thinking disappears. It is to state clearly what students are learning now, what successful progress will look like, and what evidence will help the teacher decide what to do next.
Content description, learning intention and success criteria
| Tool | Purpose | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Content description | Identifies essential curriculum knowledge, understanding or skills to be taught. | Copying the complete statement onto a slide and calling it a lesson goal. |
| Learning intention | States the focused learning students are developing in this lesson or short sequence. | Writing an activity, such as “complete the shadow worksheet”. |
| Success criteria | Describe observable features that help students and teachers judge progress towards the intention. | Listing compliance steps, such as “use a ruler” and “write five sentences”. |
AERO’s learning objectives guide explains that learning objectives communicate the learning goal and that success criteria can make successful learning visible. Displaying them alone has little value. Students need explanation, examples, practice, feedback and opportunities to use the criteria.
Step 1: read the curriculum context
The worked example uses AC9S5U03, a national Year 5 Science content description about light, and ASSCIY5, the broader achievement standard.
ACARA’s planning guidance explains that content descriptions specify learning to be taught while achievement standards describe expected quality. Read both before deciding what one lesson should accomplish.
The machine readable Australian Curriculum records the national identifier and content involving light sources, straight line travel, shadows, reflection and refraction. Those related ideas require a sequence. This lesson will focus on straight line travel and shadow formation, not attempt to teach the entire description at once.
Step 2: unpack concepts and thinking
Underline the concepts, relationships and performance implied by the curriculum. Then note the prior knowledge and misconceptions that may affect the lesson.
| Feature | Planning interpretation |
|---|---|
| Concepts | Light source, path, object, screen, blocked light and shadow. |
| Relationship | A shadow forms where an opaque object prevents light from reaching a surface directly. |
| Thinking | Identify, predict, represent, test, compare and explain. |
| Prior knowledge | Students can identify common light sources and distinguish a source from an object that reflects light. |
| Likely misconception | Light bends around the object to fill the shadow, or the shadow is a material produced by the object. |
| Evidence needed | A prediction, ray diagram, observation and revised explanation in a new arrangement. |
This unpacking prevents the learning intention from becoming a paraphrase of the activity. It also identifies what the teacher should listen and look for during the lesson.
Step 3: write a focused learning intention
A strong intention names the learning and keeps it within reach of the lesson. It avoids vague verbs such as “understand” when a more visible form of thinking is available, but it also avoids reducing learning to a narrow procedure.
This intention is student friendly without abandoning the scientific model. It allows several activities to serve the same learning and gives the teacher a basis for choosing evidence.
Weaker versions and why they fail
- “We are learning about light” is too broad to guide the lesson or evidence.
- “We are completing a torch experiment” describes an activity rather than learning.
- “We are learning AC9S5U03” communicates a code, not a concept.
- “We are learning reflection, refraction, shadows and vision” overloads one lesson.
Step 4: write observable success criteria
Success criteria break the intention into features that can be noticed in student responses. They should help students improve their work rather than merely tell them how to submit it.
- I can identify the light source, object and surface where the shadow appears.
- I can draw straight paths to show which light is blocked.
- I can predict how a shadow will change before testing the arrangement.
- I can use an observation to confirm or revise my explanation.
- I can explain a new shadow arrangement using the same model.
Not every criterion needs to be assessed formally. During guided practice, students might use the first three to compare diagrams. The final two can shape the exit response and the next lesson decision.
Step 5: plan formative evidence and a response
ACARA’s formative assessment overview describes formative evidence as purposeful information used to adapt teaching. The teacher needs a question for the evidence: are students using straight paths from the source, or are they drawing lines from the object?
ACARA’s formative assessment design guidance links curriculum focus, student thinking, timing and evidence. For this lesson, three short evidence points are enough when each has a planned response.
| Moment | Student response | Teacher response |
|---|---|---|
| Before modelling | Draw where light travels in a familiar torch and object setup. | Group common models and select which misconception to address explicitly. |
| During guided practice | Choose between three diagrams and explain the choice. | Model again if paths begin at the object or bend without reason. |
| Exit response | Predict, diagram and explain a new arrangement. | Sort responses into ready to extend, needs another example and needs targeted support. |
ACARA’s embedding formative assessment guidance presents a classroom process that moves from curriculum focus to eliciting, analysing and responding to evidence. The response is essential. Collecting exit tickets without changing anything is record keeping, not formative use.
Complete lesson outline
| Time | Teaching and learning | Evidence focus |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 5 minutes | Retrieve light source knowledge using two photographs. Students identify the source and trace where light could travel. | Does the student distinguish a source from an illuminated object? |
| 5 to 10 minutes | Share the learning intention, success criteria and final response. Students paraphrase the goal. | Can students name the model they will use? |
| 10 to 20 minutes | Demonstrate a torch, object and screen. Reveal a ray diagram in steps while explaining each choice. | Listen for the idea that blocked straight paths create the shadow region. |
| 20 to 30 minutes | Students predict a changed arrangement individually, compare with a partner and justify. | Use whole class responses to decide whether another model is required. |
| 30 to 43 minutes | Pairs test two arrangements and record prediction, observation and revised diagram. | Conference with students whose diagram does not begin at the source. |
| 43 to 51 minutes | Compare results and discuss why a model is useful but incomplete. | Ask students to connect observation with explanation. |
| 51 to 58 minutes | Students complete an independent transfer prompt with a new arrangement. | Collect the exit evidence for grouping and next steps. |
| 58 to 60 minutes | Students identify one criterion they met and one feature to revise. | Note language or representation support needed next lesson. |
AERO’s explicit teaching guide supports sequencing explanation, modelling, guided practice and independent application. The structure is responsive rather than fixed. If the guided check shows a widespread misconception, the teacher pauses and provides another example.
AERO’s cognitive load guidance supports manageable chunks and worked examples. The lesson introduces one model and one relationship before asking students to use it independently. Reflection and refraction wait until the foundation is secure.
Use the criteria during learning
- Model how to apply one criterion to a sample diagram.
- Show a plausible incorrect response and invite a precise correction.
- Ask students to annotate where their evidence meets a criterion.
- Give feedback connected to the learning, not general praise.
- Provide time to revise while the feedback can still improve performance.
Criteria should support judgement, dialogue and revision. If they are read once and ignored, shorten them or build them more deliberately into the learning sequence.
Common mistakes to avoid
Too many intentions
A content description may supply several lessons. Select the part students can develop meaningfully now and show how it contributes to the wider sequence.
Criteria that describe compliance
“Use three colours” and “finish every box” may support presentation, but they do not reveal whether a student can use a model of light. Keep the learning visible.
Evidence without a planned response
Before collecting a response, decide what different patterns would mean for the next explanation, practice task or grouping decision.
Copying a national code without checking local curriculum
The public TeaCheese curriculum directory presents ACARA v9 records. Eligible state curriculum sources are available separately in the planning workspace. Check the curriculum choices and confirm the identifier and wording your school requires.
The repeatable method
- Read the content description beside the achievement standard and progression.
- Select a manageable conceptual focus for the lesson or short sequence.
- Identify concepts, relationships, thinking, prior knowledge and misconceptions.
- Write a learning intention that names the learning rather than the activity.
- Write observable criteria that describe successful thinking or performance.
- Plan a small number of evidence points and a response to each pattern.
- Sequence modelling, guided practice, feedback and independent application.
- Review student evidence and adjust the next lesson.
The content description keeps the lesson connected to curriculum. The learning intention makes today’s focus clear. The success criteria and evidence help students and teachers decide what progress looks like and what needs to happen next.
Sources and further reading
- Planning, teaching, assessing and reporting, Australian Curriculum. Page date not stated. Accessed 21 October 2026.
- Machine readable Australian Curriculum, Australian Curriculum. Files updated 7 June 2024. Accessed 2 September 2026.
- Explain learning objectives, Australian Education Research Organisation. Updated 31 March 2025. Accessed 2 September 2026.
- Teach explicitly, Australian Education Research Organisation. Updated 31 March 2025. Accessed 2 September 2026.
- Managing cognitive load optimises learning, Australian Education Research Organisation. Updated 30 April 2025. Accessed 2 September 2026.
- Formative assessment, Australian Curriculum. Page date not stated. Accessed 2 September 2026.
- Designing formative assessment, Australian Curriculum. Page date not stated. Accessed 2 September 2026.
- Embedding formative assessment, Australian Curriculum. Page date not stated. Accessed 2 September 2026.