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… 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. The tools are accompanied by graphic organizers, charts, templates, and reproducibles for easy implementation.
This book contains really brief summaries of a lot of different educational strategies for questioning, assessment, and feedback all designed to make sure assignments are rigorous. Much of it would be review for veteran teachers, but I was reading it as a possible book to use with PLCs and I think it would be a good tool for stirring conversations and trying new techniques. Educators would be able to take some of these strategies and look up the original sources for more in-depth information.
There are few books that I've rated so poorly. I started reading this book with great hopes and expectations. After about 20 or 30 pages, I was disappointed and this disappointment only grew as I progressed through the book. Most of the ideas in this book are ones I've seen before. Too much information was merely breezed over without being given its due attention. Perhaps if I were a new teacher and approaching this book with fresh eyes, I would feel differently.
I usually find her work well researched. I was looking for a well-organized series of techniques for building rigor. Instead, topics were addressed briefly, without much coherence, and without depth. I'm really disappointed.