I’ll Know It When I See It CHETL-Rigor March 29, 2012

RATE YOUR RIGOR Using dots participants will rate CHETL Rigor and Student Engagement components A-I. (Acts as a review of components.)

Sometimes, merely telling teachers to “think outside the box” is not enough.

My only skill is taking tests.

Is Rigor Appropriate for Everyone. Newmann et al Is Rigor Appropriate for Everyone? Newmann et al. looked at quality of work in grades 3, 6, and 8 Exposure to high levels of authentic intellectual work are associated with gains in standardized test scores. Students exposed to high quality assignments had 20% higher gains than national average. Students exposed to low quality assignments had gains 25% lower than the national average. Student demographics were not associated with exposure to quality assignments.

RIGOR IS FOR ALL Regardless of grade.

Benchmarking Rigor: College View of What is Needed College professors’ views of the skills students lack: 70% say students do not comprehend complex reading materials 66% say students cannot think analytically 65% say students lack appropriate work and study habits 62% say students write poorly 59% say students don’t know how to do research 55% say students can’t apply what they’ve learned to solve problems 2005 Achieve Inc. http://www.achieve.org/files/pollreport.pdf

Benchmarking Rigor: Work/College Skills Public Agenda Foundation “Reality Check” 2002 http://publicagenda.org/specials/rcheck2002/reality5.htm Percent of Employers & Professors giving high school grads “poor” or “fair” ratings on:

Rigor is Not: A special program or curriculum for select students; About severity or hardship; A measure of the QUANTITY of content to be covered.

Rigor is not…. Something extra you have to do on top of everything else. More. More pages ≠ rigor More of the same math problems ≠ rigor More homework ≠ rigor

Rigor is: Part of quality instruction. Part of a quality schooling experience You cannot have quality instruction or a quality school without rigor.

Defining “Rigor”: Some Essential Questions (Tony Wagner) What is rigor? What are teachers doing in a more rigorous classroom? What are students doing? What kinds of student work would be evidence of rigor? How might the definition of rigor be changing in an “information glut” world—what will be expected of our students? quhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Bemw5DQNg&feature=relatedestions and reflection.”what is rigor

Defining Rigor and What it Looks Like Academic rigor can be defined as the set of standards we set for our students and the expectations we have for our students and ourselves. Rigor is much more than assuring that the course content is of sufficient difficulty to differentiate it from K-12 level work. Rigor includes our basic philosophy of learning – we expect our students to demonstrate not only content mastery, but applied skills and critical thinking about the disciplines being taught. Rigor also means that we expect much from ourselves, our colleagues, and our institutions of learning.

PowerPoint Slide Presentation Definition of Rigor Rigor is the expectation that students will be able to perform at levels of cognitive complexity necessary for proficiency at each grade level, and readiness for college and the workplace.. Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness 15

Components of Rigor Assists students in fulfilling predetermined outcomes and competencies by challenging them with high expectations. Essential components of rigor in the classroom: Content acquisition Critical thinking Relevance Integration Application of concepts Long term retention Responsibility

Focus on what students are asked to do Rigor in the Classroom Focus on what students are asked to do Three main pieces: course content, instruction, assessment Course content: Doing a good job with KCAS standards Basic skills coupled with key concepts important ideas Application of core content to problems

Rigor in the Classroom Instruction: Activities that engage students in higher order thinking “Elaborated communication” Assessment: Aligned to higher order goals Contain higher order thinking, engage with academic content, and require extended, elaborated responses

Teaching Video Calibrating Rigor (CHETL) How would you assess the level of rigor in this lesson (low, medium, high)? What is your evidence for this assessment? Watch video with your assigned component (A-I) looking for evidence of rigor, make notes, be ready to share.

Rigor in the classroom Develop a set of best management practices for promoting academic excellence through rigor in the classroom Develop strategies for establishing instructional goals for academic excellence and for documenting progress toward these goals Assess our current understanding of rigor in the classroom

Excellent Instruction: A Point of View Excellent instruction is less about what a teacher does (inputs) and more about what students can do and know as a result of the lesson (results). In assessing the quality of a lesson, performance standards are much more important than content standards. Performance standards for students must be benchmarked to what will be expected of HS graduates (Tony Wagner)

Define Rigor Using chart paper with your table mates create a mnemonic device for RIGOR. Example C Components of H Higher E Education T Taught L Lively Post on Wall 5 Minutes

Remember….. “Teaching is only as good as the learning that takes place.”

Resources Edmunds, Julie. SERVE. “Defining Rigor” SERVECenter North Carolina. Jones, Richard. “Rigor and Relevance”. International Center for Leadership in Education. 2005 Model Schools Conference. Wagner, Tony. “Reinventing” Teaching and Learning. Change Leadership Group. 2008