As a result of this course, you will be able to identify when a task is rigorous and relevant to your students. You will be able to design rigorous objectives and learn how to change a task to make it more rigorous, thereby enabling greater learning for your students.
Thank you for embarking on this journey. This course falls under the category Classroom Instruction. We need to consider academic rigour in our instruction because it imposes a cognitive load on students, forcing them to confront misconceptions, reconsider positions, separate the implicit from the explicit, and other critical thinking practices that distinguish shaky familiarity from true understanding. As such, it’s different for every student. If students can’t consistently negotiate rigorous tasks, either understanding or thinking habits should be more closely examined. But if work is beyond their Zone of Proximal Development, students are only being setup for disengagement, frustration, and ultimately failure. This course will enable you to consider the academic rigour of tasks you expect your students to complete and engage in.
Standards
This course meets the following standards:
Teaching As Leadership Standards
P-3 Create rigorous, objective-driven lesson plans so that students who complete class activities successfully will have mastered the objectives and made progress toward the big goals
CENTA Standards:
a. CD.2.2b: Ability to select/modify pedagogical methods and resources, considering the learning objectives and the classroom context.
b. CD.2.3b: Ability to create new resources, keeping in view of the learning objectives and the classroom context
