Teaching with Rigor and Relevance

1. Teaching with Rigor and Relevance Northside Elementary June 2013

2. Focus for 2013/2014: P.I.E.R. • Planning • Instruction • Engagement • Rigor

3. How do we prepare students for higher expectations with STAAR? • Teach with a focus on the TEKS • Teach the depth required by the TEKS • Design engaging lessons that are rigorous and relevant

4. Activity: Tower of Pasta • Objective: participants will understand the relationship between shapes and strengths of structures in construction. • Materials: 20 pieces of dry spaghetti and 20 small marshmallows for each group and a meter stick • Procedure: 1: Construct the tallest possible tower using 20 pieces of spaghetti and 20 marshmallows (must stand for 5 minutes) 2: Submit tower design for approval (brainstorm / research designs, agree on a design and sketch it) 3: Begin construction using sketch; make design alterations as needed. 4: Each person completes written summary including a description of the planned tower, design modifications made during construction, and suggestions to other builders on techniques to improve designs of towers. 5: Measure towers and recognize winning groups 6: Discuss design elements 7: Discuss this project as a learning activity

5. Defining Rigor and Relevance • Rigor… • Dictionary: A condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable • Relevance… • Dictionary: Practical and especially social applicability. But what does rigor and relevance look like in the classroom?

6. Rigor/Relevance FrameworkFrom International Center for Leadership in Education, Inc. Knowledge Application

7. Knowledge Taxonomy (Y-Axis) • 6: Creating • 5: Evaluating • 4: Analyzing • 3: Applying • 2: Understanding • 1: Remembering

8. Application Model (X-Axis) • 1: Knowledge of one discipline • 2: Application within discipline • 3: Application across disciplines • 4: Application to real-world predictable situations • 5: Application to real-world unpredictable situations

9. Completed Framework

10. Northside’s Framework

11. Benefits of Using Rigor and Relevance: • Better prepare students for future work • Way to focus student learning on priority standards • Ensure students achieve standards • Align curriculum, instruction, and assessment • Prepare for state tests • Increase student interest and motivation (engagement)

12. R/R and Assessment • Determine the level of Rigor and Relevance on STAAR test • Develop your tests to parallel state tests when preparing for them (mini common assessments, district common assessments & benchmarks) • Use performance assessments when you want Quadrant D achievement • Keep level of assessment consistent with expectation for performance • Let students know assessment in advance

13. Increasing Rigor and Relevance • Challenging assessments • Interdisciplinary instruction • Reading in the content area • Relationships • Use of technology • New teaching ideas • Peer teaching observations • Action research • Continuous Professional Development (In House) • Thematic Teaching

14. Suggestions for Sequencing Learning • Don’t always start in Quadrant A • Consider starting with real world problems • Use inquiry for launching activities • Use variety of individual and group student work • Make each part of the learning experience important

15. Activity: Building a Quadrant D Lesson