Rigor is creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels,
each student is supported so he or she can learn at high levels,
and each student demonstrates learning at high levels (Blackburn, 2008).

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Which students are capable?

Do you believe this?  Do we as an educational system?  Far too often, I hear comments like:
"Rigor is only for our honors students." "That student isn't capable of rigorous work." or "My class can't even do what we're doing now and you want me to increase it?"

I believe all students are capable of increased levels of rigor.  After all, rigor is simply about raising the level of learning to a new level.  Each student can move to a new level, it just may take some students longer, and some students are moving to different levels of rigor.  As we start a new school year, will you believe that each student is capable of more?

2 comments:

  1. YES-I will try to believe that each child is capable of rigor! :) Even though I'm having a tough time figuring out how to teach my special ed students. But I will get it going soon!

    Shannon
    http://www.irunreadteach.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shannon, it can be tough to reach your special needs students. But many of them are learning disabled, which means they are at or above average intelligence--they just need different ways of learning. Head over to http://barbarablackburnonline.com/free-resources/downloads-for-books/rigor-is-not-a-four-letter-word/ then scroll down and download the math graphic organizer. It's a really good way to way sped (and other) students through the process of solving a math word problem. Have a good day!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your interest. Due to an increase in spam, all comments are now moderated by the site administrator.