The answer to success?

With the so many states implementing Common Core and high stakes testing in other states, teachers and administrators must decided how to increase the students’ cognitive ability. How can this be done in the same number of school hours? The answer is a delicate balance of rigor, relevance and relationship.

By revamping student questions and activities to purposefully illicit higher level thinking, students can be successful on these tests, as well as in the 20^th job force. Through higher expectations, scaffolding throughout lessons, and demonstrations, students can thinking at a more rigorous level in the classroom and learn to think on their own at these higher levels.  

Expectations

We’ll start with the first part: rigor is creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels. Having high expectations starts with the decision that every student possesses the potential to be his or her best, no matter what.

Supports

It is essential that teachers design lessons that move students to more challenging work while simultaneously providing ongoing scaffolding to support students learning as they those higher levels.

Demonstration

The third component of a rigorous classroom provides each student with opportunities to demonstrate learning at high levels. We’ve learned that if we want students to show us that they understand what they learned at a high level, we also need to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate that they have truly mastered that learning. 

Recognizing Rigor in the Classroom