Rigor and Assessment

Consider this: you’ve developed and taught a challenging, rigorous unit, with support built in to each lesson to enhance instruction and student comprehension. Now it’s time to determine the extent to which your students have learned and can demonstrate their understanding at high levels. Can you count on what and how you’ve taught to be enough? If only it were so simple.

You have to plan and implement appropriate and logical assessments. These assessments should be challenging, varied, and formative. Be creative, but in such a way that the assessments you develop support your students’ understanding that what they have been studying has real world applicability. Seek to move beyond question-and-answer tests. Guide your students to think, process, and make connections. Pose higher-level questions, and attempt to have your students pose some higher-level questions of their own. Have a purpose and think quality!

I will leave you with an excerpt of a story I share in Rigor. Scott Bauserman, a social studies teacher at Decatur High School in Indiana, shares an experience he had when he asked his students to develop a game to demonstrate what they learned from a social studies unit. His goals were for the finished product to teach about the topic, use appropriate vocabulary and processes, and be fun to play. His results were inspiring….

Students had to construct the game, the box, provide pieces and a board, and write the rules. I received a wide variety. One game I will always remember was about how a bill gets passed into law. We spent time [in class] talking about all the points where a bill in Congress or the state General Assembly could be killed, pigeon-holed, or defeated. The student took a box the size of a cereal box, set up a pathway with appropriate steps along the way, constructed question/answer cards, and found an array of tokens for game pieces. If a player answered a question correctly, he or she would roll the dice and move along the path to passage. But the student had cut trap doors at the points where a bill could be killed, and if a player landed on a trap door/bill-stopper, the player to the right could pull a string, making that player’s token disappear from the board. The player would have to start over. Not a bad game from a student who has fetal alcohol syndrome and is still struggling to pass his classes.

What is a creative assessment you have used in addition to a test?

New Article on Rigor

NASSP just posted a new article I wrote with Ron Williamson. Four Tools for Recognizing Rigor. Check it out over at https://www.principals.org/tabid/3788/default.aspx?topic=Recognizing_Rigor_in_Classrooms_Four_Tools_for_School_Leaders_.

Can making a list be rigorous?

In her article on making lists, Abby Conner points out how list-making can actually enhance creativity.  When you are incorporating rigorous activities, I've found that making lists can lead to better, more analytical responses.  My seventh grade son is required to write extended responses for homework in his social studies class (I cannot tell you how impressed I am with his teacher...she is fabulous).  The questions are open-ended and require that he synthesize the information learned in class.  When he's in a hurry, he wants to just "write the paragraph."  Inevitably, that requires a rewrite. But when he starts by breaking down the question, making a list of possible responses to each part of the question, then writing a draft, his response is always better.  Without an extra step of support, many students never reach the next level.  Working from a more concrete activity (lists) to a more abstract one (analytical response) is a great way to support students as they reach higher levels of learning.  And that is rigorous!

Interested in chatting with me?

Teacher.net is hosting a live chat with me on Sunday, February 4 at 4 pm EST.  I'm excited, especially since the request came from a spirited discussion on their site about the true meaning of rigor.  There are so many different perspectives of rigor, many of them negative.  My definition of 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.  It's really all about helping students learn.  Isn't that why you became a teacher?

Rigor and Student Engagement

In my last blog, I touched upon the relationship between rigor, motivation, and engagement, and the critical nature of that relationship for supporting students to learn at high levels. In this entry, I’d like to shift the focus to engagement.

What do you consider to be student engagement? Perhaps, in order to paint a clear picture of what student engagement is, we should first consider what it is NOT, thereby ruling out learning strategies that often are mistakenly labeled as engaging. What better way to reflect on student engagement than by placing ourselves back in the role of student? Personally, and I’m betting that you agree, having someone talk at me, or explain things to me does not engage me as an active learner. I do not feel in control of my own learning when I am merely a passive recipient of information. Nor do I feel in control of (or, for that matter, interested in) my own learning when I am given questions to answer, or every single time I am given the opportunity to work in a small group. So often the questions do not challenge my thinking, and equally often the objectives for small group work do not place high expectations on each individual. Rather than facilitating highly interactive and productive dialogue between group members, what frequently results from group work activities is that a few group members take on all of the responsibilities, while the rest are just along for the ride, so to speak.

Seemingly then, student engagement is determined by the nature of the lesson or activity. Does the lesson or activity involve all students such that they are actively participating in the learning process? When I am engaged in learning, I do not require prodding from anyone to take notes on what is being discussed or read; rather, I am thinking about big ideas, making connections, and writing down important points and/or questions I may have. Furthermore, I partake in a mutual exchange of information and ideas between the person instructing and myself. The foundation of instructional engagement is involvement by both the teacher and the student.

Now, reflect on a lesson you have taught. What was the level of engagement? What, if anything, could you have done to increase student engagement?

Grading Parents?

Have you read this story?  Lawmakers in Florida are considering a bill that would ask teachers to grade parents.  It's an interesting thought, and one that brought a smile to my face.  I can still remember the parents I would have graded as "uninvolved" or "too involved--back off".  Realistically, though, I believe that this would undermine our partnerships with parents.  It's true that we all deal with parents that don't do what we would like them to.  But I believe that most of them truly want their children to be successful...they just may not know how to do that.  My husband and I approach homework differently with our son.  He wants to rush, finish, then ask us if it's right so he can go outside and skateboard.  My husband would tell him yes or no, but I always ask, "What do you think?  Why do you think it's right/wrong?"  He doesn't like that, because it makes him think and justify his answer...which is exactly why I do it!  My husband realized what I was doing, and has followed suit.  He said he didn't even realize he should be doing it.  That has helped me understand the importance of helping parents help their children. 

Rigor and Motivation

My definition of 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. Focus, if you will, on the second part of this definition: each student is supported so he or she can learn at high levels. This is a critical component of the definition of rigor because it relies on an interdependent relationship between rigor, motivation, and engagement.

While students can be motivated by external rewards, that motivation is temporary and will not last once the novelty has worn off. Therefore, as teachers, we should work to help our students become intrinsically motivated, such that the “rewards” they expect are personal satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. Intrinsic motivation necessitates that students value the content, and believe that they can successfully learn and apply it. In order for students to value content, they must be able to recognize its worth in their lives. Why is learning the given material beneficial to them? Or, as I like to refer to it, WII-FM (the radio station that plays in their heads): What’s In It For Me?

In other words, learning must be meaningful, with clearly evident real-world applicability. Motivation is stifled if students believe that they are just going “through the motions,” and if they view school as sort of a dress rehearsal, rather than something with immediate impact over them and their lives. We want our students to desire positive impacts through valuing what we are teaching, believing in their own potential for success, and then making that success a reality. Success leads to success, and the achievements of small goals or tasks are the building blocks to larger ones.

Keep in mind that when students’ motivation and success is increasing, their desire to take on more challenging work also increases. Two common misconceptions that abound are that students cannot do harder work, and that they do not like harder work. These are only true when that harder work is perceived as having little to no value, and any attempts to understand or complete it will be met with failure. If we develop lessons that provide adequate support through scaffolding and differentiated instruction, and that offer real value, students will experience success, and will become intrinsically motivated to seek further challenges—to learn at high levels.