Teaching Tips to Try Newsletter

Se pte mbe r 20 , 2009

Fr om Lin da The Ma th Co ac h

MEET THESE EXPERTS!

Upcoming Seminars

Sept.28
DINAH ZIKES Engagement with Math Foldables and VKVs

Oct. 13
DR. ROBYN JACKSON Never Work Harder Than Your Students & Differentiation

This Week’s Theme:

Seeing RED!
Rigor + Engagement + Differentiation Part I
Been observed lately?
Experienced a walk-through?
Then you no doubt have heard the buzz about rigor, engagement, and differentiated
instruction. You have been to told to increase them. Are you hoping that they are
just the latest buzz words and they will go away by this time next year? Or are you
beginning to think that maybe these three words might have something to do with
getting that spark back into your teaching? Just what do you know about these
three hot topics? More importantly, what should you know?
Plenty!
So over the course of the next few weeks we will explore these three key factors of
effective mastery teaching and tell you the most important things you need to know.
What are the definitions of rigor, engagement, and differentiated instruction?
How are they related?
How can we create more rigor, engagement, and differentiation?
How can we make them work together for increased learning?
Today we will focus on defining these terms.
What is Rigor?
In answering this question, I consulted a variety of sources. First of all, I asked
about 100 students. They mostly agreed that rigor meant hard work, and most
associated it with as one student said, “What the gifted kids do.” Interestingly,
students don’t view rigor as something for everyone.
Teachers, on the other hand, said yes it should be for everyone, but they weren’t
sure how to make it happen. They thought rigor meant harder work and included
mention of DOK levels (Norman Webb’s Depth of Knowledge levels).
For every expert, there is a different definition. Here are two commonly cited
definitions.
“Rigor is the goal of helping students develop the capacity to understand
content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and personally or
emotionally challenging.” Strong, Silver, and Perrini (2001)

“ 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.” Barbara
Blackburn (2008)

Pulling all the ideas together from the different experts, we can sum up by saying
that rigor is a process based on high expectations that all students will move to
higher levels of understanding appropriately challenging curriculum when
supported with engaging and differentiated instruction.
Rigor involves, what is learned, how it is learned, and how it is assessed.

What Is Engagement?
So you’re providing rigor. What good is it if your students are not actively involved
in the learning process? This is what engagement is all about.
A class full of students sitting quietly with their eyes on an open book while one
student reads aloud make look orderly, but it is not a picture of engagement. A class
full of students copying notes as a teacher using an electronic chalkboard guides
them through the process of solving a system of linear equations is not likely to be a
picture of engagement either. In both cases, if you were to look more closely, you
would discover that at most one or two students are even thinking about the
learning task.
Let’s look at the students “learning” about systems of equations. Even though they
might produce beautiful notes, more than likely they will be raising their hand later
saying I don’t get it. No wonder. All they were really engaged in was the copying of
notes. That is what they know how to do. They were not engaged in the thought
process or the challenge of tackling the problem on their own through trial and
error, discussion, manipulation, or any other type of exploration. So their
engagement was not around the intended learning task.
Engagement around the intended learning task takes place when students become
interested enough to invest their attention to interaction aimed at understanding the
content to be learned. Their interest is gained when they are able to see a
connection between what they are supposed to learn and how they can use it.
Student engagement occurs when the student perceives the meaning and value of the
task and feels confident that they can accomplish the task.
Engagement depends upon motivation and is a student choice that a teacher can
influence, but cannot force through rules, structures, or procedures. A master
teacher discovers what makes each student “tick” and then “works it” to get all
students engaged. This leads us to the next big question.

What is Differentiated Instruction?

Mention of differentiated instruction brings to mind a favorite poster hanging in my
home office. The poster depicts an old-fashioned one-room school house with multi-
aged students scattered around the room involved in a variety of activities. Several
are sitting in a circle reading. Two are painting at an easel, while several others are
nearby carrying out a science experiment. Four students are working as partners
writing spelling words on the chalkboard. One little girl in a corner, encircled by an
attentive group of dolls and stuffed animals, appears to be quite seriously
conducting a reading lesson of her own. Meanwhile, the teacher is working with a
group of students who appear to be counting or sorting beads in some sort of math
lesson. This is more than just a quaint little picture of what used to be. It is a model
of what differentiated instruction can be.
From a walk-through point of view, the picture depicts the four major components
of differentiated instruction:
• Varied content
• Varied process
• Varied product
• Varied environment
What you may not see, but what is a crucial part of DI, is the well planned and
structured orchestration of content, materials, groupings, instructional processes,
and settings to create the specific individually tailored learning opportunities for
each student. DI is not about merely putting a variety of options out there for
students to select from or randomly assigning students to varied activities. It is
about matching students to the right conditions to meet their needs for optimal
learning.
Further, DI is based on the beliefs that
• Quality of work is more important than quantity. (content)
• Students learn differently. (process)
• Students can show understanding and mastery in a variety of ways. (product)
• Learning doesn’t always take place from a desk in a row (environment)
I hope I’ve provided you with a basic understanding of the question “What are
rigor, engagement and differentiated instruction? This should be a good start, but
thee is much, much more to explore on journey toward mastering these three big
ideas!
Next Week:
Learn how Rigor, Engagement, and DI are all related.

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LEARN FROM THE EXPERTS SEMINARS!

Meet these Experts

DINAH ZIKES
Rock Star Diva of Foldables
September 28th 8:00pmCST

3D Gr aph ic Organ iz ers to inc rease :

Rigor
Engagement
Understanding
Connections
Retention
VKV s to Bui ld V oca bula r y
No te book F olda bl es f or Mid dle and High Sc hool

Dr. ROB YN J ACKS ON

Author Never Work Harder Than Your Students & Other Principles of Great
Teaching
October 13 th 8:00 pm CS T

What is the Master Teacher Mindset?

Can any teacher become a Master Teacher?
What are the seven things all master teachers do?
Where can YOU start?