Rigorous Schools And Classrooms

Turn your school into a student-centered learning environment, where rigor is at the heart of instruction in every classroom. From the bestselling author of Rigor is Not a Four-Letter Word, Barbara Blackburn, and award-winning educator Ronald Williamson, this comprehensive guide to establishing a schoolwide culture of rigor is for principals and other administrators who seek to create the conditions in which rigorous classrooms flourish. School leaders will learn to manage a movement toward increased schoolwide rigor; engage teachers in conversations about improving instruction; build support for rigor among families and community members; learn methods for gathering meaningful data on student learning; and much more! With practical, ready-to-apply strategies, this book outlines and simplifies the steps toward achieving rigor at the school level. It represents a successful program that principals and administrators can use to put student learning first!

First Published in 2010. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Turn your school into a student-centered learning environment, where rigor is at the heart of instruction in every classroom. From the bestselling author of Rigor is Not a Four-Letter Word, Barbara Blackburn, and award-winning educator Ronald Williamson, this comprehensive guide to establishing a schoolwide culture of rigor is for principals and other administrators who seek to create the conditions in which rigorous classrooms flourish. School leaders will learn to manage a movement toward increased schoolwide rigor; engage teachers in conversations about improving instruction; build support for rigor among families and community members; learn methods for gathering meaningful data on student learning; and much more! With practical, ready-to-apply strategies, this book outlines and simplifies the steps toward achieving rigor at the school level. It represents a successful program that principals and administrators can use to put student learning first!

Robert J Marzano has spent over 50 years working in, and revolutionizing, education research and observation. Now in Understanding Rigor in the Classroom, Marzano brings that experience and expertise to one of the most complicated questions in education: what is rigor, and how can I use it to improve my student's learning? Marzano cuts through the noise to define rigor upfront on page one, breaking the concept down to its most essential goals: Rigor is the discerning of new relationships between topics and new distinctions within topics, and discerning new distinctions about oneself as a learner; these distinctions are discovered differently in Declarative and Procedural knowledge, and with different levels of student familiarity with the topic. Marzano goes in-depth in analyzing each learning situation, exploring specific activities, tasks, and strategies to increase rigor that utilize cognitive analysis processes, habits of mind, and project-based learning.

Learn how to assess students in a way that truly impacts learning. In Rigor and Assessment in the Classroom, bestselling author Barbara R. Blackburn provides a broad range of practical strategies for increasing the rigor and usefulness of your formative and summative assessments. You’ll discover how to... Create an environment where students are expected to learn at high levels; Evaluate and check student learning in a way that ensures growth; Strengthen the validity and reliability of your assessments; Plan assessments in conjunction with planning the instruction; Differentiate assessments to increase the rigor for all students; Enhance the effectiveness of your grading system and feedback; Use performance-based assessment to enhance rigor; and Design clear, reader-friendly rubrics and scoring guides. Each chapter includes ready-to-use tools, examples across the subject areas, and "Think About It" questions to help you reflect on what you’ve read. Many of the tools are also offered as free eResources at www.routledge.com/9781138936140, so you can easily print and distribute them for classroom use.

Teachers are required to increase the rigor for students, but how? This book by bestselling author and rigor expert Barbara Blackburn has the answer! It is a treasure chest of more than 200 practical and highly-effective tools that can be used across grade levels and subject areas to increase student rigor, leading your students to higher engagement and deeper learning. Topics covered include... Asking higher-level questions Scaffolding to help all students achieve success Differentiating instruction and using modifications Fostering independence through gradual release of responsibility Increasing text difficulty and teaching close reading Setting high expectations Changing students’ views of success Encouraging effort and goal-setting Creating an environment that is conducive to learning Using effective grading policies and assessment tools Working with parents, colleagues, and administrators And much, much more! Rigor in Your Classroom will be your go-to resource throughout the school year, as you continually return to it to try new tools with your students. Bonus: The tools are accompanied by graphic organizers, charts, templates, and reproducibles for easy implementation.

Raise the level of rigor in your school and dramatically improve student learning with the tools in this book! In Rigor in Your School: A Toolkit for Leaders, Second Edition, each illuminating exercise is tailored to leaders looking to spread the word on rigor and beat the obstacles to achieving school-wide improvement. In this new edition, the authors answer more questions about common obstacles faced by principals, explore how technology can support rigor in your school, and provide additional information on collaborative tools for building a culture that supports rigor for all. The tools in this book help you: Assess where you are now Evaluate and adjust curriculum Design an advocacy plan Ensure accountability with parents Use your school's schedule to increase rigor And more! For both new and experienced leaders, you’ll find this easy-to-use toolkit full of practical templates and strategies to implement immediately. Many tools are available as free eResources from our website, www.routledge.com/ 9781138665293.

Learn how to differentiate instruction while maintaining a rigorous learning environment. In this practical book, rigor expert Barbara R. Blackburn shows that the differentiated classroom doesn’t mean extra work for top students and easy work for others; instead, you can have high expectations for all students and provide scaffolding so that everyone can reach success. She also addresses many of the greatest concerns teachers have about implementing differentiated instruction, including: How to manage your time so that you can create lessons, find resources, and grade assignments for students working at different levels; How to balance differentiated instruction and teaching standards; How to ensure rigor at all tiers of instruction; How to collaborate with teachers and other faculty members; How to differentiate homework and other out-of-class assignments; How to explain differentiated instruction to parents and families; And more... Each chapter includes practical tools and activities that you can use immediately to bring all students to higher levels of achievement. Many of these tools are available as eResources and can be downloaded for free from the book’s product page: www.routledge.com/9780815394471.