Where do we begin when we want rigor to be a component of our courses?
With standards - if your state is using Common Core they have been recognized as rigorous...so what comes next?
With curriculum - if using a text is it rigorous? If creating your own have you thought of rigor as you created your curriculum. This post will help with that as it provides 5 guiding questions for you to ask to evaluate the rigor in curriculum...as well as an example.
Rigor across curriculum content, not just a particular subject matter is essential to effective teaching and learning. It is knowing what rigor is in order to determine if it exists.
This iactually the second article of a series . This is a word used frequently, but it's definition varies. I think rigor need to also differentiate , say, reading levels so each learner is challenged from the level they are currently at. Rigor does not mean, "one size fits all!"
Are you looking for curriculum that will allow your school to meet the "requirements associated with receiving E-rate funding"? If so, check out these resources from Common Sense Media. They will help you "turn your students into safe, smart, responsible digital citizens and help your school keep valuable federal support for technology at the same time!"
Lessons are provided for students from Kindergarten through Grade 12 as are teacher verification documents. They provide an overview tutorial plus lessons with handouts, videos, assessments and parent tip sheets.
Wesley Fryer has published a book, "Playing with Media: Simple Ideas for Powerful Sharing." This website provides information in 15 areas such as Interactive Writing, Narrated Slideshow/Screencast, Simulation and Visual Notetaking.
In each area he provides a definition, a description of the workflow, links to tools and student examples. If you are considering trying some new tools check out this website for ideas!
"A new Center on Education Policy report, Student Motivation—An Overlooked Piece of School Reform, pulls together findings about student motivation from decades of major research conducted by scholars, organizations, and practitioners...
Researchers generally agree on four major dimensions that contribute to student motivation (below). At least one of these dimensions must be satisfied for a student to be motivated. The more dimensions that are met, and the more strongly they are met, the greater the motivation will be."
Do you "want to extend the concepts of the math curriculum beyond the pages of the text?" This site uses Google Earth as a "dynamic tool that will be used to accomplish this. Google Earth provides startling clear satellite views of the globe in an interactive 3D environment. Beyond the visual, users can add placemarks, annotations, photos, and models, as well as measure distances and draw paths." Check out this site for "lesson ideas, examples, and downloads for mathematics that embrace active learning, constructivism, and project-based learning while remaining true to the standards. The initial focus will be for grades 5 and up, but teachers of younger students may be able to find some uses or inspiration from the site. Higher level thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and creativity are encouraged as well as technology skills and social learning. The core of this site is mathematics, but many lessons lend themselves to interdisciplinary activities also."
This is a continuation of the 'Everything you know about curriculum may be wrong. Really' that I scooped yesterday. (Both by Grant Wiggins) In this post he continues to look at "an explosion of educational innovation" (which began in the 1930s). Along with Ralph Tyler (whom he brought up in his first post) he also presents work from Harold Fawcett, Hollis Caswell, and John Dewey. This post looks at the concepts of curriculum scope and sequence, with a focus on sequence, and if it is 'logical' or 'psychological'.
"AT Specialist Jeannette Van Houten has shared her up-dated rubric for evaluating which app to select for a student. The rubric considers 12 different charateristics that can be rated, including connection to the curriculum, the type of skill to be practiced, age level, ease of use, and alternative access."
The rubric is available as an Excel spreadsheet, accessible from this site.
I often hear adults describing today’s young people as ‘digital natives,’ usually with a tone of resignation or acceptance: “They are so far ahead of us, but we can turn to them for help,” is the general message I hear.
My reaction is “Whoa there, Nellie,” because to me that kind of thinking smacks of abdication of adult responsibility. Yes, most young people know more than we adults because the fast-changing world of modern technology is alien to us, wildly different from the one we grew up in. But being a ‘digital native’ is not the same as being a ‘digital citizen.’...
iKeepSafe is dedicated to the education of families on how to stay safe online. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Google to develop curriculum that educators can use in the classroom to teach what it means to be a responsible digital citizen.
The curriculum is designed to be interactive, discussion filled and allow students to learn through hands-on and scenario activities. Each workshop contains a resource booklet for both educators and students that can be downloaded in PDF form, presentations to accompany the lesson and animated videos to help frame the conversation.
One of the lingering mysteries that continues to intrigue me, in the waning years of my very long career, is what makes it a game — or more to the point, what makes it fun? ..and can we unfold the elements in such a way that they become handlebars in that learning platform I was trying to describe, from which we can hang more engaging learning experiences for our students.
"Let's raise kids to dream big and think different. America will need to re-kindle the innovative spirit that has propelled in the past. It's a do or die moment. Bring on the learning revolution!"
Check out this infographic that explores the difference between traditional teaching and learning, and contemporary teaching and learning. Where is your classroom in this continuum...and where to you think teaching and learning will be 10 years from now?
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iPads are "wondrous little devices capable of enchanting learners for hours, to get the learning results you’re likely after will take planning, design, and reflection."
This post discusses four areas of instruction and instructional design that will help you integrate iPad in the classroom. The four areas are each followed by three bullet points. See each area below, with one of the bullet points listed. Click through to the article for more information.
* Curriculum is Adaptive (as in less rigid). There are "Learning pathways, embedded differentiation and personalization, culturally and cognitively responsive tasks and work that honors constructivist thinking and doing over passivity and compliance."
* Instruction is diverse (as in less uniform). "With access to a nearly infinite number of digital domains, instruction will have to adapt in parallel, including peer-to-peer, student-to-student, school-to-school learning; mastery-based learning via apps such as the Khan Academy."
* Assessment is Frequent and Formative (as in less intermittent and summative). "A climate of assessment that yields simple data digestible to all stakeholders–including the teacher."
* Integrated with Relevant Communities (as in purely academic, or forced, awkward audiences–for the love of everything, please no more letters to the principals). Digital, Physical, Local, Global
Though this article is "labelled" for an ipad-ready classroom, I might call is 12 characteristics of a 21st century classroom: teaching practice is changing and this post lists 12 things we can now expect to see..
Are you looking for tips and resources that will make your students be more engaged with their textbooks? This post provides suggestions to help "bring this tool to life for more hands-on, student-centered learning." Along with a SlideShare on Bringing Your Textbook to Life 17 tips are listed with suggestions such as Tip #5 - Using Word Clouds (suggestions here include dividing students into small groups based on the number of sections in a chapter; have students create word clouds and have other students determine what section the words came from; and there is a link to Word Cloud tools and Pinterest.
A while back I scooped two posts from Grant Wiggins, "Everything You Know About Curriculum May Be Wrong. Really." and "Rethinking Curriculum Writing, Part 2." This post is Wiggin's response to replies he received on the two posts mentioned above.
A variety of issues are raised and addressed. He discusses Problem Based Learning (PBL) stating "many PBL courses are quite weak in the sequencing of problems and the lack of focus on transfer. Similarly, Project-based learning is often haphazard and poorly-designed: it often is just a bunch of random projects in no particular sequence..."
He also brings up the Understanding by Design and describes how you can take diverse subject matter and create amazing results.
If you read the first of this series I would urge you to read this post, and if you have not, search on Grant Wiggins and you can find his first two essays on Curriculum.
The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents modified for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities.
This curriculum teaches students how to investigate historical questions employing reading strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading. Instead of memorizing historical facts, students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives on issues from King Philip's War to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and make historical claims backed by documentary evidence.
Grant Wiggins asks us to question what we know about curriculum in this piece...what would happen if we made a significan shift in how we look at curriculum?
"What if the earth moves and the sun is at rest? What if gravity is just a special case of space-time? Following both counter-intuitive premises revolutionized science and ushered in the modern world. Could a similar counter-intuitive thought experiment advance education from where I believe we are currently stuck? I believe so."
"Professor Daniel Willingham describes why content knowledge is essential to reading with comprehension, and why teaching reading strategies alone is not sufficient..."
This video is referenced in an article published on The Core Knowledge Blog titled 'Meet the Children Where The Are...and Keep Them There.' This articles discusses the "three big ideas embedded within the English Language Arts standards that deserve to be at the very heart of literacy instruction in U.S. classrooms, with or with or without standards themselves." Take the time to read the article and watch the video. The article is located at: http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2012/02/27/meet-the-children-where-they-are-and-keep-them-there/
Are you interested in learning more about Universal Design for Learning, to learn how to approach curriculum to minimize barriers and maximize learning for all students? This is a short video that provides an overview to UDL.
"Gooru...leverages technology, amplifies the effect of stellar teaching, and inspires students to learn. Gooru provides teachers with the ability to "search and teach" and students with the ability to "search and study" to find curriculum-appropriate web resources for any lesson. Teachers and students then share their lessons and notes with each other to enable learning in a truly social way."
Our Space is a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments. Through role-playing activities and reflective exercises, students are asked to consider the ethical responsibilities of other people, and whether and how they behave ethically themselves online. These issues are raised in relation to five core themes that are highly relevant online: identity, privacy, authorship and ownership, credibility, and participation.
"Welcome to the BalancEdTech wiki! We believe educators must be knowledgeable and comfortable with curriculum, pedagogy, and technology in order to "teach". Our blog posts, articles, presentations, workshops, and consulting focus on helping educators weave curriculum, pedagogy, and technology into engaging and rigorous learning. We also believe people learn best by doing AND reflecting, both of which are integral to our workshops." (Workshops available at wiki.)
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Good start. Also relevance to the student.
Rigor across curriculum content, not just a particular subject matter is essential to effective teaching and learning. It is knowing what rigor is in order to determine if it exists.
This iactually the second article of a series . This is a word used frequently, but it's definition varies. I think rigor need to also differentiate , say, reading levels so each learner is challenged from the level they are currently at. Rigor does not mean, "one size fits all!"