Academic Rigor

1. Academic Rigor High Expectations and Standards for Students And Staff

2. TOPICS TO COVER • What is academic rigor? • How do we know when it is happening? • How can we cultivate it?

3. Now these are high standards!

4. WHAT IS ACADEMIC RIGOR? • ESTABLISHING EXPECTATIONS FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF THAT ENSURE : STUDENTS: -Demonstrate a thorough, in-depth mastery of challenging and complex curricular concepts STAFF: -In every subject, at every grade level, instruction and learning includes a commitment to knowledge core and the application of that knowledge core to solve real-world problems

5. HOW DO WE KNOW IT’S HAPPENING? • STUDENTS WILL: • Demonstrate application of appropriate skills and critical thinking • Become engaged learners • Raise questions, solve problems, think, reason, and reflect • Complete a rigorous, relevant high-level assignments in every subject • Communicate effectively and appropriately for a variety of purposes • Understand their own learning styles

6. PAUSE AND REFLECT • Where do your students need to improve? • What are their weak areas?

7. HOW DO WE KNOW IT’S HAPPENING? • STAFF WILL: -Expect that all students will learn and achieve at high levels -Demonstrate mastery of their content area and make it relevant to students -Provide an environment that supports children’s reflecting on their own learning and affinities -Use a variety of assessment methods to inform daily instruction -Engage students in active reasoning and critical thinking (Continued on next slide)

8. HOW DO WE KNOW IT’S HAPPENING? (CONTINUED) -Work collaboratively with other faculty members and staff -Cultivate positive relationships with students, parents, and community -Provide students with necessary academic and social supports

9. PAUSE AND REFLECT • Where are your greatest challenges? • Which areas can you improve?

10. THINK / PAIR / SHARE • Turn to a partner and share with them one thing from the list that you do very well in your classroom.

11. If the teacher: • Demonstrates mastery of their content area and make it relevant for all students • Engages students in active reasoning and critical thinking Then the student will:

12. Demonstrate application of appropriate skills and critical thinking • What do you want your child to be after their 13 year, K-12 experience? • Thinkers • Problem solvers • Self evaluators • Life-long learners

13. “Your learning is useless to you till you have lost your textbooks, burnt your lecture notes, and forgotten the minutiae which you learnt by heart for the examination.”-Alfred North Whitehead Mathematician and philosopher

14. Demonstrate application of appropriate skills and critical thinking • Notice the focus is on SKILLS not KNOWLEDGE! • We need to teach our students HOW to think not WHAT to think. The large wheel in the front is the “Thoughtful Classroom”. The two small wheels in the back that help create a safe stable mode of transportation are the TEACHER and the ENVIRONMENT they create. (Hageman and Johnson, 2005)

15. THINK / PAIR / SHARE * Turn to a partner and discuss whether or not you agree with the below quotation: “The object of teaching a child is to enable him or her to get along without a teacher.”

16. If the teacher: • Provides students with necessary academic and social support • Engages students in active reasoning and critical thinking Then the student will:

17. Become engaged learners who actively and responsibly participate in the learning process • Group responses • Paired partner responses • Individual responses- oral • Individual responses- written • Physical responses -Anita Archer

18. PHYSICAL RESPONSE • Hold up the number of the active engagement strategy that corresponds to the one you use most often in your classroom. Which do you need to work on including more often? 1. Group responses 2. Paired partner responses 3. Individual responses- oral 4. Individual responses- written 5. Physical responses

19. “Remember that the person doing the work is the one growing the dendrites.”-Wolfe, 2001

20. If the teacher: • Provides an environment that supports children’s reflecting on their own learning and affinities • Engages students in active reasoning and critical thinking Then the student will:

21. Raise questions, solve problems, think, reason, and reflect The ability to ask and answer questions is central to learning. For more than 2000 years (since Socrates) the question has been an integral part of teaching. Research directed to questions and those strategies now shows that …..oops……… We have been focusing primarily on questions regarding specific information students possess rather than questions to promote learning

22. Raise questions, solve problems, think, reason, and reflect • The average teacher asks about 400 questions a day. This equals about one question every 11 seconds! 95% are LOW LEVEL, TEACHER GENERATED questions! • Please Take Questionnaire Entitled: “Reflections on My Personal Questioning Style”

23. If the teacher: • Examines their own belief system toward children and learning and expects that ALL students will learn and achieve at high levels • Uses a variety of assessment methods to inform daily instruction Then the student will:

24. Complete rigorous, relevant high-level assignments in every subject • Rigorous, relevant, and high-level assignments based on ABILITY • It’s the Goldilocks theory of education: -not too much -not too little -but just the right amount of challenge

25. “Fair is not everyone getting the same thing. Fair is everyone getting what the need to be successful.”

26. INDIVIDUAL RESPONSE / WRITTEN • Jot down a few ways you differentiate for your students. • Write down the name of a student or students you feel you could do a better job at differentiating for this year.

27. There is a difference between teaching the lesson and students learning the targeted content. Teachers can broadcast the information, but they have not taught until the students demonstrate understanding of the concepts and skills through their applications. -From Teaching Without Nonsense by Bertie Kingore

28. If the teacher: -Works collaboratively with other faculty members and staff -Cultivate positive relationships with students, parents, and community Then the student will:

29. Communicate effectively and appropriately for a variety of purposes • Have students participate in service learning projects. • Begin with the standard curriculum and find the natural extension into service. • It promotes integrated learning, giving students a voice, and civic responsibility.

30. Example: • Service learning meets the canned food drive! • Teacher reads a book called The Long March: The Choctaw’s Gift to Irish Famine Relief • Annual school can drive begins • Students from this class do a short presentation about what they learned to each classroom and then introduce the can drive

31. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”-Professor Dumbledore

32. PRACTICALSTRATEGIES

33. HOW DO I CULTIVATE THESE BEHAVIORS IN MY STUDENTS? TRY THESE SIMPLE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES -Never do for students what they should do for themselves. -Increase active participation by having students write responses before sharing their ideas in class. Say “Take one minute and write why you think…” (Continued on next slide)

34. TRY THESE SIMPLE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES -Use small groups for high achievement in skill application. Research concludes that small, flexible groups or 2 to 4 result in the highest achievement gains. -When multiple groups are working on a similar task say: “Anything you hear from another group you may use.” You’ll be amazed at how quiet your class will become. -Because students finish at different times, have anchor activities ready for them.

35. POST THIS IN YOUR CLASSROOM We ARE Empowered SELF-THINKERS. IN OUR SUCCESSFUL CLASSROOM WE PROMOTE THINKING OF EVERY PERSON: 1. Our comments and answers are well thought- out , and demonstrate an effort to make connections to the topic 2. We look “in our brains”, at our background knowledge and not to others for their brain work-we work our own. 3. We take a stand that each person will be given an opportunity to think about content concepts.

36. 4. We don’t give up on ourselves. We can figure out answers and relationships 5. We will make an effort to respect each other in group 6. We give due respect to the teacher, and also to ourselves, knowing that we can come up with thoughts/connections that the teacher may not have considered yet, and will express them appropriately. 7. We make our brains take risks in focusing, learning, and deciding. We respect but do not depend entirely on our teacher.

37. Quick Assessment Techniques • Handy 1-5 + wave • OUT • Minute Paper • Muddiest Point • Individual Response Boards • Error Investigation • Analogies • Feedback Number • Topic Talk and Switch

38. THINK / PAIR / SHARE • Which of the quick assessments would you like to try in your classroom and why?

39. Adding Depth and Complexity • Add any of the following to your lessons. Teach your students the following symbols and what they mean:

50. Don’t forget about Bloom’s Taxonomy!