 In a small group create a definition of rigor as it applies in education.

Rigor can be defined as: a quality of instruction that requires students to “construct meaning and impose structure on situations rather than expect to find them already apparent.” Resnick, L. (1987) found in How to Plan Rigorous Instruction by Robyn Jackson, 2011

Have students who:  Can solve real-world problems  Use metacognition  Persist and are resilient  Own their learning  Use thinking skills to evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information  Deal with uncertainty and ambiguity

Challenging Difficult ◊ Requires students ◊ Unclear to develop new instructions understandings ◊ Don’t have ◊ Has students work in enough their zone of proximal support, development background, (Vgotsky) skills, or time to do

 Starting point for rigorous instruction  Characteristics Thinking skills are measured not only facts Is a learning experience that deepens student understanding Requires information to be applied in a real-world or unpredictable situation

 Have Implicit Meaning  Contain Ambiguity  Are Layered  Are Complex

 Use of logic is required to determine meaning from the information presented  Relevant concepts are derived from the information in the materials  Analysis and synthesis are used to reach logical conclusions

 Open to multiple interpretations  Require weighing of several possibilities to determine an answer  Use comparing and contrasting thinking skills to evaluate evidence and ideas  Learn to see information from multiple perspectives

 Uses two or more thinking processes in sequence to solve a problem  Develops methodologies of intellectual inquiry  Requires deductive or inductive reasoning skills  Is increasingly more cognitively demanding – requires peeling back of layers to determine an answer

 Has multiple parts which may or may not be sequential  Requires seeing patterns and understanding of relationships  Promotes the understanding of interrelated concepts

 Grade and age appropriateness  Relevant and related to students’ lives  Build students’ capacity to deal with rigorous materials over time  Connects directly to learning standards and goals  Matches the content of summative assessments

When choosing materials think of the kinds of thinking you are trying to develop in students and then select materials designed to promote these thinking types.