Rigor.Rrrrrrrrrrr

Rigor. What is it? Why is it the topic of discussion in education these days? John Wink, education scholar writes, "Rigor is all the rage these days, both literally and figuratively speaking.  Everybody from the President on down believes that students must have more rigorous curriculum, more innovative instruction and challenging assessments to prepare them for the 21st century, for a college ready future, for a solid career pathway, and for whatever else we want kids to accomplish in America in the next decade."   

For thoughts on rigor, click HERE, HERE and HERE

John Wink goes on to say that "the problem that I see with rigor is not that we don't have rigor in our classrooms.  It's that we don't have an aligned understanding of what rigor must be so that students will be inspired to reach our rigorous expectations.  What teachers and leaders need is a common language about rigor, so that when someone says, "We Need More Rigor!", everybody knows what that means for kids." 

Wink put together this table to help understanding: 

Rigor is NOT	Rigor Is
More work	More appropriately challenging work
Engagement	Cognitive engagement
Teacher Q & A	Classroom discussion & student collaboration
Hard classes	Rich learning environments
Hard work	Cognitive work
Selecting Correct Responses	Making the best decisions from multiple correct responses
Depth of Work	Depth of Knowledge
Knowledge & Skills	Creativity & Analysis
Based on the verbs in a standard	Based on the complete standard
Frustrating and overwhelming	Challenging and motivating

Source: http://leadlearner2012.blogspot.com/2015/01/rigor-me-this.html?m=1

Videos to check out!:

PD is important (3min)

Articles you might want to check out:

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Calendar of Events:

Feb 10--Learning Walk at Slater Elementary
Feb 13--Division 22 Standards Report Due--see EXECUTIVE NUMBERED MEMO: 
004-2014-15 DIVISION 22 ASSURANCES 2014-2015 
Feb 13--Alice Nine @ Harney ESD--register with J. Caldwell 541-573-4834
Feb 26-27 K and Early Literacy Summit
March 9-11 CCSS Regional Trainings
March 10--Jo Robinson
April 10--Harney County Tech Conference 2015 @ BHS
April 30-May 1--Kevin Feldman Learning Walk and Training info to come soon
May 14--County-wide Spelling Bee at Harney ESD