Where do you stand on RIGOR?

Rigor…the 5-letter word with so much baggage.  Unpacking the baggage was an important step in the International Center for Leadership in Education training I attended yesterday. It was the best professional development session I have been to in a long time and I feel inclined to share some big ideas that will guide my thinking and implementation.

Rigor/Relevance Framework

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1. Harder, longer, and/or more confusing does not make a lesson rigorous.  Moving from the first half of Bloom’s to the second half of Bloom’s taxonomy will accomplish rigor. For example- Take information that students are applying and ask them to analyze- dig deeper!

2. Asking students to “figure it out” does not make a lesson more rigorous. Asking higher-level questions to guide student thinking does! For example- I see you have chosen said piece of evidence to defend your thinking. Can you prove your conclusion without it?

3. Rigor does not have to be saved for cumulating projects or only your advanced students.  Out of Quad A, Every Day was the key phrase of the training.  Yes, sometimes we have to build background knowledge and allow students to build momentum and capacity in our contents.  After a certain amount of that type of learning, the brain is overloaded. Think about the answers to the questions below. 

     Are my students in memorization mode?

                  OR

            Are my students thinking mode?

For example- Chunk your lesson delivery.  Give students time to process, practice, and/or produce. 

So WHERE  do you stand on RIGOR?  

Is it...

• you don’t think about
• it creeps in occasionally
• it is a priority when planning

Check out these resources as you play with RIGOR! 

@RigorRelevance

Bloom's Teacher Planning Guide 

International Center for Leadership in Education
Primacy/Recency Effect