Rigor, Relevance, and Evidence

Today our faculty had a discussion on rigorous tasks. It seems to be such a controversial subject and one that is more difficult to implement than one might think. What exactly is rigor? Is it the same for every student? At what point does a rigorous activity become too difficult?

It is not the Text that determines rigor but the task that the students are expected to complete or perform once they finish reading the Text. Some subjects seem to lend themselves to more rigor than others. I've been trying to pull more real world selections into the curriculum. I want my students to see a connection between what we do in class and what is happening in the real world.

The textbook that we use has some great selections in it. The selections are interesting and keep the students' attention. Most of the questions seem to require higher order thinking. The students do struggle, but I'm not sure if all of that is rigor and the level of the complexity of the task.When giving your students a task, notice how much effort they are putting into it.

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