Defining, Measuring and Applying Rigor in the ELA Classroom

Facilitated by Kirk Melkonian and Carol Gold, Ed.D. January 31, 2015

Agenda

• Operation “Rigor” Overview

• Today’s workshop

– Defining Rigor

– Measuring Rigor

– Lunch

– Guided Practice: Analyzing a task for levels of rigor

– Independent Practice: Applying Rigor into your instruction

Keep positive.

Respect the

schedule.

Use the

Parking Lot. Help one

another.

Minimize

Distractions.

Listen

actively.

Have

fun.

Operation “Rigor”

• Defining, Measuring and Applying Rigor in Instruction and Learning

January 31

• Designing Rigorous Instruction

• Collaborative lesson planning and delivery, observation, debriefing

February • Increasing

Student Engagement, Accountability, and Independence

March

• Developing Student-Led, Text-Dependent Environments

• Collaborative lesson planning and delivery, observation, debriefing

March

Phase 1 Phase 2

1

Defining Rigor

2

Measuring Rigor

3

Guided Practice:

Analyzing a task for levels of

Rigor

4

Independent Practice:

Applying Rigor in your

instruction

Students demonstrate understanding of skills and knowledge in unrehearsed ways.

Students extend and connect content understandings to new situations

Students know when to apply understanding to more complex content applications

Performance

Teachers help students develop the use of skills and application of knowledge

Teachers provide opportunities for students to extend content understandings into new situations

Teachers scaffold support to guide and develop student application of understanding into more complex situations

Instruction

Defining Rigor

Performance Objectives

Big Question: What is rigor?

Articulate a clear definition of “rigor.”

Reveal rigor through instructional shifts.

Apply understanding of instructional shifts to a task to change the level of rigor.

Rigor Is, Rigor Is Not

What is Rigor?

Rigor indicates “high-level cognitive demands by asking students to demonstrate deep conceptual understanding through the application of content knowledge and skills to new situations.”

(Source: CCSS Initiative Standards-Setting Criteria)

Texts worth reading

Questions worth answering

In your classroom, what does this:

Look like?

Sound like?

Common Core’s

Promise

Read closely to determine what the text

says explicitly and to make logical inferences

from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

CCR Anchor Standard: Reading 1

Who brought the nation forth upon this continent? Where do you find this information in the text?

A. Mothers

B. Fathers

C. Brothers

D. Sisters

Why does the phrase all men are created equal appears at the end of the first sentence?

A. It is the shortest phrase in the sentence.

B. It is the longest phrase in the sentence.

C. It is the least important idea in the sentence.

D. It is the most important idea in the sentence.

Questions Worth Answering?

Paraphrase the first paragraph of the Gettysburg Address, translating Lincoln’s ideas into your own words.

Write a mathematical equation that shows the exact date that the new nation was brought forth upon this continent. Where would you find this information in the text?

The use of the parallel construction, “…conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition…” has the effect of

A. Making the sentence easy to understand for the reader.

B. Making the sentence confusing to the reader.

C. Making these two ideas seem equal in importance.

D. Making these two ideas seem unrelated.

Engage with Complex Text

Extract and Employ

Evidence

Build Knowledge

Shift: Build toward CCR

for All Students

The CCSS introduce:

A “staircase of complexity”

This shift requires:

Close analytic reading

Immersion in academic language

Shift: Engage with Complex

Text

Staircase of Complexity

Dragonwings

Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide

to the Constitution

To Kill A Mockingbird

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

The Scarlet Letter

Democracy in America

“There is a reported decline in high-school level texts, while at the same time, there is an increase in the text difficulty of college and career texts.”

Hayes & Ward, 1992 ACT, 2006

Milewski, Johnson, Glazer, & Kubota, 2005

Why the Focus on Text Complexity?

The CCSS require students to

Write in response to sources

Construct responses

Cite evidence from the text(s)

Shift: Extract and Employ

Evidence

The CCSS requires students to

Read to build and extend knowledge

Conduct research, including the comparison and synthesis of ideas

Shift: Build Knowledge

through Content-Rich

Nonfiction

Students at the beginning of the grade band read and comprehend complex text with scaffolding as needed. Students at the end read and comprehend independently and proficiently within the band.

Implication of the

Instructional Shifts Common Core State Standards

Addressing the Gettysburgh Address in 10th Grade

What is Lincoln saying in the first sentence?

How do you know?

What exact words lead you to that understanding?

Addressing the Gettysburg Address in 8th Grade

When Lincoln gave this speech, the Civil War was still being fought. Look at paragraph 2 to find the words that tell us that this is so.

In sentence 2, Lincoln says that they are meeting “on a great battle field of that war. What war is he referring to? How do you know?

Read sentence 3 to find out why they are meeting. What is he saying? What is a ‘final resting place?’ Who are ‘those who here gave their lives?’ Why did they give their lives?

How might you…

Group 1 Support your students as they grapple with text complexity and the academic language in a specific text you are using?

Group 2 Encourage your students to identify and cite specific evidence

related to a specific literary theme?

ex. “The Individual v. Society” in Romeo and Juliet

Group 3 Support your students as they build knowledge to support

their understanding of a pivotal point in American history, and extend that knowledge into new situations?

“If a student ‘understands’ a topic, she/he can not only reproduce knowledge, but also use it in unscripted ways.”

Teaching for Understanding, Project Zero, Harvard GSE

Measuring Rigor

Performance Objectives

Big Question: How do I measure the level of rigor in an ELA task?

Use a variety of measures to determine the level of rigor for a task.

Understand the relationship between different measures of rigor.

Use the information from these measures to modify tasks.

Evaluation

Synthesis

Analysis

Application

Comprehension

Knowledge

Create

Evaluate

Analyze

Apply

Understand

Remember

Bloom’s Taxonomy

A system that measures the complexity of knowledge elicited from students on assessments

Can be used to

Compare with standards and CCR competencies

Gauge the level of rigor for classroom activities and assignments, formative and summative assessments, and culminating performances

Depth of Knowledge

(DOK)

Focuses on the level of mental processing needed to engage with the content:

Level 1 Recall and reproduction

Level 2 Concepts and skills

Level 3 Strategic thinking and reasoning

Level 4 Extended thinking

Focuses on what comes after the verbs

Determining Depth of

Knowledge

Level 1

Focuses on extracting information

What words in paragraph 1 tell us what “...our fathers” had done fourscore and seven years before Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address?

Level 2

Focuses on making connections

Translate the first paragraph of the Gettysburg Address into your own words.

Level 3

Requires synthesis and evaluation, connections, and comparisons among ideas and information

Given the context of the Gettysburg Address, what is the importance of the words at the end of paragraph 1, “...conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”?

Level 4

Requires a deep awareness of purpose, audience, and multiple perspectives.

Prepare a formal speech in which you compare the visions of America presented in Collin Powell’s Sharing in the American Dream” with that of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. In your speech, be sure to include specific words from the two speeches to reveal their similarities and differences.

Depth of Knowledge is different from Bloom’s Taxonomy in that it is

determined not by the verb, but by the context in which the verb is used and the depth of

thinking required.

Bloom versus DOK

Bloom Explain how Lincoln evokes a feeling of

patriotism in the Gettysburg Address.

DOK (Level 3) Explain how Lincoln’s

concept of Moral Truths in the Gettysburg Address

echoes the Founding Fathers’ tone in the

Declaration of Independence.

Bloom Explain how Lincoln evokes a feeling of patriotism

in the Gettysburg Address.

The action is to explain; it does not require justification and can be based on opinion. It should be supported with

textual evidence.

DOK (Level 3) Explain how Lincoln’s concept of Moral Truths in

the Gettysburg Address echoes the Founding Fathers’ tone in the Declaration of Independence.

The action here requires the comparison of ideas (concept of moral truths) as the idea echoes intention of another. This task requires close analytic reading of two

documents and comparing and synthesizing ideas.

Identifying Levels of Rigor

Review the prompts.

Determine the Depth of Knowledge required by the prompt.

Determine how the prompt reflects the instructional shifts.

Create a table on your chart paper to sort your prompts

DOK 1 DOK 2 DOK 3 DOK 4

Create a table on

your chart paper to sort your prompts

Engage with complex text

Build content

knowledge

Cite and employ

evidence

Guided Practice: Analyzing a Task for Levels of Rigor

Performance Objectives

Big Question: How can I modify instruction to increase the levels

of Rigor?

Review provided unit / lesson / task for rigorous questioning and

student task

Evaluate where Rigor should be increased

Revise provided unit / lesson / task to increase Rigor

Step 1: Designing Rigorous Questioning

• Individually read the short story “Blues for Bobby E. Brown”

• With a partner draft a text-dependent question, question should include:

1. Students thinking should be in a DOK level 2 or 3

2. Questions should be scaffolded to support students.

3. Answers should require reference to specific section of the text

Step 2: Analyzing for Rigorous Learning

• First, individually review the lesson plan for “Blues for Bobby E. Brown” – Focus on “Deep Processing Differentiation” section

• Next, as a team, “What are examples of text dependent questioning?”, “What DOK levels are evident in these questions or in student expectations?”

• In pairs, revise current questioning or directions to increase:

– Text-Dependency

– The amount of scaffolding or specifics built into the questions

– Depth of Knowledge

Independent Practice: Applying Rigor in Your Instruction

Performance Objectives

Big Question: How can I design / modify instruction in my classroom to increase the

levels of Rigor?

Plan instruction rigorous questioning and student task

Identify which of these questions or tasks will provide a “check for understanding” both at an early point, and mid-point of

instruction

Applying / Increasing Levels of Rigor

Identify specific opportunities for:

•Scaffolded Text-Dependent Questions

•Higher level Depth of Knowledge in both questions and tasks

Identify which of these questions or tasks will provide a “check for understanding” both at an early point, and mid-point of instruction

Reflection

How will you determine the level of rigor in your classroom tomorrow?

What changes will you make in your instruction to help your students

grapple with increased levels of rigor?

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Kirk Melkonian kirkmelkonian@gmail.com 626-297-3315

Dr. Carol Gold carolpgold@yahoo.com 716-912-6462